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Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
Sprache: Englisch

Beschreibung

Say goodbye to water-guzzling lawns and create beautiful, landscape designs Low-Water Landscaping For Dummies will teach you to preserve one of our most critical natural resources while simultaneously maximizing your curb appeal. Ditch wasteful, inefficient irrigation methods like sprinkler systems and learn how to embrace designs that save water. This book guides you through different styles of landscaping, introduces you to uniquely drought-tolerant plants, and provides solutions for even the trickiest terrains. You can break the cycle of constant watering, without sacrificing the relaxing atmosphere and aesthetic appeal of your outdoor space. Learn how it's possible to have vibrant, unique, gorgeous landscapes that incorporate grasses, perennials, shrubs, trees, groundcovers, and succulents without wasting hundreds of gallons of water each day. Packed with useful tips, achievable plans, and easy-to-understand instructions, Low-Water Landscaping For Dummies is the only resource eco-conscious gardeners need to design, plant, and enjoy the landscape of their dreams. * Design a landscape that fits your space and budget * Discover beautiful, drought-tolerant plants * Get regional tips to ensure success * Troubleshoot common gardening problems If you want to protect the environment, save money on water bills, and learn more about drought-tolerant plants, this is the friendly Dummies guide for you.

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Low-Water Landscaping For Dummies®

Published by: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774, www.wiley.com

Published simultaneously in Canada

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2022949552

ISBN: 978-1-119-98580-8 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-119-98581-5 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-119-98583-9 (ebk)

Low-Water Landscaping For Dummies®

To view this book's Cheat Sheet, simply go to www.dummies.com and search for “Low-Water Landscaping For Dummies Cheat Sheet” in the Search box.

Cover

Title Page

Introduction

About This Book

Foolish Assumptions

Icons Used in This Book

Beyond This Book

Where to Go from Here

Part 1: Getting Started with Low-Water Landscaping

Chapter 1: Lacking Water? No Problem

Defining Low-Water Landscaping

Replacing Impractical Plants with Practical Ones

Checking Out Suitable Ornamental Plants

Exploring Beauty and Color Tricks

Chapter 2: Conserving and Harvesting Water

Understanding Water

Knowing Where Your Water Comes from

Checking on Your Landscape’s Water Use

Collecting and Storing Water

Using Gray Water: A Good Idea?

Chapter 3: Waste Not, Want Not: Watering Strategically

Recognizing the Purpose of Watering

Transitioning to Low-Water Use

Strategizing Your Watering Plan

Figuring Out When to Water

Touring Low-Tech Watering Aids

Avoiding Watering of Foliage

Hand-Watering: Bonding with Your Plants

Tackling Special Watering Challenges

Chapter 4: Making Soil Your Ally

Understanding Soil Composition

Enhancing/Making Improved Soil

Caring for Your Soil — The Best Practices

Exploring the Soil-Water Relationship in Your Landscape

Mitigating Drainage and Runoff Issues

Chapter 5: Watering with Irrigation Systems

Considering Outgoing Line Items

Installing In-Ground Drip Irrigation

Maintaining Watering Systems

Considering Sprinklers

Part 2: Making Smart Plant Choices

Chapter 6: Choosing Flowers

Selecting and Planting Perennials

Avoiding Commitments with Annuals

Chapter 7: Selecting Succulents

Recognizing Trailing and Groundcovering Types

Planting Clump-Forming/Solo Types

Chapter 8: In It for the Long Haul: Shrubs, Vines, and Trees

Identifying Shrubs for Dry Settings

Hanging Low — Fine Vines

Having a Need for Trees

Chapter 9: Raising Edible Foods

Planning before You Plant

Getting Started — Steps to Growing Your Own Food

Going with Traditional Veggies

Trying Offbeat Choices

Growing Your Own Herbs

Planting Fruits

Chapter 10: Planting and Caring for Low-Water Plants

Considering the Many Sources for Landscape Plants

Deciding When to Plant

Focusing on Planting Techniques

Fertilizing Your Plants

Tending to Your Plants

Understanding and Managing Plant Needs

Part 3: Leaving Your Lawn Behind

Chapter 11: Taking Out a Lawn

Eliminating Your Lawn: Yes or No?

