Xeriscaping And Low Water Gardening
It may be an unusual word and few people know it but gardening in a way that is appropriate for your local area as a way of gardening with less water is something we can all learn from so Xeriscaping is the act of creating naturalized gardens using plants, flowers, shrubs and trees which are acclimated to the particular area you live in. As the cost of water rises and we begin to appreciate that even this most basic of natural resources should be used wisely, Xeriscaping is becoming very popular. The basic idea is that if you create a garden based on the various local flowers and plants which would grow naturally in your area, you end up needing to use less water and spend less time caring for the plants because they are in their natural environment.
Xeriscaping is a particularly useful style of gardening for dry areas and creating gardens that need little to no watering so it has become very popular in the desert southwestern area of the United States and other similar areas where water is a scarce and valuable resource.
The majority of people who start thinking about how to create a garden which uses little or no additional water other than natural rainfall would immediately think of creating a cactus garden and a cactus garden can be a quite beautiful type of garden but this is not the only way to create a beautiful gardens which do not need additional watering to grow and thrive.
There is an excellent way to help reduce the amount of water your plants need by buying special water absorbant crystals to add to your garden soil. These crystals are designed to absorb and hold water for long periods of time – typically they can hold water for a couple of weeks – so you water your plants less yet they remain healthy and beautiful. The water crystals absorb water each time you water your garden and when it rains, then they slowly release that water to the plants over a period of time. If you look in local and online garden supplies stores you will find you can buy potting soil which already has these crystals added. If you want to really go back to basics you can buy the crystals themselves and add them to the existing areas of your garden where you think they will be most beneficial to your plants.
Mulching is an important gardening technique in the fight against water loss from the soil. You can also help your plants and flowers and conserve water by simply giving the ground around them a good thick layer of natural mulch. You can use many different materials such as gravel, dead leaves, dry grass clippings, sawdust, wood chips, or even tree bark pieces to cover the ground around your plants. The way this works is that the covering will help keep the soil from drying out so fast because it is protected from the dry air and hot sun, as a consequence you won’t need to water your plants even in the dry heat of summer while the soil is kept moist by the mulch. The mulch will also help to protect the roots of your plants from being ravaged by the bitter winter cold as badly too.
You can choose to create a garden based around plants which require very little water to thrive and they are not all cactus plants. The Cactus is a family of plants which probably have the lowest water needs of any kind of plant and many can be quite beautiful throughout the year. The majority of cactus plants create blooming flowers, and many of them change to various colors in different seasons too.
There are other gorgeous plants that grow quite well even in the worst of the drought seasons and these low water requirement plants are often very different to the types of plants your friends and neighbors would grow and make your garden stand out from the neighbor’s. A couple of the best plants to use for low water gardening would be the Desert Mallow and the California Poppy which can have flowers which range from a delicate light peach right through to a strong orange in color but you will find them available in many other shades as well.
You may be a little surprised when you look at the leaves on these low water needs plants because they look very different to someone who has only seen lush and glossy plant leaves before. Low water plants often have hairy like leaves and they are a paler green color than you might be used to seeing. They have developed this way to reduce heat damage and water loss and you will find these plants draw butterflies and hummingbirds and they will prove to be an excellent addition to your xeriscaping garden plans.
