1. Start With Your Soil
Try to create soil that’s as healthy as possible for your plants. The first step is understanding your native soil and what it needs. “Your soil is a living thing, and it needs updating and ongoing care,” Gliksman says. Her practices include choosing organic fertilizers and using compost and compost teas. “You want your soil to be active with microbes,” she says.
Organic soil amendments also will improve soil conditions, but whether to use them or not will depend on the plants you’re adding. While some plants might welcome the boost, amendments might not work as well for others.
Van Zandt doesn’t like to add a lot of amendments during planting in Utah’s heavy clay soil, especially if she is using a lot of native plants. “In seeded areas, we might add a bit of topsoil if the native soil is very rocky, but the worry is that the roots would just stay in the ‘good soil’ hole versus branching out into the harder soil,” she says.
2. Lengthen Your Planting Schedule
Install your garden in stages over a couple of seasons or even years. Focus first on your top ornamental priorities for foundation plants, perennials and shrubs and trees. Choose what you feel is necessary to add now and what can wait until later in the year or even a year or two down the road.
In areas with warm-winter climates that get little to no summer rain, Ritchey recommends holding off planting trees until later in the year. “Here in California, it’s really helpful to plant in the fall, before the winter rains come,” he says. (Gardeners in other regions also can plant trees in late winter or early spring.)
3. Choose the Right Plants
The pros we talked with all agree that native plants should be your first choice. These plants already are adapted to the local conditions, are usually very hardy and are able to handle local climate conditions, including a lack of summer rain. An added benefit is that they attract local wildlife. “I see so many birds and butterflies in native-plant gardens,” Gliksman says.
Van Zandt warns that you’ll need to be patient. “Natives can be hard to find and are often in very small sizes,” she says. She adds that smaller plants will take more time to grow to their final size, but their small size can be an advantage. “A large native can have a hard time adjusting,” she says.
Also look for drought-tolerant plants that are well-adapted to your climate. They’ll often be marked as low-water-use plants, but check before you purchase. “Some plants that look drought-tolerant may have higher water needs,” Gliksman says.
If you want to add a vegetable garden, consider varieties that don’t require as much water, such as herbs and vegetables that thrive in Mediterranean climates. Also prioritize bushy, lower-growing vegetables, such as bush beans and varieties that have been bred for lower-water use.
4. Plant Strategically
Group plants that share water requirements, an approach often called hydrozoning. “Separate shade plants from sun plants; and higher-water plants, such as vegetable gardens, from lower-water plants,” Van Zandt says.
Take the same approach with a vegetable garden. You also can plant vegetables closer together than typically recommended so they can share water and crowd out weeds.
5. Find a Lawn Substitute
One of the most water-saving things you can do in your yard is not add a lawn. Most lawns are true water guzzlers. It also makes sense to put limited water resources toward plants like existing trees and large shrubs, which are hard to replace.
For a lawn substitute, Van Zandt recommends seeding with a native grass blend. The grass “can be mowed or not mowed, depending on the look desired,” she says. “Once established, [it] has about a once-a-week-or-so watering schedule here in northern Utah, versus an every-other-day schedule.”
6. Fine-Tune Your Watering
Take the time to create a watering system that will deliver the most water to your plants and won’t be lost to evaporation, hard surfaces or unplanted areas. Drip irrigation systems are the best choice for most plants. These systems concentrate water at the roots of the plantings, so you’ll need to water less. Watering basins and mounds also direct water to the roots.
Putting your system in place is just the first step. Van Zandt provides homeowners with an anticipated watering schedule for the plants as they get established and beyond, tailored to the soil conditions. It often requires far less frequent waterings than traditional watering practices. “Very often, gardens are overwatered, and we could realize great savings by watering only as needed,” she says. Rather than just checking the soil’s surface, dig down and see if the soil is dry 2 to 3 inches beneath the surface before watering, especially if you have clay soil. If it’s not dry there, “the water will just run off rather than sinking in,” Van Zandt explains.
Mornings and evenings are the best times to water plants, as less water is lost to evaporation. Also watch the weather conditions and shut down an automated watering system if rain is likely.
7. Mulch Generously and Weed Often
Adding a thick layer of organic mulch around your plants will help the soil retain moisture and help suppress weeds. “Mulching is super key,” Gliksman says. She also encourages homeowners to not remove all the fallen leaves. “They help condition the soil,” she says. Replenish your mulch throughout the growing season to keep it fresh.
Both Gliksman and Van Zandt avoid using gravel as a mulch, as it reflects too much heat. “The goal is to keep things cool,” Van Zandt says. She also plants low-water ground covers, such as creeping thyme, under everything she can. “They keep the soil cooler, provide organic matter for the surrounding soil, are somewhat evergreen for early spring color and also help suppress weeds,” she says.
Even with mulch, you’ll need to be diligent about weeding. One approach: Stroll through your garden with a digger and a bucket every day or so to pull out weeds when you see them, rather than waiting to do a marathon session. The bonus is that you’ll be able to relax and enjoy your garden.
8. Capture Water
Find ways to reuse water from both your yard and your home. Rain barrels are a classic approach to gathering water, so install one or more under downspouts. They’re readily available, and many are quite attractive.
Van Zandt also likes to use a permeable material for paths. “This allows any water to flow down to nearby plants,” she says.
Tip: Before you purchase or install a rain barrel, be sure to check local laws. Certain states have issued rainwater-harvesting restrictions.
A more advanced approach is to create swales, streambeds and rain gardens. These take some time to set up but can help you capture and use more water. They also will direct rainfall into your soil rather than out to the street, helping the underground water table. A variation on this is underground cache areas, which some municipalities in drought-prone areas are requiring for landscape projects.
If you want to step up your use of captured water, check locally for sources that provide recycled water for your garden. These businesses are becoming more common in dry-summer locations.
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