Phasing in the Big Change

Digging Up Your Lawn

Killing Your Lawn

Chapter 12: Replacing Grass with Low-Water Solutions

Examining Drought-Resistant Grasses

Catching the Eye with Ornamental Grasses

Considering Other Low-Growing Plants

Going Wild with a Meadow Garden

Chapter 13: Considering Artificial Turf

Getting Real about Artificial Turf

Taking the Plunge with Artificial Turf

Remembering Some Maintenance Do’s and Don’ts

Chapter 14: Pondering Rock Gardening

Taking a Hard Look at Rock Gardening

Identifying Your Materials Options

Installing Rock Materials and Rocks

Being Aware of Practical Considerations

Part 4: Landscaping with Watering Needs in Mind

Chapter 15: Appreciating Mulch and Other Helpful Products

Much Ado about Mulch

Assessing Water-Storing Crystals

Examining Coconut Coir for the Garden

Chapter 16: Keeping Water in Your Yard

Improving Absorption

Adding Borders and Buffers

Installing Dry Streambeds

Putting in a Rain Garden

Leveraging Shade to Conserve Water

Getting Help from Hardscape

Chapter 17: Succeeding with Potted Plants

Giving Your Potted Plants a Good Start

Managing Water Consumption in Pots

Taking Good Care of Potted Plants

Recognizing Some Plants for Pots

Chapter 18: Including Water Features in Your Landscape

Putting in a Pond or Pool

Adding Pretty and Practical Water Features

Chapter 19: Updating Xeriscaping for Today’s Low-Water Landscapes

Comprehending Just the Basics

Designing for Beauty

Part 5: The Parts of Tens

Chapter 20: Ten Ways to Avoid Wasting Landscape Water

Making Your Soil Better

Choosing Your Plants Wisely

Planting in the Fall

Grouping Like Plants

Mulching — and Mulching Some More

Investing in a Watering System

Using Watering Tricks

Getting Rid of Your Lawn

Throwing Some Shade

Making a Shift

Chapter 21: Ten Great-Looking, Low-Water Plants

Beardtongue, Penstemon

Blue Fescue, Festuca glauca

Butterfly Weed, Asclepias

Catmint, Nepeta

Coneflower, Echinacea

Hens and Chicks, Echeveria

Lavender, Lavandula

Russian Sage, Perovskia atriplicifolia

Sage, Salvia

Stonecrop, Sedum

Index

About the Author

Supplemental Images

Connect with Dummies

End User License Agreement

List of Illustrations

Chapter 2

FIGURE 2-1: Water, in various forms, is constantly cycling through the environm...

FIGURE 2-2: Your rain barrel should have certain key features, especially a sec...

Chapter 3

FIGURE 3-1: A basin prevents waste by directing the water right where it needs ...

FIGURE 3-2: Burying an unglazed clay pot near plants helps irrigation.

Chapter 4

FIGURE 4-1: The different layers of soil.

Chapter 5

FIGURE 5-1: The simplest way to array irrigation lines is straight up and down ...

Chapter 9

FIGURE 9-1: Snip off the flowers and enjoy a longer harvest.

FIGURE 9-2: Most fruit trees come in dwarf versions.

Chapter 10

FIGURE 10-1: Before deciding to buy a plant, closely inspect it.

FIGURE 10-2: You can set incoming plants in place one by one after you dig the ...

FIGURE 10-3: Grouping the same or similar plants simplifies care and can enhanc...

Chapter 11

FIGURE 11-1: A half-moon edger (a) and a garden fork (b) are two must-haves for...

FIGURE 11-2: Cut the turf to divide it into manageable sections (a), and peel b...

FIGURE 11-3: Brush or scrape off as much soil as you can (a), and then cover th...

Chapter 14

FIGURE 14-1: Make a composition with rocks more eye-catching by creating a colo...

Chapter 15

FIGURE 15-1: Mulch in action.

FIGURE 15-2: Well-maintained landscape to mitigate or prevent fire damage (a). ...

Chapter 16

FIGURE 16-1: Help keep and use water on your property by installing plants at t...

FIGURE 16-2: Install edging materials at the perimeter of planting beds.

FIGURE 16-3: When you dig a swale or basin, you can use the excavated soil to c...

FIGURE 16-4: This rain garden routes gutter water to a small garden area.

Chapter 17

FIGURE 17-1: An example of a self-watering pot with a reservoir — note the clev...

Chapter 18

FIGURE 18-1: Dig a hole in an open area, ideally free of tree roots and rocks.

FIGURE 18-2: Pour a base layer of sand into the hole to help seat and protect t...

Guide

Cover

Title Page

Table of Contents

Begin Reading

Index

About the Author

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Introduction

There comes a day when you reckon with the state of your yard. Your lawn is turning brown and the other plantings look distressed. Meanwhile, your water bill creeps higher, and the news about low reservoirs and depleted aquifers grows more alarming. You look up at the blue, cloudless sky, you look down at the dry sights around you, and you wonder what to do.

This book is here to help you adapt to the reality of low water in your landscape. I assure you, you can act in many ways.

You can make all sorts of tangible changes, like taking steps to help your garden ground retain water better and to reduce runoff.

You can tackle a project as large as installing an in-ground irrigation system and as seemingly minor as planting some attractive native wildflowers in the part-day sheltering shade of a boulder or wall.

You can try clever innovations pioneered by gardeners who grow crops in arid regions, from using strategically placed clay pots or pipes to get water right into root zones to creating watering zones to positioning thirstier plants on the downhill side of a slope.

You can — once and for all, no more dithering — take out that scraggly lawn and not look back.

It’s time to explore and install a whole new range of (yes, beautiful!) plants that are adapted to minimal water.

I promise you the results won’t look barren and scrubby; the landscape will come alive as you shift your approach and change the ways you plant and maintain everything. Now it’s time to stop fretting, delve in, and do it. Soon you’ll be delighted with your yard’s new, improved look — and proud and relieved that it was accomplished while consuming substantially less water.

About This Book

Low-Water Landscaping For Dummies provides you a mixture of ideas, step-by-step instructions, and answers to practical questions like:

How do I stop water from running off and away from my yard?

Which dry-adapted plants are the most durable, most colorful, most long-blooming?

What’s the best method for installing and watering a new plant?

Is there a better way to deliver water to my plants?

Is there a way to landscape with large and small rocks that doesn’t look like a gravel pit?

What’s involved in removing a lawn? What are suitable replacement plants?

What material makes a good mulch and how thick should I apply it?

When’s the best time of day to water and why?

What’s the best way to install a dry streambed so it looks natural?

How should I collect rainwater?

What is gray water, and is it safe to use in the yard?

What’s the best way to raise edible plants with limited water? What are the recommended plants?

Are there tricks for watering moisture-greedy potted plants?

