Water smart gardening

You’ve heard the terms “xeriscaping,” but what does it really mean and how can you make it work in your garden?

One of Canada’s most influential gardening experts, Marjorie Harris, calls xeriscaping “the gardening style of the twenty-first century.” Forget the high-maintenance gardens of the past, filled with imported exotics and water-hogging plants; this new trend is inspiring more people than ever to design gardens with less demanding watering requirements. For instance, planting drought-tolerant and hardy, indigenous varieties will not only enhance the existing ecosystem but also offer a low-maintenance outdoor retreat. Here’s all you need to know about conserving water in your garden, straight from the experts.

Design and planning essentials

Your goal in the xeriscape garden is to reduce water consumption and minimize the use of resources. “At its core, the sustainable garden depends on careful design and planning to reduce the amount of resources required over time, resulting in cost-effective, low-maintenance spaces,” says Claire Suo-Cockerton, owner of Aesthetic Earthworks, an organic landscaping company in Toronto. She recommends starting off by considering your budget, the area you are working with and the larger ecosystem.

From there you can look at other key elements: existing plants, surrounding architecture, exposure to sunlight, soil pH, composition and fertility, micro-climate, traffic patterns in the garden, topography and water demands. Get inspired for your garden makeover with these before and after shots from Aesthetic Earthworks.

Making a water plan

Devise a water plan by determining the water requirements of each plant and then grouping them according to their water needs. In an updated reprint of her classic guide, Ecological Gardening (Random House Canada, 2009), Harris writes that perennials and small shrubs should be placed in “high water zones”—generally an area near your main water source, close to the house—since these plants demand the most water and attention. Trees and large shrubs require the least amount of watering, so they can be placed in a zone that exposed and farther from the house, since it will be the area you least need to worry about watering.

Picking plants

Be water-conscious when selecting the plants for your garden by trying to limit the number of water guzzlers. These include perennials such as bleeding heart, delphiniums and foxglove; ground covers such as bugleweed, baby’s tears and myrtle; shrubs such as azaleas and red-twig dogwood; and, trees such as weeping willow, magnolia, flowering dogwood, red and sugar maples. A garden based on xeriscape principles will feature drought-tolerant and indigenous plant species since they will flourish more easily and have a natural resistance to pests and disease. Visit Evergreen’s Native Plant database for a list of plants indigenous to Canadian soil, sorted by province.

Also, most lawns need huge amounts of water, so consider decreasing the area of your lawn over time and introducing low-water plants instead. It makes sense to be deliberate about the placement and selection of plants, because, as Harris reminds us, we’ll all be on water metres soon and will have to limit our water usage to where it’s most needed.

Water smarts

Harris offers these essential tips for watering wisely:

•    “When you do water, water deeply. No sprinkling about of this precious commodity,” writes Harris. Use a drip system to maximize the absorption and avoid overwhelming the garden all at once with a 20-minute soak. Watering is best done early in the morning and late afternoon.

•    Install a rain-barrel: Harvest rainwater instead of turning on the tap to water your garden. You can also install a system to divert grey water from your sink or washing machine directly to the garden.

•    Weeds use lots of water: Try to keep the garden well-weeded. Mulching retains moisture, suppresses weeds and reduces the need for fertilizing, so add away.

•    Drain away: Drought-tolerant plants may be ideal for a low-water garden but they require good drainage. So add lots of organic matter to your soil. Humus in the soil helps absorb and distribute water evenly and efficiently to plant roots. Also, the addition of permeable materials such as pea gravel or limestone screenings can stop surface water runoff and let the soil soak up the moisture instead.

With research by: Shelagh McNally

If you are looking for some help in designing your outdoor organic gardenscape, look to the Green Living Guides for a list of great landscaping companies following the natural path in Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary and Vancouver.