While having a full fledged garden is rewarding and enjoyable,
lots of people simply don’t have the time that is required to
maintain it. Whether you have too much going on at work or too
many kids to take care of, you
should never try to operate a garden if you don’t think you can
handle it.
For those people who are just too busy for a normal garden, I
would suggest a somewhat recent method of gardening known as
Xeriscaping. This minimal yet stylish theory first emerged in
Colorado when water levels
were at an all time low. It is a great method of having a great
looking yard or garden, without having to maintain it or water
it very often at all.
Here in Colorado, many places are offering free Xeriscaping
lessons in order to encourage the conservation of water. If your
area is undergoing a drought, you should check with the water
suppliers and see if they are
offering lessons. If you attend those, you will be able to get
advice specific to your region (IE types of plants to grow, how
much to water them, etc).
To some, the name Xeriscaping conjures the image of a yard that
consists of a giant rock bed. However, this is known as “zero
scaping”, and it is a considerably different concept. It focuses
on reducing your yard to nothing that requires any maintenance
whatsoever. Unfortunately this is usually just rocks. But this
shouldn’t be your goal. While keeping maintenance at a minimum,
it is still possibly to retain a nice looking yard that won’t
attract the negative attention of everyone who passes by.
This might sound like it would be hard to implement without
making your yard into a hideous mess, but this is not so at all.
The theory basically involves choosing plants which are low
maintenance to begin with, then putting them each in
environments that are ideal. It is usually applied by figuring
out what side of the house to place it on to get the best amount
of shade, and figuring out how to group it with plants with
similar water needs.
To get started in your Xeriscaping renovation, you first need to
pick out all the plants you will be using. They should for the
most part require a low amount of water. This doesn’t mean you
can only grow cactuses in your
yard. Just cut back on the really thirsty plants that you have
to water every day to keep alive. You’ll want to stick with
local plants for the most part, and don’t go with anything too
exotic as these generally require larger amounts of water.
The second most important principle of xeriscaping is placing
the plants in ideal areas. If you place them all together with
plants that require essentially the same amount of water, then
you will end up saving lots of
water. Also place the plants in areas where they will be
protected from wind or excessive sun, depending on the needs of
the plants. Xeriscaping is almost the same thing as
microclimating, just with more of a focus on
adaptation to harsh conditions rather than avoiding them. So if
it sounds good to you and you’re looking to save time and water
by renovating your garden, you should look for xeriscaping
lessons.
