A little wild but carefully tended: Rigsbys earn Yard of the Quarter

Drawing a little wildlife into the yard, I think that’s my favorite part.”

Daryl Rigsby

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The birds know when Daryl Rigsby is coming.

Every morning, he scatters seeds across the front yard he and his wife Lisa have cultivated at their home in Litchfield Park. Quail, sparrows and finches gather within view of the kitchen window, while hummingbirds visit feeders maintained by Lisa.

The desert refuge has earned the Rigsbys Litchfield Park’s Yard of the Quarter honor for the third quarter of 2026.

The city announced the selection at a recent Recreation and Public Grounds Commission meeting, where Commissioner Krysten Giordano chose the property from three finalists, calling it her "personal favorite” and praising its balance of upkeep and growth.

“I think that they are doing a phenomenal job of keeping it clean while allowing the plants to grow and look how they’re supposed to look,” she said.

At the Rigsbys' front yard, two tall palms rise above dense shrubs while cactus and bright magenta blooms sit in gravel. Near the street, a National Wildlife Federation sign identifies the yard as a “Certified Wildlife Habitat.”

Daryl learned about the certification from neighbors. Its embrace of habitat and a yard that remains “a little bit wild” matched the way he already gardened.

“A lot of the plants are volunteers,” he said. “And I keep them because they really belong.”

When adding plants, Daryl watches which varieties survive Arizona summers and chooses those suited to the desert.

“I’m not trying to force something that doesn’t belong,” he said, adding rather than sculpting plants into uniform shapes, he lets them follow their natural forms.

“He takes out the dead stuff, but he doesn’t shape it,” Lisa said.

Daryl traces his interest in gardening back decades, when he landscaped a trailer lot after moving from Northern Arizona University. He credits his mother, who he says could retrieve struggling plants from an alley and bring them back to life, with giving him “the gardening gene.”

The Rigsbys have lived in their Fairway Drive home for over 30 years. Daryl describes himself as “the Arizona daily gardener,” tackling some task each day, from watering trees to pulling weeds.

For him, the work is about more than appearance. The yard attracts hummingbirds and quail, and a backyard pond occasionally draws hawks and owls.

“Drawing a little wildlife into the yard, I think that’s my favorite part," Daryl said.

Noah Flug
Reporter | Litchfield Park and Goodyear

nflug@iniusa.org

Community: Litchfield Park and Goodyear

Education: Bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Mass Communication with a minor in Digital Audiences from Arizona State University

Random Fact: I only have one biological cousin.

Hobbies: Watching movies and TV, spending time with my friends, aspiring stoic.