Can I add a water feature without consuming a lot of water?

What is xeriscaping, and how can I apply its principles to my own yard?

This handy guide addresses all of these matters and more — no question is too elementary, no concern too trivial! This book also gives you a handle on the best practices and explains what has worked best for others in similar situations.

As you proceed through this learning curve, you’ll find a common and reassuring theme: Being careful and frugal with outdoor water use leads to a successful home landscape. I’m here to help you get the groove on!

Cultivated varieties (cultivars) have been chosen or developed for superior or alternative qualities; some call these selections nativars. In the lists in this book, I indicate these in ‘single quotes’ because that’s the industry standard, in web listings, catalogs, and nursery tags.

Foolish Assumptions

When writing this book, I’ve made a few assumptions about you, dear reader:

Plants you’ve installed in the past have struggled and failed, and you’re tired of wasting money and effort. You wonder what you’ve been doing wrong and/or what would be better choices.

Boring “desert dot” (you know, a spread of gravel with an occasional succulent plunked in at random) landscaping doesn’t inspire you. Sure, it’s probably low-maintenance, but it also isn’t very attractive.

Although you’ve seen colorful dry-climate gardens, you don’t have a clue where to begin, in terms of plant selection and plant placement.

You’re fed up with your lawn and its many demands, but you’re not sure what you can or should do next.

You want to fashion a landscape where you can actually sit outside and enjoy the sights and sounds. Perhaps a bit of cooling shade …

Landscaping in an ecologically sensitive way appeals to you, but you don’t know how or where to begin.

You’ve experienced success with DIY indoor projects and feel ready, willing, and able to tackle a water-wise approach in your yard, but you need guidance and information.

Icons Used in This Book

Throughout this book, you can find icons — small pictures next to the text that point out extra-important information. Here’s what they all mean:

For gems of accumulated wisdom — quite often the kind learned by painful experience! — follow this icon.

Consider this icon like a stop sign: When you see it, stop and pay extra attention, because I only use it to help you avoid serious mistakes or bodily harm.

You’re trying to work correctly and efficiently and to be sensitive to the environment. Problem is, you may not always know what’s right and what isn’t. This icon steers you in the proper direction.

This icon highlights the jargon and concepts that are interesting but not essential to understanding low-water landscaping.

Beyond This Book

This book is chock-full of tips and other pieces of helpful advice you can use as you tackle water-wise projects and make water-wise choices. If you want additional tidbits of wisdom, check out the book’s Cheat Sheet at www.dummies.com. Just search for “Low-Water Landscaping For Dummies Cheat Sheet.”

Where to Go from Here

If you’re excited about making good and practical changes in your landscape and the creative juices are starting to flow, flip through the index or Table of Contents to find a subject that interests you.

Or you can turn to whatever section looks to have the answers and information you’re wanting most, whether it’s Part 2’s descriptive plant lists, Chapter 16’s tour of mulches, or Chapter 15’s instructions on how to install an attractive dry streambed. Later you can backtrack to the lowdown on rain barrels (Chapter 2) or divert to my tips for potted plants (Chapter 17). In trawling through Part 3, you may surprise yourself by being drawn to the updated information about artificial turf in Chapter 13.

When you’re ready, put on your hat and sunscreen, roll up your sleeves, and let me empower and guide you into water-wise landscaping. It’s easier than you think and more gratifying than you can imagine.

Part 1

Getting Started with Low-Water Landscaping

IN THIS PART …

Assess your yard’s water needs and then work to reduce them.

Consider the various ways to collect and harvest usable water.

Find out about low-tech watering aids.

Discover the best time of day to water.

Improve your soil for improved water retention and plant health.

Survey the details of in-ground irrigation systems.

Chapter 1

Lacking Water? No Problem

IN THIS CHAPTER

Coming to terms with low-water realities

Landscaping to conserve precious water

Letting go of the traditional lawn

Discovering suitable plants and savvy landscaping ideas

This book is all about landscaping with less water. No matter whether you’re trying to sustain an established yard in a desertlike climate or you’re wishing to make changes while adjusting to a limited or unpredictable water supply, the message is the same: You can do it!

Having a beautiful landscape isn’t just nice, it’s also important. The plants in and around the area are more than décor, they’re alive — even in times when water is scarce. We humans are bound in a relationship with them, not just for the pleasurable beauty or fragrance they may provide as we come and go from our home or hang out in the yard, and not just for the other creatures they help sustain (from pollinators to birds). We’re also elementally bound together by the shared, interdependent, natural cycles of air — the exchange of carbon dioxide and oxygen — and water, the stuff of life as we know it.

When water is rationed or in short supply, when rain is a rare event, when we constantly hear dire stories about falling reservoirs and depleted aquifers, we worry. We should worry. Water is precious and vulnerable to human demands as well as forces that feel beyond our control, like weather patterns and macro-climate change.

And yet, having an attractive yard isn’t a foolish wish, nor is it a luxury. Your yard is part of your home and part of the big picture of the larger landscape.

Rather than giving up, adapt. Become a good steward. This chapter gives you a brief overview of what you can do. Find out how to conserve water, how to better deliver it to wisely chosen plants, and how to keep it all healthy and beautiful.

Defining Low-Water Landscaping

Low-water landscaping is using less water, more efficiently.

Sustaining home landscaping on less water isn’t mysterious. Many excellent techniques and ideas come from farming and agriculture. And of course research is continuing.

