On Dry Land
How to plant a drought-resistant garden.
By Constance Casey
On these hot, dry days, your plants may look as though they're pleading for water. You used to be able to just haul out the hose and soak every wilted thing. Now, though, in many parts of the United States and more and more places around the world, water is limited. Snow cover has diminished in shorter winters, reservoir levels are sinking, and many parched Western states keep adding more water consumers.
Over the past decade, we've been advised by garden writers and garden centers and environmentalists that the way to go in a hotter and drier world is to buy and use drought-tolerant plants. When home gardeners began including more drought-resistant plants, it was certainly a good change from green lawns in Phoenix and hydrangeas in El Paso, Texas. Those resinous water-storing plants harmonize with what's left of the surrounding landscape. But some drought-resistant combinations have become tiresome clichés. Look at the planting around almost any North American airport. You'll see Russian sage, yellow "Stella d'Oro" daylilies, sedum "Autumn Joy," and prairie grasses.
The gray leaves of Russian sage, the deep roots of prairie grasses, and the succulent water-holding leaves of sedums are evolutionary adaptations to arid environments. For the nonarid parts of the country, though, drought is a relative and temporary condition. Meanwhile, the yucca and sage you plant today could be drowning in the next rain. I'm haunted by the words of the meteorologist who predicted a future of "more rainfall, in fewer events." Where are the gentle showers of yesteryear?
A good response to longer periods of dryness broken by more violent rainstorms is to make your soil drought-resistant. What you want is a way for your valuable plants to survive a temporary water deficit, without having to use a lot of water and perhaps pay a fine to your municipality. So, make sure that the water from a deluge doesn't run off. Make the water percolate down to plants' roots. Don't till the soil; bare plowed soil loses water to evaporation. Leave organic material lying on the soil surface or plant groundcover (a cover crop like clover or alfalfa in the case of farmers). Midwestern farmers are now leaving corn plants up after harvest to catch the snow and protect the soil. Encourage worms, whose tunnels, about the diameter of a pencil, direct water down to root level.
Plants are, in a sense, cannibals. They thrive when they have partially decomposed plant material—little bits of bark or crumbly leaves—to consume. (Though they'll also happily take up the minerals in decomposed animal material.) Little bits of bark or crumbly leaves work like sponges, holding moisture in the soil.
Instead of being burned by drought, home gardeners, track the conditions in your area here and here, and check out these suggestions of plants that can thrive in gardens wanting for water. There's nothing wrong with praying for rain, but consider how nature keeps the soil moist—plenty of mulch, no bare earth.
By Constance Casey
On these hot, dry days, your plants may look as though they're pleading for water. You used to be able to just haul out the hose and soak every wilted thing. Now, though, in many parts of the United States and more and more places around the world, water is limited. Snow cover has diminished in shorter winters, reservoir levels are sinking, and many parched Western states keep adding more water consumers.
Over the past decade, we've been advised by garden writers and garden centers and environmentalists that the way to go in a hotter and drier world is to buy and use drought-tolerant plants. When home gardeners began including more drought-resistant plants, it was certainly a good change from green lawns in Phoenix and hydrangeas in El Paso, Texas. Those resinous water-storing plants harmonize with what's left of the surrounding landscape. But some drought-resistant combinations have become tiresome clichés. Look at the planting around almost any North American airport. You'll see Russian sage, yellow "Stella d'Oro" daylilies, sedum "Autumn Joy," and prairie grasses.
The gray leaves of Russian sage, the deep roots of prairie grasses, and the succulent water-holding leaves of sedums are evolutionary adaptations to arid environments. For the nonarid parts of the country, though, drought is a relative and temporary condition. Meanwhile, the yucca and sage you plant today could be drowning in the next rain. I'm haunted by the words of the meteorologist who predicted a future of "more rainfall, in fewer events." Where are the gentle showers of yesteryear?
A good response to longer periods of dryness broken by more violent rainstorms is to make your soil drought-resistant. What you want is a way for your valuable plants to survive a temporary water deficit, without having to use a lot of water and perhaps pay a fine to your municipality. So, make sure that the water from a deluge doesn't run off. Make the water percolate down to plants' roots. Don't till the soil; bare plowed soil loses water to evaporation. Leave organic material lying on the soil surface or plant groundcover (a cover crop like clover or alfalfa in the case of farmers). Midwestern farmers are now leaving corn plants up after harvest to catch the snow and protect the soil. Encourage worms, whose tunnels, about the diameter of a pencil, direct water down to root level.
Plants are, in a sense, cannibals. They thrive when they have partially decomposed plant material—little bits of bark or crumbly leaves—to consume. (Though they'll also happily take up the minerals in decomposed animal material.) Little bits of bark or crumbly leaves work like sponges, holding moisture in the soil.
Instead of being burned by drought, home gardeners, track the conditions in your area here and here, and check out these suggestions of plants that can thrive in gardens wanting for water. There's nothing wrong with praying for rain, but consider how nature keeps the soil moist—plenty of mulch, no bare earth.
posted by Bill Camarillo @ 4:29 PM
0 comments
