Low Water Gardening

[shanti]

I'm thinking of switching my lawns to a water conserving, native plant front yard. I'm in Cali, and we're in a drought year, so it just seems to make more sense. Already three houses on the street have done this, and it looks pretty good. Also, some communities are giving rebates to do so.

Has anyone had any experience with this, or know of some good websites? I probably won't be able to do this myself, but will use a landscaper. Just wondering about prices, etc.

[kentauros]

1. This is a good site for information (and buying seeds)

http://www.seedsource.com/

It's set up for Texas soils and climate, but we do have our arid areas of the state (Central and West.) Contact them and see what they may say with regards to your climate and conditions

[shanti]

3. Thanks

I'll give it a look

[Curmudgeoness]

2. My sister lives in California

in the Apple Valley area (high desert). She has been moving slowly in the direction of xeroscape. Instead of doing it all at once, she has done it a section at a time. It is less work all at once and it has allowed her to experiment with different plants (some of which have not worked) without affecting the whole yard at once. When a section gets established, she moves on to the next section.

The things that have worked well for her: California Poppies, Yucca plants, violas (surprisingly but they don't last in the heat of summer although they keep reseeding). Her has avoided cacti because of the thorns. I don't know what else she has.

[shanti]

4. Sacramento

is where I am. It gets to 100+ several times during our summers, so those plants may work for me too. Xeriscaping, that's the term I couldn't remember. lol

My neighborhood has lots of large, mature trees, and I have a small tree. Due to the direction of my property, I seem to get ALL the leaves down the street when the north winds blow in the fall/winter, go figure! So, I have to figure something out that for cover that will allow me to blow them out of my yard easily. Before the recent rains here, my lawn was pretty dead, but now it's all greened up again. Back to the lawnmower, for now....

[kentauros]

5. Collect everyone's leaves and compost them!

Free soil!

Something that most people don't know is that when you take the time (as in several years) to really improve your soil, it will hold more water and help plants be more resilient to drought. Good topsoil depth for a lawn is at least 12 inches. Most lawns only have two inches, or less, and why they have to water and weed more.

I know I've posted it before, but this is another good site, if only for improving your soil, but also how that helps even normal full-cover lawn-grasses:

Organic Lawn Care For the Cheap and Lazy

[Major Nikon]

6. Adding organic material is the best way to improve soil

For a 10,000 sq ft yard, adding 12 inches of topsoil would require over 1,000 yards. How deep the roots go also depends on how compacted your soil is. If your soil is compacted (which most are if it sees much traffic), grass roots just aren't going to go that deep because water isn't going to penetrate that deeply.

Not all lawns should be mowed 3-4 inches. The longer your grass is, the more water it requires. Some grasses have significant horizontal growth, so letting it grow longer to provide shade that is already there is counterproductive. So it's best to figure out what kind of grass you have and mow accordingly.

[XemaSab]

7. Wait until fall to do it

First year plants (even if they're xeric) need a lot of water.

Sites that I really like are High Country Gardens (though the plants are expensive), Digging Dog, Annie's Annuals, and Flowers by the Sea. There's a gardening couple called the Springer-Ogdens who have put together some really cool designs that you can use for inspiration.

Plants I love for my yard here in Redding are Salvias, yarrow, Mexican marigold, ornamental oregano, bunchgrasses, Penstemon, columbine, lavender, Heuchera, and Centranthus. I have everything filled in with bulbs.

I tried to go all native, but my soil here is too rich and a lot of plants died, so now I have stuff from all over. The bees and hummingbirds love it.

What color scheme do you like?

[shanti]

8. Thanks for the tips!

I will definitely look into them. Color scheme? I've rarely been afforded the opportunity for a color scheme, but I do like purples.

My backyard will come before the front yard, as it's in worse shape. At least I got my sprinklers fixed (front yard). I found a mexican gardener thru the pennysaver. He only charged $56 to fix 3 sprinkler heads, and two of them needed pipe replacement. I'm happy about that for now

[XemaSab]

9. Purple, blue, and white go with everything

Orange, pink, red, and yellow can be challenging.

[stopwastingmymoney]

10. Mexican sage is perennial and has beautiful purple flowers, nt