Certain water-conserving ideas from agriculture translate well to smaller and more intimate settings, whether you only have a courtyard or balcony, or you’re trying to maintain a half-acre or more around your home. Also other gardeners have developed clever, effective ways to successfully nurture many plants with less water.

This book is here to help. I explore low-tech watering aids and ideas in Chapter 3 and delve into various irrigation systems you may wish to consider in Chapter 5.

You don’t need to reinvent the wheel, so to speak. Plenty of trial and error and research, worldwide and over many centuries, has yielded innovative and practical ways to install and care for plants.

Here I begin by taking a closer look at where you can reduce water use and how. Not every suggestion will apply — but many will! Conserving is a matter of examining every opportunity.

Seeing where it makes sense to implement

There are many places and times where saving water can (and should) be possible. These include the following:

Where getting water to your yard and plants is difficult or complex

Where the water supply is expensive/where water bills just keep going up and up

Where the water source is uncertain: unreliable, depleted, or drying up

Where rainfall is unpredictable, sparse, or briefly seasonal

Where water rationing is mandated and enforced

Where the landscaping you do have is suffering from lack of water

When you don’t have time, funds, or the energy to fuss over your yard

When you’re ready for a change to more responsible and creative landscaping

Understanding why being water-wise is important

Global climate-change weather models suggest that severe droughts may not be occasional anomalies to endure but become the norm — sobering news. Therefore confronting the situation and being proactive about your water use is imperative.

Should things improve or monsoon rains be generous, well, the good habits and practices you develop ought to stay in place anyway. Wasting water is a careless habit; conserving water shows respect for life itself, starting with the plants and creatures inhabiting your yard and also respect for your neighbors and neighborhood, your municipality, and your bioregion.

Leveraging your water sources

Part of water-wise gardening is gathering all the water you can and sometimes storing it to use with care later — in other words, maximizing your supply. You may be surprised by some of these useful ideas (check out Chapter 2 for starters):

Start monitoring how much water your garden needs and uses.

Install one or more rain barrels.

Collect and store water in a cistern or tank.

Use gray water.

Gray water

isn’t all of your household water, but rather the sources of relatively clean consumption, such as sinks, showers, bathtubs, and even the washing machine (not the toilet or utility sink). Some municipalities regulate the use of gray water and, of course, you don’t want to use certain soaps or cleaning agents, which would make the re-used water unsafe or unsuitable for your plants or soil.

Route or reroute drainage from your roof. Study and route or reroute drainage out in your yard (see

Chapter 16

Put in a

rain garden,

a garden area set up in a low area where rain pools or where you can divert your rain gutters (details in

Chapter 16

Find out whether your municipality has

reclaimed

water, which is water that has been treated but isn’t meant for drinking/not potable. They may be using it to irrigate city parks and other public places, but it may also be possible to access it for your personal landscape.

Eliminating wasteful watering practices

A series of seemingly minor changes in your watering habits can help. Here are a few suggestions:

Prevent runoff.

Don’t overwater, don’t water too long, and help water soak in so plants can use it. It begins with good soil, actually; read and heed

Chapters 4

and

Create watering basins around individual plants.

Chapter 3

explains how to make one, with a helpful illustration.

Create water-need zones by grouping plants with similar needs together so you can water them together.

Replacing Impractical Plants with Practical Ones

If you’re honest with yourself, you already know that your yard — including but not limited to your lawn — has some plants that aren’t doing so well these days. Not enough water is obviously their problem. They’re getting to be too much trouble and expense to maintain.

To be blunt, the solution is obvious. Out with the old, in with the new! I want to reassure you that not only can you make changes, but you can also embrace changes by making smart and creative choices that will look great. Keep reading for some general suggestions.

Getting rid of your lawn

Taking out your grass feels like the end of an era … because it’s the end of an era. Green lawns suck up a lot of resources, mainly water but also fertilizer and perhaps weedkillers (all of which can be harmful to wildlife, your environs, and groundwater) — not to mention all your own effort and sweat in mowing and clipping. And what’s the point if water is limited and no matter how hard you try, it doesn’t look as lush as you want?

Completely removing your lawn isn’t as hard as you might think. Lawn grass isn’t deep-rooted, and you can dig it up and peel it away like a thick old carpet. You can also get rid of a lawn by tarping, solarizing the area, or undertaking sheet or “lasagna” mulching. Chapter 11 provides full instructions, details, and tips.

After the deed is done and you’ve removed your grass, you’ll have a clean slate, an area of open space, presumably in full sun and in full view of you and your neighbors. This is a brand-new landscaping opportunity! Yes, look at this transition as pivoting to a new and better way — because it is.

While you’re contemplating your next steps, don’t leave bare, exposed ground. Weeds — those hardiest and most resilient of all plants, even in dire drought conditions — will invade. The saying “Nature abhors a vacuum” is never truer than when a spot is freshly cleared. Just cover over the area until you’re ready to re-landscape and replant (see Chapter 11 for a rundown of effective temporary barriers).

Considering lawn alternatives

You have a lot of options for alternatives, depending on the size of the space, your budget, and your energy. I recommend not only that you study the more in-depth discussion in Chapter 12, but also do a little (fun and inspiring) research by looking at how others in your neighborhood and region have dealt with lawn replacement.

Meanwhile, the following can jump-start your thinking:

Put in a native drought-tolerant grass or grass blend.

True, your lawn won’t look like a golf green, but it may serve as a pretty and quite water-wise new installation. A plus: These types of grasses look more harmonious and natural, rather than out of place.

Consider ornamental grasses.

