New Mexico Privet: A good tall shrub for a windbreak and wildlife

Posted on August 27, 2015 by admin

It’s been awhile since I posted. Part of the reason for this long silence has been my

The more dense foliage in the foreground is my New Mexico Privet which stands about 15′ tall. The tree in the background is some species of cottonwood.

search for plants I really want to put in my garden that meet my criteria. My criteria are low water requirement, tolerant of alkaline soils, winter hardy to zone 5, and low maintenance. Not all the plants I want will be low maintenance but realistically I can’t manage three acres of high maintenance plants so most of what I plant will have to be low maintenance. One plant I’ve been observing that I already have in my garden is Foresteira neomexicana and I’ve decided I want more of this large shrub or small tree.

I just got back from a trip to Albuquerque, NM where I visited the Albuquerque Biopark botanical garden. There I saw Foresteira neomexicana or New Mexico privet. This is the first time I’ve seen the berries on this plant. My own New Mexico privet does not have berries but blooms every spring. Since I only have one that is mature enough to bloom. The other New Mexico privets I’ve planted more recently and they are less mature and I have yet to see them bloom. In researching this plant on the Internet I find that you need more than one blooming because male and female flowers are on different plants. This means I’ll have to wait until my smaller New Mexico Privets mature

Berries on the New Mexico Privet I saw at the Albuquerque Biopark botanical garden.

enough to bloom to see if mine will produce berries.

Information I found on the Internet says you can prune New Mexico Privet to be a small tree and that this is great for urban and suburban landscapes where power lines are a problem since it only reaches a mature height of about 15′; well under the standard power line height. For my property I have a few power line issues but mostly I’m interested is screening, shade, low water consumption, low maintenance, and wildlife friendly. New Mexico trims into a hedge or remove lower branches to create a small tree. Either of these forms will require regular pruning to maintain. I’m more interested in just letting it grow to be the shrub it would be in the wild. If I let them reach their full size and don’t prune them into trees I could plant them 5′ to 8′ apart to get a good sound barrier or windbreak and for me this would be useful. Additionally having more of these plants may

One of the many New Mexico Privet I’ve raised from seed that have not yet matured enough to bloom.

ensure I have some that produce berries that attract birds and I wouldn’t mind doing some bird watching on my own property.

An even more appealing fact I found on the Internet is that Foresteira neomexicana is native to arid habitats in New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, California, Nevada, Utah, Texas, and Oklahoma. Since I live in Nevada and it is very desert around me I’m looking for plants like this one. Although I don’t get the 9″ to 24″ of annual precipitation that is characteristic of where this plant grows wild, I do have the ability to water it and I live where the water table is high. Supplemental watering and a high water can make up for the fact my average annual precipitation is only 4″. This past winter was extremely dry here in Nevada, where we are in our fourth year of drought and still my mature New Mexico Privet looks good. I didn’t even water it over the winter but I cannot say the same for my roses that were watered over the winter.

So now, I’m starting more New Mexico Privet from seed to join the others I’ve already planted. To do this I must cold stratify seed for 30 days at a temperature around 40°F. Then I will plant the stratified in moist potting soil in a green house to get it to germinate.

Once germinated, I’ll raise them up from greenhouse seedling to potted plants in a lath

New Mexico Privet at Albuquerque Biopark

This is a picture of the New Mexico Privet I saw with all the berries at the Albuquerque Biopark.

house and finally transplant them outside in the ground.

Puncture Vine: How to reduce its presence over the long term

Posted on June 21, 2015 by admin

A friend recently asked for some quick way to rid her yard of goat heads otherwise

Pictured is a shattered seed head of puncture vine. Not the sharp thorns and the shape of each seed is why some people refer to it as “goatheads”.

known as puncture vine (Tribulus terrestis). I cannot blame this friend for wanting a quick solution because this weed with its sharp seeds can make walking barefoot in any garden a miserable experience. Putting shoes on before going outdoors may protect your feet while in the garden. If you do not take those same shoes off before coming inside you could find walking indoors with bare feet also a painful experience. Alas, I cannot offer this friend a quick lasting fix because unless you get rid of the seed bank in the soil, anything you do is only short term. Instead, I have a solution that if consistently applied over several seasons will give you long term relief from goat heads.

Controlling this weed requires a three-pronged approach. You must deplete the seed bank in the soil and you must diligently remove all puncture vines as they appear before

Puncture vine forms a mat on the ground that becomes quite prickly one seeds set.

they set seed. As you get an area cleared of this noxious weed, desirable plants or landscape structures need to be placed because bare ground is just an invitation for any weed to sprout where you do not want it.

