Drought-Tolerant Landscapes

What is a drought-tolerant landscape?

A well-designed drought-tolerant landscape can be filled with a lush variety of colorful plants that have year-round beauty, and give no outward clues that it was created to conserve water. It resembles a thriving oasis, not a sea of lava rock with a few sparse plantings!

There are tremendous benefits to creating a drought tolerant landscape. Besides saving time and money with less watering, you will be helping to conserve a precious resource and preserve habitat for salmon and other aquatic life in our region.

The keys to creating a successful drought tolerant landscape are to build healthy soil and then choose the right plants.

Building healthy soil

Adding compost is the best way to start building healthy soil, whether your native soil is sandy or full of clay. Compost greatly increases the ability for clay soils to drain well in the wet winter months, as well as increasing the ability of sandy soil to retain water in our dry summers. It also attracts beneficial microorganisms into the soil. All are necessary in order for plant roots to grow deeply and remain healthy year-round without much, if any, supplemental summer water.

Mulching the soil surface with organic matter after planting is also a vital ingredient to a drought-tolerant landscape. Compost, arborist wood chips, fallen leaves or coarse-textured bark are good choices. They help prevent compaction from winter rains, release micronutrients into the soil and aid in summer water retention.

Choosing plants

For a partly-shady garden, consider using Pacific Northwest natives such as vne maple (Acer circinatum), evergreen huckleberry (Vaccinium ovatum), low Oregon grape (Mahonia nervosa), and sword fern (Polystichum munitum) which are readily available at most local nurseries. Besides being beautiful year-round and drought-tolerant once established, these plants also increase available food, shelter, and nesting sites for birds, beneficial insects and other wildlife, bringing more life into your garden.

For a hot and sunny spot, consider a garden filled with the fragrance and color of herbs and ornamental grasses. Lavender, rosemary, culinary sage (Salvia) and rock rose (Cistus), mix well with pheasant tail grass (Stipa arundinacea), maiden grass (Miscanthus sinensis) and Mexican feather grass (Stipa tenuissima) Add a groundcover of oregano, our native yarrow (Achillea millefoilum), and sedums, tuck in a few landscape rocks, and you'll have a Mediterranean-style oasis.

Establishing the landscape

As with all gardens, even drought-tolerant plants will need supplemental summer water until their roots are firmly established in the soil, which can take 1-3 years.

Soaker hoses or drip irrigation will help get plant roots established down deep into the soil so that in a relatively short time your watering days will be few and far between!

The following references will provide more detail on the benefits of creating a drought-tolerant landscape. Or call In Harmony to assist with your design and installation at 425-486-2180.

References and resources

Saving Water Partnership and Savvy Gardener newsletter http://www.savingwater.org

Elisabeth Miller Library- drought help resource page http://depts.washington.edu/hortlib/resources/resources.shtml