Unlike turf grasses, ornamental grasses are clump-formers, so they tend to be taller and need to be planted more closely if you’re still wanting broad coverage. You can clip or mow to maintain a desired height.

Install a meadow. Full disclosure — installing a meadow takes soil preparation, careful selection of a balance of flowering plants and native grasses, and some regular maintenance to keep it looking nice. It’s gardening; you can’t just sprinkle a can of meadow mix and be done. However, the results can be gorgeous and gratifying, and the area definitely will consume very little water once established.

Some municipalities and homeowner associations are still reluctant to allow or approve of meadow gardens, particularly in front yards or areas clearly visible from the street.

Put in a groundcover.

Plenty of plants certainly can fill in and cover up a broad area and look terrific. Some introduce different shades of green and other colors (and/or seasonal color changes, which can be lovely) to your home landscape.

Chapter 7

has an annotated list of carpeters to consider.

THINK OUTSIDE THE GRASS BOX

Other ideas for an area once devoted to a lawn go beyond what you may have originally imagined. What about these solutions?

Lay down a base of gravel and rocks. But do it right. Make sure water can get through and weeds are minimized. Explore different colors, sizes, and textures. Place larger rocks so they look natural and perhaps also serve a practical purpose, such as sheltering small plants vulnerable to wind. Chapter 14 can give you the ideas and information you need to proceed, including attractive planting suggestions.Put in a terrace, patio, or deck. In the case of a terrace or patio, instead of a slab, explore the new permeable options that allow you to tuck in low-growers like creeping thyme between pavers and also help filter water through your landscape rather than letting it run off. Check out Chapter 16.Take a fresh look at artificial turf. Don’t scoff — cruddy ole Astroturf is a thing of the past. Artificial turf has experienced a major boom in recent years, thanks to new materials, technologies, options, and installation savvy. Consult Chapter 13 for more details. Such a lawn won’t use water at all, except perhaps for an occasional rinse-off!

Don’t be succulents-averse. There are more options than you may realize, and mixing and matching can also supply impressive, beautiful, and effective coverage.

Checking Out Suitable Ornamental Plants

A brave new world of exciting ornamental plants (grown for beauty and decoration) is available for low-water settings. In fact, never before in the history of gardening has there been such a broad selection of appropriate choices! The chapters in Part 2 are full of descriptive lists of water-wise plants. The lengths of the lists and the information, I hope, will be an eye-opener.

Newly installed plants, of any kind, need and deserve a good start, especially ones billed as drought-tolerant. Once planted properly — see the guidance in Chapter 10 — they’ll need extra water for at least their first year to help their root systems get established. After that, count on them to become much more self-sufficient.

Before looking at — and falling for — individual plants, get oriented. These sections describe the many different kinds and then delve into ways to tell if any given plant that catches your fancy will be a good choice for your low-water landscape.

Looking at the different types

The following are the general categories. Rest assured you can find many choices within each type that do well in low-water settings:

Perennials:

These plants bloom year after year, often increasing in size or spreading out. Many are flowering, and you can pick ones to have colorful gardens at different times of the growing year.

Annuals:

Although these plants live for only one growing season (hence the name), they deliver a lot of color and many are truly tough, standing up to heat and drought.

Succulents:

Sure, these are a dry-garden cliché, but let me reassure you that your choices are endless. Get away from the ordinary and have fun!

Shrubs:

Some bushes are good for hedges, some work well all on their own. Some have attractive needles or leaves, some change color with the seasons. Some flower and fruit. They always bring substance and heft to any home landscape.

Trees:

They provide shade and beauty. The trick is to select ones appropriate to your climate and of a size that works for your yard.

Vines:

Don’t forget vines, which can grow quickly and drape over fences and other supports to add beauty of foliage and flower — at eye level or even higher. Some also produce fruit or attractive seedpods.

Ideally, you want some of everything in order to create a diverse home landscape. Variety keeps your yard interesting in all seasons.

Identifying appropriate plants

Any good plant nursery or garden center has a lot to offer, but you can’t always be sure that everything is water-wise. Fortunately, recognizing the features of dryland plants isn’t difficult when you start shopping around.

Succulent leaves and stems are such an obvious sign of drought-tolerance that I’m not going to call them out in the following lists. These plants have evolved to hold water and use it as needed; they’re supremely appropriate for low-water landscapes. In fact, many don’t need any supplemental water after they’re established in your yard. Hard to beat!

When shopping or viewing plants in any setting, check the leaves. Look for:

Waxy coating:

The covering helps seal in and conserve water. Although many plants have coated leaves, dryland ones have especially obvious coatings — you can tell by touching or running a finger across one (sometimes a bit of the whitish powdery coating will come off on your finger).

Leathery texture:

Tough and/or thicker leaves are a sign that the plant isn’t holding a lot of water, but neither does it have as much to lose.

Silver or gray color:

Lighter-colored leaves protect themselves and their plant from intense hot sun by reflecting back the light rather than absorbing it.

A coating of fuzz:

This is actually made up of many tiny, short hairs, which serve to slow water loss. The hairs also help to shield the leaf from direct sunlight.

Narrow and small leaves:

Plants transpire water through tiny openings in their leaves called

stomata.

Narrow and small leaves have less real estate available for stomata. Less stomata means less water loss!

Also check the stems. Look for:

Compact growth:

Watch for leaves that are held close to the stem, parallel or at a narrow angle (rather than splayed outward like an open hand). They still get necessary sunlight but are less vulnerable to drying out quickly.