The painful nature of the seed produced by puncture vine also makes it an easier weed to control by depleting the seed bank in the soil. To deplete the soil in your yard of puncture vine seeds put containers at all the doors to you house and a stable stool next to the contain so people can take their shoes off and pull out all the goat heads. You can also speed up the process by putting on your shoes and walking all over your garden. Take regular breaks to take your shoes off and pick out all the seeds on your soles. Do this all year regardless of the season because these seeds are present all year. If you are persistent in removing seeds from your yard, it will only take a couple of seasons.

The other part of getting rid of this weed is to hoe out every small puncture vine you see before it can produce seed. This should start as early as the weather warms up enough to work in the garden since seeds start sprouting in late spring. Once flowers

Puncture vine flowers are yellow five petaled flowers. It’s best hoe puncture vine out before these yellow flowers appear because soon after flowers appear they are followed by a five segmented head of seed that has two sharp thorns on each segment.

appear, seed will soon follow and then you have more seeds you will have to collect in your missions to remove the seeds.

Spraying with herbicides, organic or chemical, will not offer any long term solution for getting rid of puncture vine because they do not kill the seeds which remain viable for many years. There are puncture vine seed eating weevils imported from Europe and Asia but they expensive and will not overwinter in climates with cold winters. Herbicide or weevils alone will not control puncture vine. Combining the release of seed eating weevils with properly timed herbicide applications may work just like the solution I propose. You will still have to apply the chemicals and weevils over several growing season and this could be expensive. Additionally chemicals for the breakdown of the herbicide will remain in the environment.

To achieve long-term control of puncture vine, do not leave bare ground in your yard.

Pictured is a puncture vine seed head before it shatters and disperses to wherever some poor unsuspecting creature gets poked by it and transported to its eventual resting spot. Once in its resting spot it waits for ideal condition to germinate and a new vine sprouts.

Avoid reintroducing puncture vine by not parking your car in puncture vine infested lots. Also, do not walk across vacant lots infested with puncture vine.

Apache Plume is Just Drought Tolerant Native Shrub to Replace My Roses

Posted on May 26, 2015 by admin

I’ve been looking at native shrubs to replace some of the roses and other not so

Apache Plume could be covered with feathery, pink seed heads resembling a Native America headdress. This picture was taken in late May. This plant will continue to have a few white flowers opening all summer and fading to feathering pink seed heads.

By summer Apache Plume could be covered with feathery, pink seed heads resembling a Native America headdress. This picture was taken in late May. This plant will continue to have a few white flowers opening all summer and fading to feathering pink seed heads.

drought tolerant plants in a portion of my garden that is exposed to drying winds and intense afternoon sun and heat. Even in the cold winter when evaporation is less I still had a hard time keeping the soil moist around roses I had planted on that side of my house. It didn’t help that we had no snow and almost no winter rain this year. The wind still blew but the storms were dry. One plant I’ve already started planting on that west face of my house is Apache Plume (Fallugia paradoxa).

Apache Plume is found naturally growing in piñon/juniper woodlands from Texas to California. In Texas, southern New Mexico, Southern Arizona, and California, Apache Plume is evergreen. Everywhere else in its native range, which can go as far north as Nevada, Utah, and Colorado, it is deciduous. In the higher elevations of the Mojave Desert where there are Joshua Trees, you will also find Apache Plume.

In the wild Apache Plume grows naturally in gravelly and well-drained soils but under cultivation, it will grow in most any soil. My soil is sandy and droughty so it should be happy on the west side of my house. With a little supplemental water, it should be full and beautiful as long as I don’t overwater it.

Apache Plume reaches a height of 4 to 6 feet and spreads as wide as it is high.

Pictured here is a hedge of Apache Plume. Notice how, even though most of the plant is covered with feathery pink seed heads, there are still a few white flower.

White, 1″ diameter flowers with five petals resembling single roses start to appear in spring. New flowers appear continually throughout the entire growing season and as they fade they are replace with pink feathery seed heads; hence the name Apache Plume. By late summer this shrub, covered with fluffy pink seed heads looks like a cloud of pink.

I’m hoping to create clouds of pink intersperse with other plants that I have not yet selected. I don’t want a monoculture of any plant. Even Apache Plume.

Small Apache Plume Plant Inside its Cage

Here is a better picture showing the plant inside the cage.

