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A Pacific Northwest Approach to
Xeriscaping
Kate Easton
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Achieving Low
Maintenance Gardens
Xeriscape gardens are the result of
Planning
Design choices
Plant choices
Maintenance practices
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Xeriscape Gardens
Plan for future needs Young children quickly grow and abandon outdoor past-times
Vegetable gardens may need to be downsized as family gets smaller
Plan to modify spaces to other uses as needs change
Pay now, enjoy sooner Purchase larger sized plants
Cover a good portion of soil with easy care materials (hardscape,
groundcovers, wild flowers, grasses)
Hire expertise when needed (masons, concrete, carpenter, etc.)
Create sustainable landscapes and gardens Ideally, a closed system that produces and uses all soil nutrients and
organic supplements
Example: Dairy cows supply manure for the garden for those with room
Example: Using composted green waste on lawns, beds, pots is
achievable even for apartment dwellers
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Design Principles Right plant, right place (climate, water, soil, sunlight
requirements) Use a combination of native and non-native plants with similar
cultural requirements
Suit the existing environmental conditions
Hedge plants that fit the space to avoid pruning
No tall trees under utility lines to avoid pruning
Reduce need to prune, water, fertilize
Right plant placement allows for natural future
growth and eliminates pruning
Use slow growing perennials, shrubs, trees that need
little pruning and don’t outgrow space
Eliminate or reduce lawn area when your needs
assessment allows Largest user of water, fertilizer & maintenance time
Incorporate narrow strips into planted beds or paths
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Design Principles
Use solid surface materials and make paths wide
enough If using gravel, make it at least 3” deep, preferably 4-6” to
eliminate weeding
Width depends on use: 6-8’ for a main path, 4-5’ for secondary
Border paths with wide sunny and shady planting areas
Use gravel in service areas to reduce or eliminate
maintenance chores in that area
Make your beds BIG, SIMPLE, FULL If you have weeds, your bed doesn’t have enough plants in it
Use a tight matrix of border shrubs, perennials, bulbs and
grasses that provide a succession of bloom and color
Apportion plant types for even coverage 1/3 evergreen, half to 1/3 native, remainder color, long interest
Choose plants that are drought tolerant, adaptable and or have a
long season of good looks
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Plant Selection
Use hydro-zones to decrease watering need Closest to house / water source can have higher water
requirements
Farthest away little to no water
In-between less water needed
Avoid trees in lawn Roots compete with grass for water, air, nutrients
If must have, clear area between trunk and drip line of grass.
Over time, add plants around the tree (out side the drip line) to make a shrub & groundcover bed anchored with a tree Most woodland plants can compete well with tree roots
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Plant Selection
Select plants that need minimal care, are disease and pest resistant, and have a long season of interest
Select healthy specimens at the nursery Avoid plants with these characteristics or let
the plants grow as they will ‘hard to establish’ ‘susceptible to disease/pest’ ‘needs frequent division’ ‘short lived’ ‘needs staking’
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Some Xeriscape Plant Choices for NW
Acer (Ginnala, Amur, Vine)
Douglas Fir
Western Red Cedar
Mountain & Western Hemlock
Salal
Ribes
Snowberry
Huckleberry
Elderberry
Rudbeckia
Carex
Echinacea
Pennisetum
Miscanthus
Most Viburnums
Heaths & Heathers
Euonymous
Heuchera
Barberries
Natives Non-Natives
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Maintenance Approach
Time well spent
When do you have time for maintenance and how much of it?
Where do you spend most of your maintenance time now and how
could that time be better spent?
Prioritize by which areas need the most ongoing maintenance
Remove or reduce the size of each one in priority order
Mixed annual & perennial border into shrub and easy care perennial border
What maintenance tasks are chores or distasteful to
you?
Eliminate the distasteful tasks by changing the plants in the landscape
Replace a fast-growing hedge with a fence
Add easy to care for shrubs, herbs, bulbs, ornamental grasses
Replace fussy plants with drought tolerant ones
Transform the lawn into wildflower meadow or mixed shrub bed or
evergreen groundcover
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Maintenance Guidelines Eliminate or reduce repetitive tasks
Mowing, trimming, edging, watering, feeding, weeding
Create a maintenance schedule Weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual tasks
Mowing, plant monitoring, weeding, fertilizing, deadheading, mulching, pruning, clean-up, etc.
Eliminate tasks or let plants do their thing Roses will dead head themselves (pick up petals when weeding)
Let lawns get a little taller before mowing and mow at a higher height
Prune only when necessary for plant health (avoid bonzai and compulsive shaping)
Self-mulching gardens
Allow plants to die or go dormant with diginity – let the leaves lie where they may
Chop up large foliage with a hoe, shovel, cultivator in spring
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Maintenance Guidelines
Plant in the fall as rains are starting to eliminate need for watering new plants
Don’t water – select drought tolerant plants Use drip systems or soaker lines on trees and shrubs for first 2
years Perennial, vines, groundcovers may need supplemental water the
first season Once established, leave ’em alone
WEED regularly until plants have filled in Pull all the root out Use a flame weeder or vinegar-concentrate to control weeds
MULCH! (4-6” applied annually) Reduces weeds Reduces need for water Balance soil temperature
Soil under 3” of mulch is 10 degrees cooler in direct sun Soil under 4” of mulch is 20 degrees cooler in direct sun
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Maintenance Guidelines
Make good dirt and kick the feed habit (fertilizer) Fertilizer encourages rapid growth which may result in
added pruning
Properly prepare the soil for micro-organism diversity Feed the soil compost instead of fertilizer Add minerals annually Alfalfa pellets in spring provides fresh nitrogen for
good initial leaf growth Use compost tea as foliar spray or soil soak
Soak is equivalent to 6” of compost (Dr. Elaine Ingham, Oregon State University)
If you must use fertilizers, do it judiciously and sparingly
Practice Integrated Pest Management