Fuzz:

Like the fuzz that covers some leaf surfaces (see the previous bulleted list), these tiny hairs put the brakes on water loss and also shelter the stem surface from direct, drying sunlight.

Spines:

You may have heard that spines discourage animals from eating plants that bear them, and that’s true, but they do more: Like the tiny hairs of fuzz, they reduce water loss and offer a little shade. (In the case of cacti, water may condense on the spines and eventually trickle down the ground, hopefully offering a bit of moisture to the plant’s root system.)

COMPARING NATIVES VERSUS NONNATIVES

You may think that gardening with native plants results in a yard that looks a lot like an unkempt local or regional wild, natural area. What’s the point, you ask? Don’t people want their home landscapes to be more beautiful? Don’t many gardeners want their yards to stand out? And don’t they also want them to reflect their own taste as well as their wishes for enclosure and sanctuary?

There’s no doubt that growing native plants makes practical sense. Native plants are well-adapted to local climate, weather patterns, and soils. They’re naturally tough and thus allow a low-maintenance landscape. They’re accustomed to getting by on low water and staying alive.

The chapters in Part 2 offer specifics. Here are some general guidelines:

If your concern is that native plants are too rangy, sprawling, casual, or sloppy, fret not! Many savvy gardeners and horticulturists have been sorting through the many different species for quite some time and have spent their attention on the best ones, the ones that are suitable for home gardens — focusing on manageable size, tidy growth habit, best/prettiest foliage and flowers, longest bloom time, and so on. A lot of work has been done and continues to be done. The native plants offered for sale at local and regional nurseries and area plant sales meet these standards.You can have it all — tough and beautiful native plants. Another ongoing process is the improvement of native plants. Occasionally a rogue or random yellow-flowered plant will produce some irresistible red flowers (for example, coreopsis), someone will notice and take a cutting and, before too long, the red-flowered one is on offer. Horticulturists also have fiddled with and selected for longer bloom times, larger and more flowers, and smaller-size plants, which show up for sale as cultivars (cultivated varieties) or nativars (specifically, cultivated varieties of native plants).Are nonnative low-water plants less preferable? Some believe gardeners should stick to growing native plants because they best support local ecosystems, including beleaguered native butterflies, pollinators, and birds. That’s an assumption. Low-water plants from other parts of the world (such as Mexico, Australia, the Mediterranean, and South Africa) make attractive garden plants and often the local insect and wildlife population adapts. Research is ongoing. Conclusion: There’s nothing wrong with planting some natives and some nonnatives.What if you want to support your local ecosystem? I recommend approaching this concern on a case-by-case basis, or rather plant-by-plant. Research each plant you choose, no matter the origins; a good nursery staffer ought to be able to reassure you both on a plant’s qualities and habits and on its benefits to native creatures … or point you to alternatives.

Exploring Beauty and Color Tricks

“But I don’t like desert-dot landscaping,” you say? Take heart. You can avoid clichés in many ways and have a great-looking yard that uses minimal water. These sections give you an overview.

Building up your yard from the ground up

When redoing a yard or an area, you can tackle two projects first and foremost. These aren’t really beauty tricks, but the results can be dramatic enough that you and your neighbors might think so! Either or both of the following will result in a major boost for whatever you install next (healthy, happy plants lead to a gorgeous home landscape, it’s as simple as that!):

Install an in-ground irrigation system.

This project tends to involve a lot of digging and disruption, so plant when you’re done. Consult

Chapter 5

to get a handle on what’s involved.

Improve the soil. If plants and landscaping projects have struggled or failed in your yard in the past, it may be high time to stop and start over.

Dig out and replace terrible or depleted soil, or at least improve what you have by adding organic matter (turn to Chapter 4 for details). This could be a game-changing step on your way to a successful new landscape, one that uses less water (because the improved soil holds moisture so much better) and is beautiful (because the plants are thriving). Consider it before you do anything else!

Exploring dry-design ideas

Look, really look, at what others have done. Begin right now by turning to the color insert in the center of this book and flipping through the images.

Then, next time you’re online or on Instagram or Pinterest, run some searches and feast your eyes. Also take the time to go into a bookstore, the shop attached to a botanic garden, or even just the racks at your local home-and-landscape center, stand there and browse colorful books and magazines — buy a few, bring them home, and study the many good ideas.

This sort of exploration is necessary, nourishing, fun — and inspirational!

HOW TO GET A LUSH LOOK

To get an appealing, filled-in, lush look with low-water plants, choose plants with care. Start by cruising through the long lists in Part 2. Here are a couple general suggestions:

Aim for a balance of colors. You want variety, but not a total mishmash. Do this by choosing and emphasizing colors you like and are compatible with each other. Different shades of green foliage can tie it all together.Plant plenty! You want to cover open ground without crowding. Intermixing makes all the difference — surround a small tree or shrub with flowers (see the photo in the color insert for a great example) or have an ornamental grass arise from a carpet of groundcovering sedums.

Beware the fool’s paradise of an “instant landscape.” This is when a bunch of larger plants are brought in and planted close together to give a mature and finished look. The satisfaction and pleasure don’t last. It won’t be long until the plants start crowding each other, or some start to dominate and overrun the others. The health and good looks of all of them start to falter. You’ll end up having to prune often and/or take out some plants — a lot of extra work and expense, most unfortunate.

