Gardening during a drought can be a challenge, but gardening does not need to stop because of dry and hot conditions. A drought garden should focus on reducing water use, a method known as water wise gardening or xeriscaping. Gardener Scott discusses 12 considerations for reduced water needs for plants during a drought and offers a bonus tip that will save the most water. (Video #283)
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27 Comments
Thank you!
Here is Massachusetts we had an extremely hot dry June and now July has been nothing but rain. It's usually the other way around and it has caused a lot of stressed plants. Just yesterday and today will bring another 4-5 inches! Any tips for too much rain?
Xin chào anh.
No fertilizing even when a plant is fruiting? I added a “mulch” of homemade compost to all my beds. Do you think that’s enough nutrients? Also how do you know which plants to shade
Nice🌱🌱🌱🌱🌺🌺🌺🌺🤝🤝
Unfortunately the husband and the landlord won't let me get rid of the lawn, but I don't water it, if the grass dies, it dies.
It COMPLETELY blows my mind that it is ILLEGAL to collect rainwater. Lord what is this world coming to. I have 2 55 gallon drums that I collect inhere in middle GA. But VERY Smart of you to" Direct" the down spouts😉. Great video as Always Gardener Scott 💯💯. Everyone stay safe and God Bless you and your family from middle GA 🙏 Kendra
Thank you for these excellent tips. I spent the morning mulching the garden with what's available locally for free: wood chips, leaves saved from last year, and last year's larch tree needles. I'm trying to get it up to a depth where I won't need to water more than once a week. Pulled weeds also make good mulch if you remove any seedheads that might spread seed.
Good advise as usual. Some of us remain constrained by HOA's as to what our front yard can be and that it remain green if lawn. Interesting issue here in Sacramento, Ca. The City ,because of drought conditions, want to limit lawn watering to 2 days a week. That lawn goes brown. HOA will cite for a brown lawn. I called my City Councilmember and was told we have to comply with the HOA, they take precedence over City rules!! So I water my front lawn at 4am when no-one is around. I make sure I don't soak the sidewalk, nor flood the gutter, none of my water makes it to the sidewalk but I have a green lawn and a happy HOA 🙂
I am at 7300 ft in altitude in west central New Mexico – in the middle of a severe drought. I think the main thing I have learned is to water less often but deep when I water. This way the plants send their roots down rather than staying near the surface. Then they can handle the dry heat during the day better.
I'm using prostrated knotweed for my lawn in the backyard. It's been working out OK so far. I haven't been actively spreading it, just letting it spread itself. The kids don't mind walking on it with their bare feet so it acts just like a normal lawn would and the deer come and trim it down for me. Of course, coming from Arizona in the highlands no one really has a lawn so it works out nicely.
I haven't seen anyone else using knotweed for their lawn and so I'm not sure if it would work long term. If not I'll plant some wooly thyme or some other walkable low water lawn replacement. See the site stepables with a dot com for other ideas for walkable lawn alternatives, I really like that site. (They didn't give me the idea of knotweed though :-)).
Great video, Scott, thank you. Always appreciate learning a new word, like "xeriscape" I also just heard about "straw bale" gardening, which also cuts down on the need for water.
We drought proofed our garden in 2011 and the spring of 2012, and since we're in a low spot, it flourished anyway during that drought. We did the same in this last year, also not understanding that a drought was coming, but preparing the soil for it anyway. We can pour a bucket of rainwater into a garden bed, and it's designed for minimal evaporation and to funnel it into a low line for best concentration and deep soakage. It saves both time and water, and it collects even the heaviest rains efficiently, so there is little need for manual watering. we just have a few buckets under the roof, and when they fill up, we water the garden with them at the halfway point in the forecast to the next rainfall, further increasing watering efficiency~
I'm curious- when you amended the soul for your front yard, did you amend the entire sq footage, or only where you were actively planting? How deep did you do so? Thanks for the video! I'm on the NC coast and we seem to get a series of mini-droughts. We'll get 2 weeks of nothing at 90+ degrees, then a storm every day for week. It makes tracking soil moisture a nightmare for my vegetables!
my county gives cash credit for each sqft of lawn that you replace, unfortunately it is not advertised very well so a lot people don't know about it. I would've done it years before I did. I got rid of my lawns back in 2012 during a drought and replaced with xeriscaping and it cost me very little with the credit I was given for doing it.
@gardener scott, what is that red bush in your front yard? Its gorgeous!
Thanks for the tips
Here are a few of ours.
We use all drip throughout our yard. We removed our back yard lawn and planted a low water Japanese garden.
We use gray water from the rinse cycle of our washing machine to add to our watering system.
We use a biodegradable detergent that is safe for plants even edibles.We get up to 15 gallons with each load. This system got us through the last drought with ease.
We live in Fair Oaks close to Sacramento, plant zone 9b.
Our temperature today was 111.
We also water every three days as regulated, but we water in two sessions. The first one starts at midnight and runs for 15 minutes. The second cycles at 4:00 A.M. A master gardener shared the double watering tip.
It works!
Even during this hot, dry weather and drought our pollinator garden looks great.
Cheers!
NM GETS LESS THAN HALF THAT. THIS YEAR (JULY) APPROX. 3 INCHES SO FAR, AND AZ EVEN LESS!
Great timely information. Stay safe in the heat wave, everyone!
We just got a mandatory 20% water reduction notice from our city. The hard part for me is that we have already been conserving water.
I need all the tips I can get. Thank you.
Why would it be illegal to collect rain water from your own roof ?
Build your raised beds on four legs raise them three feet above the ground less bending and better use of land shade plants can be planted under them like strawberries.line the inside of box with weed black plastic a low for drainage.to plants underneath.less bending more production.check out Kentucky's hydroplantaions no soil but can be grown everywhere.this wastes water the raised three foot beds keep more water in dirt doesn't sink down into the earth's soil.
Saved my whole green house with a 10 dollar blue painters drop cloth over it kePT it 30 degrees cooler.
Wonderful tips! Thank you. Last year we had hardly any rain in the high country of Arizona.
That chicken put an exclamation point at the end of “enjoy gardening”! 😃 17:18
Awesome video. Thank you. Do you have a video on plants that have similar water needs?
Thank you from Wales. Great video! Why was it illegal to collect rainwater in colorado?