Cage to Protect My Apache Plume from Deer

Here is one of the Apache Plumes that I planted on the west face of my house. I put a cage around it while it is still small and tender to protect it from the occasional deer that wander into my garden. Once the plant is large enough a little graze by herbivores will not hurt it.

Planting a Vegetable Garden and Trying to Protect it From Rabbits

Posted on May 22, 2015 by admin

I realize it has been awhile since I have posted. In that time, I have been busy working on my vegetable garden. It is more than just simply digging up the soil and plunking seeds in the ground. My growing season is too short to allow many of my summer vegetable to ripen before the first killing frost in the fall. Additionally I had to devise a strategy for protecting my plants from the rabbits that have never been in my yard before and consider what to do to reduce the need for irrigating my vegetable garden.

To solve the short growing season problem I always start my seeds germinating about three to four weeks ahead of the last killing spring frost. I find a warm spot in my house to place my seedling trays. A temperature of around 68°F is ideal. Soon after the coteledons have popped out of the ground, I move them into the greenhouse where they will get more natural light. If I don’t move them soon enough the stems become etiolated or over elongated and weak.

In my area, we can usually figure on a very dry growing season. Almost all of our 4″ average annual precipitation falls in the winter in the form of snow. This winter we had no snow and only a small amount of rain. I spent some time checking my soil just to see how dry and noticed that where there was leaves and debris on the ground there was a little bit of moisture in the underlying soil. I’ve decided instead of tilling my garden soil, I will simply dig only enough soil around each plant I transplant and then push leaves and other plant debris back around the transplant. Each plant will still receive water from an emitter in my drip system. I’m hoping this way to conserve water and still keep my vegetable garden from being stressed for water. There is the real danger in my area for domestic wells to dry up in this drought since the agricultural land around it will receive no irrigation after the end of June. It could be a very long hot dry summer and crops will likely die.

Another consequence of this drought is that wildlife is concentrating around our homes and in town. On my property, I have rabbits I’ve never seen before and more deer than usual. I decided I needed a way to protect my plants so I am constructing cages to put around each plant. A larger enclosure might not be as effective in protecting plants since rabbits can burrow. I’m hoping that individual cages around each plant will reduce the problem. Maybe they will instead find my neighbors vegetable garden easier to devour.

These pepper starts have a cage around them because my vegetable garden is infested with rabbits.

Here are some snap bean starts that I have just transplanted to my vegetable garden.

I’ve constructed these little cages to put around my vegetable plants in order to protect them from the rabbits

Again My Fruit Trees are Blooming too Soon

Posted on April 2, 2015 by admin

Officially, spring arrived March 20 but here in northern Nevada we can still get some

This apricot blossom is lovely now but a heavy freeze is forecast for tonight and will likely freeze this blossom.

wintry weather. So far, it has stayed spring like since spring started. It even reached 79 degrees yesterday here in Fallon.

During yesterday’s inspection of my garden, I especially wanted to see how the fruit tree blossoms were doing. I’d noticed they had been opening for the last couple of weeks. I consider this to be too early but not uncommon in my high desert climate. We almost never get fruit. If we are lucky, we might get a few apples. So far based on my inspection we haven’t lost any fruit yet. Notice I say yet. We can still get a hard frost between now and the middle of May on the average. Also, notice I say average. That means we could get a killing frost after mid May as well.

So far, the apricots and peaches are in full bloom with the apples blossoms barely starting to open. I suspect I will lose the apricots and peaches totally and about a third to half of the potential apple crop with the blooms opening this early. So much for fruit production this year from these trees since it is highly probably they will freeze before fruit can set and mature. Instead, they are landscape trees that add some nice greenery during the growing season. In fall, they usually have nice color as well.

Why are my fruit trees blooming too soon? What can I do about it? The answer to the first

These apple blooms are almost open. Unfortunately they may never fully open because a heavy freeze is predicted for the next morning. They will like freeze and fall of the plant.

is that spring temperatures arrived before March 20 warming the soil up. Since our ground has no snow or other insulation to slow the warming of the soil sap starts flowing in the vascular tissue of the trees and shrub early. An additional reason in my given situation for this early bloom is I’m located in a relative low spot where cold air sinks every night. Without breezes to stir up the air allowing cold settle in and freeze the newly forming plant tissues in the floral buds. If fruit has already set, it too will freeze.

