Low maintenance and low water landscaping

[Rogar]

This year's drought has motivated me to replace some of my traditional grass yard with some sort of low water landscaping. I've picked up a handful of good books and have been studying them, but growing things has not been one of my fortes. I live in a traditional 50's neighborhood with a few neighbors putting in rockscapes and xeriscapes. Some of them look shabby within a short period of time and some of the plain rockscapes are pretty sterile looking. I've also considered a low water grass like buffalo grass. Some of the labor, like sod removal or elimination looks a little daunting and I'm on a budget. I'm thinking of replacing a third to a half of my traditional grass.

I have the books to help and have one or two friends I've talked with, but any first hand experiences with what has worked and what hasn't would be helpful. Any recommendations on how much to tackle and how much to hire out, if any? Thoughts on rock vs. wood chips or mulch for fill, or any experience with low water grasses like buffalo? I think I have enough references to come up with plant varieties for a xeriscape garden but am struggling with layout so far. At this point I don't need a lot of detail, but some tips or pointers from your experience would be helpful. Thanks in advance!

[Gardenarian]

Hi there,

I'm in California and there was a big push for xeriscaping about 15 years ago. People put weed cloth over their lawns and covered them with gravel, with a couple of bushes here or there. Not real attractive, especially when the weeds start pushing through. This kind of xeriscaping also causes water to just run off and go down the storm drains, to your sewer or watershed, rather than having the water being absorbed into the soil. And it's hot! It is also bad for the soil; under the weed cloth the soil just bakes and the important microbes die off.

I think what makes more sense is to go with:
1. Mostly trees
2. A native plant garden
3. A wildflower meadow
4. Vegetable garden (heavier water use than other choices, but edible.)

What you do depends on what zone you're in, what your soil is like, what you want to use the space for, and how much work you want to put into it. My own yard is a mix of all of these. I have a lot of fruit trees, which are easy to grow and surprisingly drought-hardy once established. Along my borders I have a mix of native plants, herbs, and roses. I have two raised beds for vegetables. What once was a lawn area I have converted to a wildflower meadow (this is new this season and I hope it looks better once it is mature - still, quite pretty.)

If I had a blank slate (my house came with some mature pines, foundation plantings, and hardscaping that I'm not up to changing) I would go with mostly fruit trees and plant wildflowers underneath. The trees only need to be planted once, so very low mainentance, and provide blossoms in spring, shade in the summer, color in fall, as well as fruit in the harvest season. The birds love them. They thrive on grey water, which works for me. The only thing I do for my fruit trees is give them plenty of mulch (wood chips free from the city) mixed with a little bone or blood meal.

A wildflower meadow is pretty simple - I just put down cardboard over the lawn, and a layer of wood chips. Then I put a layer of soil and sowed the seeds. I needed to water until they were established (and I am still watering patches now and then with grey water when it looks dry.) I planted a lot of perennials and annuals that will re-seed themselves, so I hope I don't have to re-seed every year. We'll see!

A native plant garden can be incredibly beautiful, but takes a bit of experise to get going. You would think native plants would be easier to grow, but that's not been my experience!

I think it's really important to leave our soil in better shape than we found it.

[ApatheticNoMore]

Agree totally with Gardenarian, she basically listed the good options there. Another option is plants from a similar climate region. Ok it's basically a Mediterannian climate here, so rosemary, olives, mints, oregano, citrus, and so on do well (none are native but neither are they particularly invasive). Roses aren't that thirsty in my experience either.

And xeriscaping seems *HOT* to me too!!! We make up the difference of the cool the lawn used to provide with air conditioning!!!! Haha, sick (as in there go whatever environmental gain there was), but I sometimes suspect that's how it really works :(. There are ways to do drought tolerance that aren't xeriscaping, may take some water, but less. Xeriscaping I think actually can work as *PART* of a yard, if done well, I don't like it much for the whole yard though.

I don't know about bufallo grass but I think some of the grasses actually are invasive.

As for trees around here Sycamore, Oaks are native. Grand old trees if you have the acerage. Find out what is native there.

