Landscaping in Tucson is native desert, monsoon grade, and a short list of trees that can take the sun without eating the sewer. Mesquite, palo verde, and cactus belong here. A heavy lawn fights the climate and the water. Rainwater basins and shallow swales are a local habit because the storms dump inches in a hurry and then leave. Caliche stops a shovel and sends water sideways into the house if you did not plan an exit. Foothill lots add slope, rock, and water from the neighbor above. Pack rats and javelina will edit a careless plant list.
Say what the yard is doing. A channel against the stem wall, a basin that never dries and breeds mosquitoes, a tree on the tile, or a gravel yard full of weeds after the rains. Irrigation is usually drip, and it is usually wrong by midsummer because emitters were never moved. Ask who will adjust it. Ask who waters through establishment if a planting goes in before the heat breaks. Spray heads near a cooler or a wall waste water and stain stucco. Say if you want them gone.
Grade is the house protection. Canales already dump roof water in concentrated spots. The soil at those spots needs stone or a basin that carries water away, not a planter piled against the plaster. Do not trap monsoon flow against adobe. Adobe and water are a bad friendship. Ask about haul-away of cut limbs, and keep cuts off the roof and off the cooler. Foothill work should say how material will be kept from sliding into the next terrace.
The calendar is dry heat, then storms, then a mild winter with cold nights. Planting into the worst of June is a different risk than planting when the monsoon has softened the soil. Describe the slope, the soil if you have hit caliche, and the job. Call the number on this page.