The need to save water in dry climate gardens, involves reducing the size of the lawn. This is best achieved by changing the way we approach garden design.
Water shortages in dry climates are forcing home gardeners and professional landscapers to reduce the area of the garden taken up by the lawn. The trouble is that nothing that can replace a lawn in the field in which a lawn works. Young children cannot play as safely on hard paving, you can’t really play soccer on wooden decking, and it’s hardly practical to lie down on a bed of ground cover plants, as one would on grass.
The gardener in a dry climate where water is at a premium, may look jealously at garden books from wetter climates, and dream of growing acres of lawn. In fact, reducing the amount of lawn invariably leads to better design solutions.
Leafing through a garden design book the other day, I was struck by a curious fact. The book is one of many by John Brookes, the renowned British designer. In virtually every case study presented, the size of the lawn is greatly reduced in comparison to the standard suburban garden most of us would recognize. As there is no indication in the book that Mr. Brookes is relating to water conserving gardening, it is safe to assume that design is his paramount issue of concern.
During drought years, it is more logical to think that the lawn and flowers have to be watered, while the trees and shrubs, can get by without. In fact, the reverse is true.
In Mediterranean and other dry or semi arid regions, regular irrigation is an integral part of having a garden. Usually, the amount of water available to the home garden is severely restricted, but within known limits, the garden plants can nonetheless be grown satisfactorily.
In order to manage water in the garden both responsibly and effectively, its necessary to understand that different groups of plants, not only require different quantities of water, but also need the water at different times.
If you want to get the most from your bedding plants, look beyond the question of color, into the form, shape and texture of the plants, and how they fit into the overall garden composition.
Bedding plants, whether annual or perennial, are generally planted to supply color to the garden. This role is most effective when the bedding plants are chosen as part of a specific color scheme, as opposed to being “peppered? around the garden without any clear design purpose. Like all plants however, they also have shape, form and texture. When these properties are taken into account and acted upon, the bedding plants become, as they properly should, an integral and organic part of the overall garden composition.
