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Plants

GARDENING : Thirst Things First: A Landscaping Dry Run

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SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

When Penny Hlavac bought a house in Anaheim, she took one look at the sandy soil in her garden and realized she was facing high water bills. The year was 1981, well before water shortages and droughts had entered the average gardener’s consciousness, but she knew that sandy soil drains quickly and landscapes in such soil require large amounts of water.

Over time, she converted her lawn and landscape to a water-thrifty garden featuring unthirsty perennial plants and shrubs, like Ceanothus (wild lilac), Eriogonum (wild buckwheat), Leonotus leonurus (Lion’s Tail) and cistus (rockrose). Her water bills steadily declined as the drought-tolerant plantings matured.

“My husband insisted that we keep a little lawn in the back so visiting children could have a place to play,” she recalled, “but we removed the front lawn.”

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A summer of soaring temperatures and high water bills may urge other gardeners to evaluate their current landscapes.

Drought-tolerant native plants provide for water conservation and invite birds, butterflies, and beneficial insects into home gardens.

They are also low-maintenance. “I’m really a very lazy gardener,” Hlavac said. “There’s not lots to do in my garden. I do very little fertilizing and use no pesticides at all. If a plant is fussy and just doesn’t make it in my garden, I try something new.”

Also, gardeners don’t need to worry about a landscape that only blooms in the spring, then turns dry, dull, and dusty-looking for the rest of the year. With a little planning, it’s possible to create a California native plant garden that offers color, from flowers, seed pods or berries, throughout the year.

Even if you don’t want to replace your entire garden, you should consider changing plants that are struggling because of inadequate water. Plants in dry areas should be replaced with those that thrive with little irrigation.

“The first step in conserving garden water is to reduce the amount of water applied to shady areas,” says Jeff Bohn, co-owner with Mike Evans of Tree of Life Wholesale Nursery in San Juan Capistrano. “The next step is to cut back the water from sunny locations and remove any plants that are struggling to survive. These can be replaced with native plants or low water-use plants that originate from hot, dry climates like ours.”

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Formerly a landscape contractor, Bohn has been studying and growing California native plants and edible plants since 1972. He and Evans established Tree of Life Nursery in 1978, now the largest supplier of California native plants in the state.

If you like the idea of incorporating unthirsty plants into your garden, you can also select from a wide palette of drought-tolerant plants that originate from other countries with similar climates, like the Mediterranean regions or South Africa.

Susan Frommer who, with Keith Hayworth, is co-owner of Dry Plants for Dry Places, a wholesale nursery in Menifee Valley, specializes in propagating and selling these water-thrifty plants.

“I first got interested in these plants 25 years ago, before ‘drought-tolerant’ landscapes were trendy, because I was looking for unusual plants,” Frommer said. “In 1989, we bought this property and established the display garden, propagation area and nursery. I embarked on the mission of educating people about creating gardens with low-water use plants, but the response was underwhelming.”

To generate more awareness and public enthusiasm, Frommer began teaching landscape classes at UC Riverside Extension and gave seminars sponsored by several water districts. She also exhibits annually at the Green Scene at the Fullerton Arboretum and Crystal Court Flower Show in Costa Mesa.

“The colors, textures and foliage of these types of plants create very showy landscapes that, while most spectacular in spring, also offer changing beauty every season,” she said. “These are active gardens, not still tableaux, that entice birds, butterflies and other wild creatures.”

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Some of her favorites include various types of salvia, yarrow, toyon, rosemary and rockrose as either ground covers or shrubs.

Frommer appreciates the time-saving benefits of water-thrifty gardens.

“These really are low-maintenance gardens,” Frommer said. “The maintenance requirements can’t be high because I’m also running a nursery full time, teaching and designing landscapes.”

Twice a year, she prunes, deadheads and shapes the quarter-acre display and test garden. She simplifies watering the entire one-acre garden, which also includes the mother plants, by using drip irrigation.

For a California native garden, Bohn recommends watering once or at most twice a month during the hot summer months, and not at all the rest of the year.

Bohn reassures gardeners that native plants are not especially flammable. “Many native plants growing in the wild are flammable because they have such low moisture content,” he said. “When these same plants are irrigated, like in a home landscape, they retain enough water in the leaves that they won’t ignite.”

However, use caution if you live in a fire-prone area. Choose plants without a high oil content and that are especially moisture-retentive. Check with your local nursery for specific plant recommendations.

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The Orange County chapter of the California Native Plant Society will meet at 7 p.m., Thursday at the Irvine Ranch Water District headquarters, 15600 Sand Canyon Ave., Irvine. The society’s Orange County chapter will hold its annual plant sale and native plant festival at the UCI Arboretum, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Sept. 30., UCI North Campus section, Irvine. For more information, call (714) 496-9689.

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