Did you know? You live among more than 70,000 plants and 7,500 trees in Eastmark. You read that right. This community is a budding landscape masterpiece—pun intended—with 40 varieties of trees and 100 varieties of plants, plus 25 acres of turf and 40 acres of decorative rock. Even better, there are also thousands upon thousands of trees and plants at each individual home in our community.

Like any great masterpiece, there is a beautiful palette to create our landscape. We call this the Eastmark Master Plant Palette. It’s our comprehensive list of plants and trees that may be permitted for use across our community, and it’s the best starting point for any homeowner considering changes to their front and backyard landscape.

Why have a Master Plant Palette? There was a lot of thought and expertise that went into the creation of the landscape vision for Eastmark—a nod to “Old Arizona” turn-of-the-century neighborhoods (Central Avenue in Phoenix, for example) and destination resorts (like the Arizona Biltmore), where natural and organized landscapes play a role in both aesthetic and function. Our Plant Palette helps Eastmark stay on track with that vision so that we’ll always be a community of tree-lined streets, shaded parks with pathways accented by small flowering plants, and vegetation that lives in harmony with the architecture of our amenities and homes.

In sum, each and every plant and tree in our community today serves a purpose in achieving our landscape vision for years to come. Take our community’s Street Tree Program for example. This program not only creates a beautiful “urban forest” but it also helps to reduce the heat island effect, lowering cooling costs throughout the community, providing shade for pedestrian walkways, assisting in calming traffic, and reducing stormwater runoff.

This landscape vision is the reason behind our community’s requirement that homeowners planning to replace or install any plants or trees in their front yard submit an application to the Design Review Committee. Even if you’ll be using a plant or tree from the Master Plant Palette, prior approval is needed.

It’s worth noting that the Palette is not a pre-approved list nor is it inclusive of every type of plant the committee would consider approving for installation. Think of the Master Plant Palette as your starting point and guide to selecting a plant or tree that may be permitted at Eastmark, and more importantly to staying away from prohibited species. For example, the Dessert Willow could be a go, but the Saharan Mustard is a no go.

Because the committee considers the current landscape and proposed installation location when reviewing a landscape application, it is important that your application:

• tell/show exactly what and where you are looking to make changes.
• tell/show exactly what, where, and how many of each species of plant or tree you’re requesting to install.

Take a look at the Master Plant Palette. The landscape section of the Design Guidelines provide an excellent complement to the Master Plant Palette, providing important information on foundation, accent, screen, and parkway planting zones, tree placement, and turf/lawn usage. And of course you’ll also want to bookmark the our landscape page, where there’s a handy set of articles on landscape maintenance, like “Proper Tree Pruning,” “Care for Your Winter Lawn,” and “Controlling Spurge.”

Follow up questions? Contact the Eastmark Residential Association.