Who doesn’t love a well manicured front or backyard? Maintaining your curb appeal while conserving water doesn't have to be difficult. By landscaping your yard with drought tolerant plants, you will lessen your water bill while conserving one of our most important resources and benefiting the environment. Drought tolerant gardens allow you to improve and maintain water conservation at home.
Visit calscape.org for more information on Native California drought tolerant plants. Here are a few suggestions of drought tolerant plants that may work for your garden:
- Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) - A resilient summer blooming drought-tolerant perennial. A natural butterfly attractant!
- Apricot Mallow (Sphaeralcea ambigua) - A perennial shrub that is great in a dry garden or on a slope. Butterflies love this plant.
- Bahia Grass - Thick and full grass, which thrives in drought prone areas.
- Buffalo Grass - A long tall prairie grass, great landscaped areas without a lot of foot traffic
Watering Schedule:
- Water your garden in the morning preferably before 7am. Water evaporates slowly allowing the plant to absorb the most amount of water.
- May: Water 1 - 2 Days per week
- June - August: Water 2 Days per week
- Watering times may vary depending on the type of irrigation/sprinkler system you have. View a more detailed watering schedule on EBMUD’s website.
Maintenance Tips:
- Hand-water new plants until they are established.
- Look for signs of under- or over-watering.
- Turn off your irrigation during the rainy season.
Thank you for reading part two of our four part Water Conservation series. Click here to read part one of the Water Conservation series, where we walk you through the first step toward better water conservation--monitoring your water use. You'll find a actionable plan of things you can do to reduce your water consumption at home.
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