[awakenedsoul]

I agree with Gardenarian. I'm also in CA. In my front yard I have two established shade trees: a poplar and a fruitless mulberry. Oh, and the birds planted a locust tree that's a native. I put in a couple of conifers and lots of flower seeds: poppies, hollyhocks, allysum, zinnias, sunflowers, larkspur, four o'clocks, feverfew,and society garlic. They all reseed, and it's really pretty. I have petunias and geraniums in the window boxes. I plant them in homemade compost, so they don't need much water. I mulch the front with straw. I recently added a lime tree and some blackberry bushes for privacy. I've also got some herbs tucked in: lemon balm, sage, rosemary, and lavender. My orchard in back doesn't need much water. I mulch heavily with straw. The vegetable garden needs water every day in summer, but it's condensed and I can do it quickly. It produces like crazy! No lawn for me!

[Rosemary]

Had 2 xeriscape yards in Arizona, and the comments above are thorough. I live in a place where we have ample water for grass now, and we never water our lawn, but frankly, I miss our xeriscape yards. No mowing, easy to add plants wherever without having to remove sod, and capable of going without maintenance when we traveled. I planted fruit trees and natives in our second yard after cutting my teeth on desert landscaping in my first yard. The fruit trees I watered with a soaker hose about every 2 weeks in the summer - nothing else needed supplemental watering, even with < 12inches rain/year.

[pinkytoe]

There is a real trend here to replace yards with rocks. I can appreciate the lower maintenance but I think it makes everything look and feel even hotter. We have used quite a bit of decomposed granite and that works well in non-plant areas. I have decided to plant more trees to get as much shade as I can in the majority of the yard. I have reduced my lawn space by putting natural plantings, ie trees, understory plants, etc around the perimeter areas - free-form not linear. I have several rock-lined free form beds in the middle areas which I grow some food, herbs, flowers and small trees. I like curves rather than straight lines when it comes to layout. What area is left is either paths, patio area or lawn. I like permaculture ideas too. Buffalo grass has not worked too well here; the current thing is some sort of hybrid zoysia but I am not a lawn person. I get my inspiration from taking walks, looking at pictures and trying smaller versions of what I see in different areas.

[Rogar]

Thanks everyone. Some of the comments are helpful are getting me thinking about a few things. I'll add a little more information if it might help


Hi there,

I think what makes more sense is to go with:
1. Mostly trees
2. A native plant garden
3. A wildflower meadow
4. Vegetable garden (heavier water use than other choices, but edible.)

What you do depends on what zone you're in, what your soil is like, what you want to use the space for, and how much work you want to put into it.

A wildflower meadow is pretty simple - I just put down cardboard over the lawn, and a layer of wood chips. Then I put a layer of soil and sowed the seeds. I needed to water until they were established (and I am still watering patches now and then with grey water when it looks dry.) I planted a lot of perennials and annuals that will re-seed themselves, so I hope I don't have to re-seed every year. We'll see!

A native plant garden can be incredibly beautiful, but takes a bit of experise to get going. You would think native plants would be easier to grow, but that's not been my experience!



I am in zone 6 or maybe 7 depending on where I look. I already have mature trees that I'll be working around and will have some shady areas and some with full sun. I like the wildflower meadow concept Gardenarian. When you did this, could you plant immediately or did you wait for a few months the underlying sod/grass to die? It would be an easy solution to a few things. In some of the areas I've already done a few things with, I found the same thing with native plants. They seem to be difficult to get going, but once they are established they don't require much care.

[Gardenarian]

Hi there -

I planted right away, though you would probably have fewer weeds (than I!) if you let it sit without watering and let the sod underneath die off. I forgot to address your actual question about planting a different kind of grass - that can sure be a great alternative but one I have not pursued because
1) for best results I'd need to remove all the current sod (hard on the back!)
2) the only really drought tolerant grasses for my area are best started from "plugs" (small plants) and are quite expensive ($500-$1000 v $50 for wildflower seeds.)

Buffalo grass actually sounds great for Zone 6, though you would still need to water some during dry spells. You may be able to sow seeds, though I have heard that it is not a great germinator (which means you might do better with plugs.) As it does best when planted in Spring, you'd have to wait till probably May to plant. You will need to kill off the current grass (put clear plastic over it to cook it, or cover it with cardboard/newspaper & mulch ) or remove the grass before sowing. I would also plant some trees to keep the area cool and reduce water requirements for the lawn area.

In any case, now is a great time to stop watering your lawn, and either cover it with cardboard/newspaper or use plastic to cook it. Keep dumping compost on it and by spring you will have a great mostly weed-free place to plant.