There are a couple of practices such as turning sprinklers on in the very early morning before temperatures dip below freezing or setting out smudge pots can protect blossoms and newly forming fruit but they are only effective to a couple of degrees below freezing for a very brief time. Even setting up a very large fan to keep air circulating could help. All of the measures have their limited effectiveness. That is they are only good to a couple of degrees below freezing for a very brief time. A little more effective would be to place a thick layer of mulch over the soil near the trees in the fall. This mulch helps to both hold moisture in the soil and to moderate temperature swing between freezing and thawing throughout the dormant period. Mulch doesn’t need to go right up to the trunk of the trees and shrubs to have it effect on soil moisture and temperature moderation. In fact, it is best not to put mulch right up to the trunk because it can harbor some pests that like to enter a plant from it trunk. The reason it can still effectively moderate the temperature around the roots is that tree and shrub roots extend quite some distance from the base of the tree and the actually growing points of the roots are at the tips which are located at the furthest distance from the trunk. These tips are also, where the greatest water absorption into the root system occurs. You can expect the roots to extend as far as the perimeter of the canopy sometimes referred to as the “drip line”.

One more way to increase the chance of producing fruit in the high deserts of the American West is to choose fruit tree varieties that are later bearing. This usually means it takes more degrees of heat to initiate blossoms. That has the potential to delay blooming as much as a couple of weeks and that reduces but doesn’t not eliminate the likelihood that blooms will freeze. Depending on where you live, greatly increase your chances of get a nice crop of fruit.

Back to Mulch. Mulch has an added benefit. If applied heavy enough it will keep spring weeds down.

Preparing my Garden for the Growing Season Ahead

Posted on March 24, 2015 by admin

My garden has many ornamental grasses that I’ve planted over the years. Most of these grasses are species native to the western United States. They have done quite well in my garden and added interest in the heat of the summer when many flowers that bloom don’t last long in the hot dry heat typical of the desert I live in. One of my favorites is Giant Sacaton (Sporobolus wrightii).

Giant Sacaton is native to the American Southwest. It is usually found growing in heavy

Giant Sacaton (Sporobolus wrightii) during the growing season

soils in the relatively low lying areas or periodic wetlands. These soils are usually quite alkaline or saline because they are areas where water collects and evaporative leaving behind salts. Because my garden is a mixture of clay and sand with a pH of about 8.0 and high in salts left behind by the now dried up inland sea, Giant Sacaton does quite well in my garden. It is my substitute for Pampas Grass. In some regions of the United States, Pampas Grass is a noxious weed.

Just like Pampas Grass, Giant Sacaton gets quite tall and large over a growing season. Its growth habit is that of a clumping grass that can grow to a height of 6′-8′ and a diameter of several feet at its base. The inflorescence differs from Pampas Grass in that it is more open and the florets are much smaller.

I use my Giant Sacaton as a screen from a major highway that borders my property. I’m quite pleased with its appearance. I think I will keep it.

Maintenance

Ornamental grasses require very little maintenance since you don’t want to mow or you

I’m starting to clip my ornamental grasses. Here I’ve clipped one of my Giant Sacatons (Sporobolus wrightii)

lose the most ornamental part of the grass which is the inflorescence. If you plant the grasses that are adapted or native to your climate, then very little water should be required to keep them nice looking.

Still, each late winter or early spring I must clip my ornamental grasses back so that new growth can be fully displayed and to extend the life of my grasses. I clip Giant Sacaton back to about 6″ to 8″ height. I clip my other grasses back to a height of 2″-3″ depending on the mature size of each species.

I don’t clip my grasses until late winter or early spring since they have an ornamental value through the winter and some beneficial insects such as lady beetles over winter among the blades.

When I clip my grasses, I’ve started just laying the clippings around the base to help hold moisture in the soil and keep weeds down. I’m also hoping to build up some organic matter in my soil has very little organic matter naturally.

Getting Started With My Garden Renovation Project

Posted on March 21, 2015 by admin

Assessing What Renovating Needs to Be Done

As spring arrives, the weather has warmed up enough that it is comfortable enough to walk and crawl around in my garden. I crawl around to check the drippers and prepare to water what is worth saving in my garden. All winter I did some spot watering but not with my drip system. I had to do this spot watering to keep plants dying due to lack of soil moisture. In a good year, I don’t water at all but this past winter and the winter before have been exceptionally dry.

I only watered plants that were not native and that I wanted to save. Most of those were my roses. The desert plants I didn’t worry about because they are adapted to low water conditions and can survive an occasion dry winter if they have received water otherwise at other times such as when I watered them during the summer through the drip system.

