Water Conservation and Xeriscaping

A how-to approach covering all the basics of water-wise gardening.

Gayle Weinstein is an avid gardener, writer and photographer. She has worked with Denver Botanic Gardens in their Xeriscape Experimental Garden, as well as other areas of the public garden. She is a graduate of the Denver University Publishing Institute. She makes her home in Denver, Colorado.

Have you experienced repeated droughts, and either bans on, or stringent scheduling of, landscape watering? Have your water bills gone through the roof during summertime watering? Are you battling a constantly browning lawn? Do you want to have a beautiful, quality landscape?

If any of this rings true, then Xeriscape Gardening will be your gardening bible. Endorsed by the National Xeriscape Council, this comprehensive primer thoroughly explains the concept of Xeriscape gardening, or quality water-efficient landscaping. It dispels the common "zero-scape" image of Xeriscape gardens, namely seas of gravel surrounding a few cacti, and the belief that water-thriftiness in the garden is an issue only in California and the Southwest. The goal of Xeriscape gardening is a landscape indistinguishable in its beauty from one that is water-greedy.

Garden writer Jennifer Bennett's home is atop an exposed limestone hill, where the soil dries quickly after a rain and rains seldom come. Gardening where the summers are hot and prone to periods of drought, where the winters are snowy one week and freezing rain the next, has led Bennett to xeriscaping -- a gardening approach that favors not only water conservation but also the conservation of time, energy and other resources.

Xeriscaping enthusiasts exist everywhere throughout North America, from the California desert to the Canadian prairies. Thus Dry-Land Gardening is not about Bennett's eastern Ontario garden only but about dry-land gardening strategies: coping with limited access to water, invasive plants and trees under stress; nurturing groundcovers and grasses; starting bulbs, perennials and vines; and growing vegetables, herbs and annual flowers successfully. Bright and open, with gray foliage and the waxy leaves of succulents, the dry garden depends more on groundcovers and mulches than on stately flowering perennials. In her latest book, Bennett celebrates "a garden with a different sort of beauty, one that leaves your time and your conscience free and easy."

As the world heats up and we become more and more conscious of our place in the natural scheme, the appeal of the native plants of the Southwest becomes ever more compelling for gardeners. In addition to providing year-round beauty with relatively little maintenance, landscaping with native plants contributes to the repair of the natural ecosystem and brings us closer to our environment -- and the array of native plant material available to the Southwestern gardener is diverse and spectacular, providing seemingly endless opportunities for creative and attractive landscapes.

In Landscaping with Native Plants of the Southwest, George Oxford Miller provides the definitive guide to choosing the best of the best among the native plants of Arizona and New Mexico. Covering wildflowers, shrubs, trees, vines, groundcovers, and cacti, this comprehensive, richly illustrated book selects the species whose ornamental qualities, growth habit, adaptability, maintenance needs, and beauty add up to the highest landscape value. The illustrations, maps, and charts provide guidelines for species selection and planting, ongoing maintenance, landscape design, and water and energy conservation. In-depth plant profiles describe the habitat requirements for more than 350 native plant species, subspecies, and varieties, with lush photographs illustrating how each plant looks and responds to landscape conditions.

The Xeriscape Plant Guide is a full-color, comprehensive resource for more than 100 low-water-use plants that bring color, beauty and utility to your landscape. This is the Bible on plants for water-wise gardens!

With continued national concern over water use, Xeriscape gardens are a sensible option for today and tomorrow. Published in cooperation with Denver Water and the American Water Works Association, and reviewed by professional horticulturalists and landscapers, this fully illustrated reference offers complete information on low-water-use trees and shrubs, annuals and shade plants. These plants were chosen for their ability to thrive in tough conditions, for their low water usage and for their potential to add beauty and diversity to any landscape. Whether you have a small patio or terrace, city lot or a bit of acreage, there is more than enough variety in these pages to turn your garden into a place of beauty.

Gardening in harmony with a Mediterranean climate means taking advantage of winter rain and allowing the garden to rest over hot summers. In this beautifully illustrated, practical handbook, Heidi Gildemeister provides both novice and experienced gardeners with a comprehensive guide for waterwise gardening, with over one thousand drought-tolerant Mediterranean plants chosen both for their beauty and for their easygoing ways.

Well indexed with common and botanical names, Mediterranean Gardening will be indispensable not only for gardeners in California, the Mediterranean basin, and Mediterranean climate areas in South America, Australia, and Africa, but for anyone living in a region that experiences drought. Gildemeister explains how drought-tolerant plants that are suitably matched with a site and carefully planted and mulched can live on winter rain and, once established, do not need additional summer water--as in nature. The Plant Selection lists over one thousand plants from nearly five hundred genera, including their preferred growing conditions, propagation, best use, and maintenance. Guidelines in eight steps describe the planning of waterwise gardens, such as for the establishment of dappled shade to conserve precious soil moisture. Successful alternatives to the water-intensive lawn offer attractive design ideas.