Top Ten Tips for Growing a Drought Tolerant Yard

This is a time where we all need to change our perspective on our out-dated garden style. We can still have a love affair with our beautiful, self-centered and thirsty roses and hydrangeas but we also need to open our hearts and eyes to native or drought-tolerant plants. We want to incorporate these low-maintenance plants into at least half of our yard. By doing so, we’re conserving water, providing wildlife habitat, nurturing the soil, causing less pollution by not using toxic garden pesticides and landscaping locally. It’s win-win!

Ten Tips on Caring for Plants During a Drought

1. When designing your garden, group thirsty plants together and ones requiring less water together.
2. If you’re thinking of planting a new tree in your garden, consider planting a deciduous tree on a south-facing wall. This way, in the summer, the leaves will shade your garden and house. In the winter, the bare branches will allow the warmth of the sun into your home and yard.
3. Water lawns before sunrise so water isn’t evaporating. Fertilize organically. Synthetic fertilizers have a high salt content that makes plants even thirstier. Just like humans, plants and turf do better on a low-salt diet!
4. When planting add a 2-3 inch layer of compost to the top of your soil. This is a natural, slow-release fertilizer as well as a soil amendment. It will improve the soil structure so that water will come for the meal and stay for the pie!
5. Once plants are in the ground, add a 2-3 inch layer of mulch on top to help keep the garden cool in the summer and deter weed seeds by blocking the sunlight. Keep mulch a few inches away from the bark of trees or main stems of plants.
6. The only part of the landscape to be watered with a sprinkler is a lawn. The rest of the garden should be on a drip system, which can lower your outdoor water bill by 25-50 percent! If your budget doesn’t allow drip irrigation, consider purchasing a Soaker hose.
7. In severe drought, make sure to water trees first! Trees can take 10- 20 years to grow so you don’t want to lose them. Lawns can go brown in the summer and come back to health after the autumn rain. Plants and shrubs can be replaced but established trees are expensive to purchase. Make sure to lay a hose at the drip line of the tree every 2 weeks or so in the hot summer, and let it soak down to a good depth for roughly 20 minutes. Set an alarm clock so you don’t forget to turn the water off.
8. Water even drought tolerant plants regularly the first year. They need to become established before you leave then on their own. The 2nd year, you can remove the drip emitter from the drip line and simply water by hand twice a month or so in the summer.
9. Limit the Lawn. Lawns are so twenty minutes ago! If you’re thinking of removing a lawn and replacing it with a drought tolerant or native lawn, consider WildFlowerFarm.com where you can purchase eco-lawn seeds.
10. A fantastic place to look online for a plethora of gorgeous drought tolerant plants is HighCountryGardens.com.

Lastly, a few gorgeous drought-tolerant winning perennials are Gaura ‘Ballerina’ (Oenothera),Yarrow (Achillea), Wallflower (Erysimum), Santa Barbara Daisy or Fleabane (Erigeron), Fescue (Festuca) ‘Elijah Blue’, New Zealand Flax (Phormium), Sage (Salvia greggi) ‘Pink’ and Monkeyflower (Mimulus)