I don’t use the drip system during the winter because we do get freezing temperature that can freeze the water in the drip system and damage; not to mention render it plugged up with ice when you try to use it a second time after it has frozen solid.

It is this dry winter and the realization that it might be less burdensome if my non-desert adapted plants were fewer and closer to the house.

Weeds! Weeds! Everywhere!

This is one of three species of winter annual weeds that is dominating my garden right now. It is an annual mustard.

As I walk my garden, I notice the winter annual weeds have thrived despite the very dry conditions. My first garden task is going to have to be clearing these weeds out before they can go to seed. If I don’t get them out they will mature and dry to become a serious fire hazard. Additionally, if can get them out before they go to seed they won’t contribute to the already infinite seed bank that has built up in the soil from previous years of neglect.

As I focus on my garden at ground level inspecting the drip system I can’t help but notice all the weeds. This one is Cheatgrass and it is doing quite well despite a very dry winter.

Starting a Garden Diary

Posted on March 18, 2015 by admin

Purpose of this Blog

For now, I’m going to turn this website into a diary of my gardening in the desert. In doing so, I might be able to become more dedicated to both my garden and my writing. Additionally I’ll be able to get in a little photography. All three are my passions but in the past, it seems I neglected one or more them at the expense of paying attention to another.

This past year I neglected my garden but I took some wonderful pictures on my various trips. Now my garden looks sad.

A Little Bit about my Garden

My approximately two acre garden is part of an 18 acre farm located in the Nevada desert.

This picture is deceiving. The foreground is an irrigated alfalfa field. My garden has desert soil and a desert climate that required lots of supplemental water unless I plant desert adapted plants.

From the picture one may be deceived into believing it isn’t located in desert but that greenery you see is an alfalfa field that must be irrigated every couple of weeks to keep it green and producing hay throughout the growing season. Our average annual precipitation is only 4″. This past year I doubt we had 2″. We are in a prolonged drought that started about four years ago.

My garden’s soils are of about pH 7.0 to 8.0 and very low in organic matter. In some patches of my garden, the soil has a white crust of salt at the surface. At one time in ancient history my garden and the surrounding community were at the bottom of a very large inland sea.

I’m not entitled to water my garden with the superior quality irrigation water from the Newland’s Irrigation Project which delivers surface waters from the Carson River and Truckee River combined. Instead, I must use well water, which is higher in salt content. Fortunately, it is of acceptable quality with a pH of only 7.6.

Right now, my garden is a disheveled, eclectic mix of desert adapted native plants and non-native plants you might find at garden center. It’s also full of weeds. Particularly some escaped noxious weeds from the alfalfa field that I don’t have total management control of.

I’m working on a plan to renovate my garden to something that is more manageable and more water thrifty.

It May be Spring on the Calendar but Still Winter in the Garden

Posted on March 2, 2015 by admin

If you live in the higher desert regions of the western United States, spring weather

Seed catalogs have been arriving since December but a little bit of spring weather can temp gardeners in the desert climates of the Intermountain West to plant vegetable gardens too soon

does not dependably arrive on March 20. These high desert regions are sometimes referred to as the Intermountain West. Where I live in northern Nevada, it is best to wait until at least mid-May to put tender vegetables out in the garden. By then it is usually too late to plant cool season vegetables because they tend to bolt by the time our hot dry summer arrives. Waiting this long to plant a vegetable garden can limit the yield in your garden if you have an early frost in the fall. There are a couple of solutions to this problem. One is to use season extenders and the other is to select shorter season varieties.

March is not too early to order seed for gardens in the Intermountain West but instead of planting these seeds directly outside you may want to plant them indoors for later transplanting outdoors. Tomatoes, eggplants and peppers do better transplanted as seedlings rather than seeded directly into garden soil and cool season vegetable may need to be grown entirely under protective cover. However, it is still too early to start planting a vegetable garden in much of the Intermountain West.

Pictured are the materials needed to start seed indoors. Peppers, eggplant, and tomatoes do better when transplanted into the garden as seedling rather than direct seeded.

These high desert regions tend to go from cold to hot in only a matter of days making the raising of cool season vegetable without use of hoop houses and row covers

Cool season vegetables can be raised under protective row covers like the one pictured here.

impossible. If you have a hoop house or use rowcovers, cool season vegetables can be planted in March and sometimes earlier.