Borrowing ideas from nature

The natural world is the original testing ground for what survives and what thrives, no matter what your soil and climate challenges. Here’s a sampling of that wisdom that you can use in your own yard (Chapter 10 has much more information):

Capitalize on microclimates in your yard.

microclimate

is a hyper-local situation, differing somewhat from its immediate surroundings. The shelter of a large rock, wall, or courtyard offers you the chance to grow plants that need extra protection, either because they dry out faster or get damaged or toppled on windy days. You can make little nooks or vignettes in such spots.

Leverage strength in numbers.

Plants grown in close proximity can not only present an attractive composition but can also help protect one another from everything from being stepped or nibbled on to collectively raising the local humidity for mutual benefit. Check out

Chapter 3

for additional details.

Have color going on at all times. Flowering plants cycle in and out of bloom. You can maximize color by choosing plants that bloom over a long period, but planning for changes is fun and gratifying. Study the lists in Part 2 and make wish lists according to colors and seasons.

Don’t forget foliage color! Succulents, in particular, offer a wonderful array of colors, everything from rosy red to sage green to powdery blue to burnished gold. Check on leaf colors for ornamental grasses as well as for some perennials and shrubs. Some plants have variegated leaves (leaves of more than one color); others change hues with the seasons.

Play with texture.

Nature abounds in variety, and that’s absolutely true when it comes to the leaf and plant textures of low-water plants — shiny, smooth, rough, fluffy, brushy, quilted, spiky, and so on. When you fill your landscape with a range of textures, the eye travels, delighted and intrigued.

Chapter 2

Conserving and Harvesting Water

IN THIS CHAPTER

Understanding how water operates in landscapes

Appreciating groundwater and precipitation

Figuring out how much water our plants need

Monitoring rainfall

Discovering ways to collect and reuse water wisely

As more and more people confront and worry about the scarcity of precious water, remember that farmers and gardeners in other cultures and, indeed, throughout history have found ways to conserve and collect it. These days modern technology also plays a helping role. This chapter looks at how this ingenuity applies to maintaining your home landscape.

You’ll come away with good ideas to try, and I hope you can responsibly sustain and nurture the plantings in your yard for beauty, food, or both.

Understanding Water

To fully comprehend water, think of the water cycle (see Figure 2-1). Water is constantly in motion, through the earth, into waterways natural and man-made, and up into the air as vapor, only to regroup and fall back to the earth as rain (or sleet or snow). Somewhere. The planet as whole sustains a finite amount of water.

Source: https://gpm.nasa.gov/education/water-cycle

FIGURE 2-1: Water, in various forms, is constantly cycling through the environment.

If the area where you live has dry cycles or is increasingly dry, that means there is less water “within the regional system” to work with. Bear with me here: The following sections discuss the public water supply’s issues, which is applicable to how people manage their home landscapes.

Explaining evaporation

Evaporation is the (invisible to one’s eyes) loss of water to air as it converts to water vapor. Evaporation isn’t a small matter! In dry climates, with low humidity, it happens faster and more dramatically. Massive amounts of water are lost to the air.

Like sweat, evaporation is a cooling process, which would be some small comfort if it weren’t for the fact that replenishment is such a challenge. For the human body or a plant, replenishment is a matter of the delivery of more water to keep oneself or the plant comfortable and alive. When water leaves the reservoirs, lakes, rivers, and man-made impoundments, the vapor may end up as rainfall very far away — unfortunately, it often does. That is, it doesn’t necessarily cycle locally.

Take the situation with Lake Mead, for example, which provides water for Las Vegas and several other cities. The annual rainfall in that general region is a paltry 4 or fewer inches, and Lake Mead has an evaporation rate estimated at nearly more than 6 vertical feet per year. Multiplying this rate by the surface area of Lake Mead gives a volume of 1.04 million acre-feet/year lost to evaporation! Meanwhile, the entire state of Nevada is (currently — this figure could change in the uncertain future) is allowed to remove 300,000 acre-feet per year from the Colorado River. In other words, astoundingly, the amount of water lost to evaporation from Lake Mead is more than three times larger than what Nevada is allowed to remove from the Colorado River. Sobering to contemplate, to say the least.

Preventing evaporation

The Catch-22 of the public water supplies is that the holding reservoirs like Lake Mead are wide open to the air — evaporation is inevitable. Can anything be done to stop or at least mitigate the loss?

You may live near or have heard about how Los Angeles back in 2015 acted to prevent evaporation by dumping millions of black plastic floating shade balls onto the surfaces of their reservoirs. It worked well, but it was expensive. Other municipalities have experimented with using floating covers where practical to prevent or slow evaporation. Oily surfactants, in a very thin layer, can also slow or stop evaporation from the surface of water bodies, but they’re hard to apply evenly and may present water-quality problems.

Meanwhile, those who manage public water understand the importance of doing everything in their power to keep water within a regional watershed. Treated wastewater is routed back to the regional reservoir(s). If only the “budget” came out even (same amount of water in and out); that’s the goal, of course, but in practice, it doesn’t always work out that way. Lake Mead continues to experience a net loss, despite a variety of efforts aimed at evening things out, which isn’t good news.

Looking at what you can do to reduce evaporation

Here I discuss the problems of evaporation and what you can discover in the context of your home landscape. On the far smaller scale of a home landscape, the following are the important takeaways you can consider and reflect upon (indeed, these are the essence of water conservation):

Don’t store water in broad, open areas.

Enclosed and out of the hot sun is best. Consider a rain barrel or cistern.

When you store water, cover the surface of the storage container to mitigate or prevent evaporation.

A fitted plastic or plywood cover works; if necessary, secure it in place with clamps or a bungie cord.