[puglogic]

Hi Rogar, Denver Water has lots of resources for easy-on-the-water landscapes, and there are demonstration gardens all over Colorado to show off how nice it can look:

http://www.denverwater.org/Conservation/Xeriscape/XeriscapeResources/ (see "other gardens")

It doesn't have to be ugly:
851

[ToomuchStuff]

I am getting more interested in this, although with the heat, I am thinking I should be looking more at desert plants (like cactus as fencing) then Missouri plants.

[Rogar]

Thanks again. The Denver Water Board has some good references. I think I might need an injection of inspiration to come up with a good design and should probably take a camera around to take photos of a few places. It has helped to draw out a scale diagram of the yard to play with options. I sort of like the idea of doing a native grass landscape and letting it go wild but it would not go well with the neighborhood.

[Float On]

I am getting more interested in this, although with the heat, I am thinking I should be looking more at desert plants (like cactus as fencing) then Missouri plants.

I'm on a glade on the back side of a cliff in the Missouri Ozarks and I have lots of cactus and native glade plants and trees in my back yard (top of the glade). My back yard and front yard are two completely different beasts! It's rather strange.

I'd love for my front yard in front of the porch to look like that photo puglogic posted! The lilacs/rose of sharons/and other bushes I planted there have not done well. I'm hoping to pull it all out this fall and start again.

[ToomuchStuff]

You can have all the lilacs you want. Living with no a/c and two houses had them (the former next door neighbors are gone, thankfully), I like breathing too much. (allergies)

[Geila]

We'd like to get rid of our lawn but we have a large dog and feel bad about depriving him of his pleasure in it. Does anyone have pets with no lawn? I'm wondering if he'd just adjust to it and not miss it at all.

Gardenarian - your gardens sound beautiful! I love the idea of wildflowers under the fruit trees. Do you let most of your garden go dormant in winter, or do you supplement with evergreens? We have mostly decidous (sp?) plants and trees in the back yard and it seems so forlorn in the winter, especially with our mild winters, so I'm trying to put in some evergreen with citrus and camellias. But we have a small lot so space is pretty limited.

[nswef]

"so I'm trying to put in some evergreen with citrus and camellias" Watergoddess I can just imagine how grand it is to have citrus and camellias! Aren't citrus evergreen? I guess I assumed that because oranges are sold in the winter the trees stay green.

[awakenedsoul]

watergoddess,
My German shepherd does fine without a lawn. She lays under the shade of the pomegranate tree, or relaxes on the porch. I have several evergreens and six citrus. I love them! I don't know if you can grow camelias here. My mom had a bush growing up, and they were gorgeous!

nswef,
My citrus are evergreen. I'm in Southern California. They can't really handle it too cold or they freeze.

[Geila]

Yes, citrus is evergreen. In my front yard I have a beautiful lemon tree and two red camellias and they all bloom in the winter and it's gorgeous. The camellias are in the north side right up against the house and they do really well. I planted three in the back this year and that species is supposed to tolerate full sun but they are not doing well. My back yard is southern and western exposure and it's hot and dry even with a good-sized shade tree. They're in a corner under a crape myrtle tree and they get shade most of the day, but if I don't water them every couple of days they get all wilted. That's too much water, the front ones can go almost 2 weeks without water. :( I'm bummed about it because the back yard is great in the winter. The shade tree is decidious and we get wonderful sunshine on the patio and the camellias would be great. Oh well.

I've also put in an orange, a lime and a lemon in the back and those should do well, provided they can tolerate the heavy clay soil. I'm hoping to stay away from those boring evergreen shrubs that are called "foundation plantings". I really want space for flowering shrubs.

Awakenedsoul: pomegranate trees are beautiful! My neighbor has one and I covet it :). I'm in Sunset zone 15 and I find that placing plants in different parts of the yard can make a big difference. My eastern side yard is very protected and the plants hardly get any chill there so many of them don't go dormant (that otherwise would) and I can grow some lovely tropicals there also. Alas, that side yard is very narrow, but my hope is to make it into a private little "secret garden" type of place that I can access from my dining room. I'm thinking with all your trees you might be able to grow camellias, especially in your northern and eastern exposures. I would love to see pics of your garden!