Warm season vegetables seem to produce better in the hot dry climate of the Intermountain West. Though summers in these high dry deserts can be ideal for raising warm season vegetables such as tomatoes, peppers, squash, cucumbers, eggplant, okra, and melons, they still may need some early protection or the need to select varieties that mature sooner.

Even though warm season vegetables do well here, disappointing production can occur will longer season varieties. Try to select tomato and pepper varieties that are supposed to produce fruit in 75 days or less (preferably less). For melons, 100 days or less should produce melons before the first frost in the fall. However, don’t expect melons before August.

Besides the length of growing required to produce an edible vegetable, it’s also a good idea to select varieties with disease resistance. Most regions of the Intermountain West still have to be concerned about curly top virus, Fusarium wilt, and Verticillium wilt. All vegetables are susceptible to these diseases; although some varieties are less susceptible than others. Many tomato and pepper varieties on the market now have resistances to these diseases. Most heirloom varieties however do not have resistance to these diseases and require special attention to cultural practices such weeding and crop rotation reduce the chance plants will falling victim to these diseases.

It’s a good idea to know how large of a garden you want before you order seeds. Some vegetables take a lot of space. Melons and cucumbers tend to spread and take up a lot of space. Check the catalogs, some varieties of cucumbers don’t spread as much. You can also train cucumbers up a trellis.

Small gardens may be too small for sweet corn unless you only want to raise sweet corn. In order to fill ears, sweet corn requires a minimum of four rows and must have exposure to the wind for pollination. Otherwise, mature ears of corn will not fill and the mature kernels will be sparse.

If you plan on planting peas or beans pay close attention to the description. Some varieties still require structures to climb on. There are many varieties now called bush types that don’t require these structures and are much easier to grow. If the peas or beans are not bush types then they much be trained up a trellis.

Gardens in Dry Regions May Require Winter Watering

Posted on February 11, 2015 by admin

Winter is a time when we think we can abandon the garden and turn to other activities

This Arizona Cypress had been a young vigorous plant the summer before this picture was taken. The winter this young tree died was a very dry winter with significantly less than average precipatation.

because it is too cold outside and plants in our gardens are dormant. Although plants do not need much water during the winter that doesn’t mean they don’t need any. During a normal winter, even the majority of locations in the arid western United States receive adequate moisture to keep plants alive over the winter. The problem is when we don’t receive normal moisture plants may die due to lack of adequate water.

Just because the leaves are gone and the lawn has turned a golden shade, doesn’t mean trees and shrubs aren’t consuming water. The roots of dormant plants are still actively metabolizing stored carbohydrate from the previous season’s growth and these metabolic processes require water to continue. Fortunately, plants don’t need as much water during the winter so you won’t have to water as frequently while plants are dormant. The frequency of winter watering will depends on the weather.

Lack of water is one reason for winterkill of plants that would normally be hardy in your area. With the recent drought in the western United States, it is becoming a more common phenomenon. If you will just check your soil moisture regularly in the winter months, the plants don’t have to die. All this involves is watching the weather patterns in your area and going outside with a sharp implement such as a screwdriver and probing the top 6″ of soil to see if it is still moist. With the screwdriver, probe the top 6″ of the soil in a number of areas of the yard. Just checking one spot will not give you an accurate assessment of the soil moisture in your yard because not all areas of the yard dry equally fast.

If the soil in these areas is dried out it’s time to water but before you think about turning the water on to your drip system or activating a permanently installed sprinkler system consider the fact that the next morning’s temperatures are likely to be freezing and water in these irrigation systems could freeze and break them. Winter watering requires methods allows you drain the water from your means of conveying water to the plants store it in a frost-free location are necessary for winter watering. Items that meet these requirements are hoses, soaker hoses, portable sprinklers, and buckets.

Winter watering may seem like a lot of work but that can be reduced dividing your yard into zones and checking it by zones. As mentioned earlier not all areas of the yard dry out at the same rate. Delineate these zones by exposure to the sun and soil type. Western and southern exposures in your yard, if there is nothing to block the intense sunlight or wind, will dry out faster than eastern and northern exposures. Soil texture can also affect how often you will need to water during the winter if you don’t get any precipitation. Sandy soils dry out faster than clay or loam. To reduce the loss of soil moisture over the winter months and moderate temperatures it a good idea to place a leaf or grass mulch over the surface of the garden except on lawns.

We can always hope for a wet winter but if you want your landscape to survive the winter you need to be prepared, observant, and vigilant.

Garden of Edith

Desert Gardening for Brown Thumbs

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