Van Bourgondien

Gardening in the Drought Age

I was walking to the mailbox today when I realized how odd it was to hear the crunch of fallen leaves underfoot when it's only August. Yet with rain as scarce as Rembrandts this summer, crunching is a sound that is becoming all too familiar to most of us. Many of us are also regrettably becoming all too accustomed to parts of our garden looking a bit brown and crisp at the edges. But in many parts of the country, there are watering restrictions which means that we simply can't give all of our gardens all the water it really needs. So something has to give.

So how do we deal with drought and still keep our gardens looking good?

It's summer heading toward fall, and there are certain tasks that we should be routinely engaged in anyway. We may just have to take them a bit further this year.

For instance - remember that every plant in your garden is competing for whatever water you can spare them. This is the time to pull up annuals that are past their prime and you should do so immediately. It goes without saying that you should remove any weeds, as well.

That leaves the plants remaining, and without the annuals and weeds, there is less competition for water, air and light. During the drought of '99, when things got really bad, I went even further than this. I also took a critical look around and removed other plants that I wasn't really that crazy about, or that were doing poorly.

That may seem cold-hearted, but we've been having drought conditions for years now. I no longer keep plants around that need special pampering and extra water to look good. They simply raise the anxiety level in the gardener - and if they don't look good, neither does that garden. Toss them and leave the ones that are thriving for you despite the miseries that Nature has been handing them. These are plants to be treasured. And if you look around you, you may be surprised at how many of your plants still look great.

And now you have fewer plants still to compete for the available moisture.

Now that you have space, spread a good 2" thick layer of mulch around the remaining plants. This will help keep weeds down (and yes - they still manage to thrive! That's why they're weeds.) but better still, it helps to keep moisture in the soil - so the water the plants do manage to get will last longer.

Now - take a look at the plants that remain. Many may need deadheading, Do it. A plant uses up a lot of energy setting seed, which is what plants do when they're not deadheaded. So remove all spent flower heads immediately. This means all the plant's energy can go toward establishing a healthy root system and staying fresh and beautiful. Plants have no energy to waste during a drought.

Perhaps you have a few plants that look good except for a few wilting leaves - or even brown crisp ones. Cut those off. A plant loses moisture through its leaves - even the ones that are wilting. The plant is also still trying to send nourishment to leaves that may already be dead - so spare it the trouble. Take off any foliage that looks unhappy. This conserves the plant's energy and cuts down on surfaces through which moisture is lost, but the garden will also look a whole lot better when the crispy stuff is cut away.

You might even consider cutting leaves in half - cutting down the foliage on irises and daylilies and such so that they have less leaf surface through which to lose moisture. I've cut down many of my ferns, which look healthy at the root end but are brown and crisp at the top. We haven't had enough moisture to travel the height of some of those ferns and they looked mightily distressed until I give them a haircut. What remains is fresh and green - it looks better and I imagine the ferns feel a lot better, too. This could entail a lot of work, of course, so use common sense.

If the plant is more than unhappy - if you see spots or fungus - don't compost those leaves and don't let any remain on the ground where they can infect the soil. Remove them carefully and thoroughly. Put them in a closed bag and put them out with the trash. Plants that are stressed - and believe me, drought is stress! - are especially vulnerable to pests and diseases, so you want to keep a sharp lookout for them and get rid of potential problems immediately. Make especially sure that the soil around these plants is clean. Plant debris on the soil is a potential problem.

If you have shrubs that have an odd crisp branch or two, remove the leaves but do not cut the branches. Cutting or pruning signals to the plant that it should start growing. Plants in drought don't have the energy to waste on that.

Don't fertilize. While ordinarily we think of fertilizer when plants look a bit wan, it is not a good thing to give to stressed plants. If you fertilize anything, it should be the ones that manage to look hale and hearty despite the lack of rain. These are our mainstays, our stalwarts - plants that we know we can depend on to look great without a lot of effort on our part. Reward them. Consider planting more of these next year and fewer of the more delicate types that are creating worries and problems now.

Remember - the best plants for drought conditions are those with small leaves because they have less surface through which to lose moisture, those with taproots that can go deep into the earth to seek water, or those with waxy or hair like coverings that help to seal moisture in. Succulents like sedum are like cactus in that they carry their own water supply and can go a long time without you having to supplement that. And strangely enough, the pigment that gives some plants deep purple or bronze foliage also provides a degree of drought tolerance - although this year you may find that these plants are greener than they are under ordinary rainfall conditions.

If you find that you are having difficulty keeping your present garden watered, then think about using more plants with built-in drought tolerance, as things are not likely to improve in the near future.

The good news about your spring bulbs is that they like it dry in summer. They only need moisture when in active growth. If we're lucky - and we often are - we'll have a rainy spring which should mean the bulb display should be as glorious as ever.

But doing a bit of tidying, pulling, clipping and mulching - routine maintenance plus - should also insure that our best plants remain happy enough to put on their own best show next year.