Cover plants to absorb heat and lower evaporation.

Put plenty of mulch over your planted areas. Shade trees or shade structures shelter in-ground or potted plants. Shade cloth protects vulnerable plants (refer to

Chapter 16

Keep water cycling hyperlocally.

Literally, to the extent you can, aim to make your own yard a contained or conservative system — hoard, keep, use, reuse, and don’t let it get away. Doing so definitely can lower your water use and water bill.

The section, “Collecting and Storing Water,” later in this chapter provides more help.

Differentiating between drought-resistant and drought-tolerant

Speaking of landscape plants in the context of water use, choosing ones that can get by on less water is paramount. Here I discuss how they do this.

Plants take up water through their root systems and then the water travels through the plant. A well-hydrated plant has sturdy stems and firm leaves, and if water remains sufficient, the ability to produce buds, flowers, and fruit/seeds. But the water doesn’t stay — more water is constantly needed to sustain the growth and production. (A water-stressed plant grows slowly or not at all.)

Water exits plants through the undersides of leaves, through tiny pores called stomata. Water departs invisibly, as water vapor. This is called transpiration — the plant version of evaporation.

In a nutshell, here is the difference between two types of dry-climate plants:

Drought-resistant plant:

This type of plant can close its stomata and thereby lose less water; a drought-resistant plant controls its transpiration rate, notching it down during dry times to conserve water within itself. Many plants, particularly native plants, are drought-resistant.

Drought-tolerant plant:

This kind of plant is adapted to low or, at times, no water. It’s drought-resistant all the time, not just in response to a crisis drought or dry spell. These plants are the toughest of the tough.

For information on and lists of such plants, turn to Part 2.

Knowing Where Your Water Comes from

In order not to take anything water-related for granted or operate under misconceptions, understanding water sources — and the associated threats and challenges — is important. The following sections briefly explain the main ones.

Eyeing issues with primary sources

Where water comes from and how it’s collected and used is, actually, rife with issues and sometimes controversy. Here’s a quick overview:

Groundwater

To generalize and simplify, the earth holds freshwater deep in the ground (underneath the layers of topsoil, subsoil, and rock — refer to Chapter 4 for more about those layers). This water is called groundwater, and the under-earth lakes are called aquifers. Sometimes water travels or bubbles to the surface via springs.

Here are some of the challenging issues that groundwater faces:

Overdrilling:

“Too many straws in the milkshake” is a good way to cast a serious problem. Too many wells being drilled into an aquifer depletes the amount available to everyone (or to a minority — witness how irrigation for agriculture in the West depleted the Navajo Nation’s water supply). Wells are dug or drilled ever-deeper, but is drilling deeper really a solution?

Pollution:

All manner of substances and materials are considered pollutants — anything from fuel and solvents to cleaning products to pesticides and weedkillers. Such things contaminate groundwater and, at least for drinking purposes, people must find a way to clean it to make it safe for consumption. (If not, people get sick, land is contaminated, and/or the water can’t be used.)

No reliability:

Springs fluctuate or may go dry seasonally or for long periods in response to groundwater levels; that is, their flow isn’t guaranteed to be dependable.

Precipitation

Precipitation brings evaporated water back down to earth, directly in rainfall and in a more-delayed delivery with snowfall (that is, people wait for spring’s annual snowmelt to bring that water down to lower areas). It goes into lakes (man-made and natural), streams, and rivers. Its arrival recharges aquifers, although some eventually runs out to sea.

Here are some of the challenges of dealing with precipitation:

Runoff:

This water often runs off before it can be used.

Collection:

Collecting it is logical but raises the issue of: who owns the rainwater? Colorado restricts residential rainwater harvesting on the grounds that the state government owns and needs to control (gather and distribute) the water that falls from the sky and homeowners must not divert too much of it to their own use.

Snowpack:

As for areas that depend on melted snowpack, they may be disappointed and in trouble if there’s a light winter.

Rivers, lakes, and streams

Water naturally collects and moves through nature’s own drainage and collection basins — rivers, lakes, and streams. The volume and stability of these sources is subject, of course, to forces beyond human control, including rainfall and underground supply. A plus is that water that moves naturally through soil and rocks gets naturally filtered.

Here are myriad and vexing challenges:

Water-use rights:

Often these sources are part of larger and complex systems, and upstream and downstream rights are debated, negotiated, and argued over. The needs of agriculture and cities conflict as they compete for water from the same sources.

Pollution and its sources:

Identifying and mitigating pollution and contamination can be complex — runoff from agriculture is a particularly serious problem.

Consequences of diversions:

Humans have proven capable of altering even large features; witness how diversions for irrigation destroyed the now-dried up, once-enormous Aral Sea located on the border between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan (one of the greatest ecological disasters of modern times).

Looking at how water is accessed

You turn on your home’s faucets, your home’s hose, and/or your home’s irrigation system. But where does that water come from? These sections explain that question and how you can plan to use that water.

WATER, WATER, EVERYWHERE, AND NOT A DROP TO DRINK

Pictures from space show that the Earth is a blue planet, three-quarters of which is covered by water. That should be heartening to know, especially as humanity confronts water shortages, but the reality is that almost all of that water isn’t freshwater, available for sustaining life on land (drinking and irrigating). In fact, 97 percent is saltwater, 2 percent is frozen in the polar ice caps — which are currently losing some of that mass and melting. The remaining 1 percent is what land dwellers (humans, animals, terrestrial plant life) depend upon to live. A pretty meager number!

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