Homegrown: Getting a grip on gardening in a drought

This spring, we’ll likely see more plants coming out of the ground than going in. But that doesn’t have to be a discouraging thought.

With our heightened awareness of limited water resources, it’s easier to admit that, like an over-filled closet or garage, our gardens could use a cleaning out.

This may be just the time to pull up an overgrown penstemon, a scraggly azalea, a struggling or disease-stricken rose. After covering the new bare spot with attractive mulch, you may wonder why you put up with an unattractive nuisance for so long.

That’s the reaction I had last week when I took out a sorry-looking hebe. Although this shrub had been 2 feet high and wide, the space looked far better with it gone.

Besides, it was one of those plants that needed more moisture than I was willing to give it for best performance.

Rather than pamper a plant that’s struggling to spread its roots, this may be the time to acknowledge it will take far more than just another year for that to happen.

Asking how much water it’s worth could decide whether a plant should stay or go.

Planning ahead

Over the past several decades, too many of us California gardeners have been swayed by densely planted English cottage gardens. But those dreamy designs aren’t for us.

It may be a reliance on the lush cottage-garden look that prompts some gardeners to squeeze too many plants - even drought-tolerant ones - into a limited space. But it pays, in time and money, to determine what the garden will look like, not only a week after it’s newly planted, but in one and two years.

I recently witnessed yet another over-planted front yard where the lawn had been removed in favor of a low-water landscape.

Just weeks old, the area looked lovely - from a distance. Closer inspection, however, revealed that a half-dozen native deer grasses (Muhlenbergia rigens), which spread 4 feet high and wide in about two years, were planted only one foot apart.

The same dense planting characterized the entire area, where blue-eyed grasses (Sisyrinchium bellum), verbenas, salvias, manzanita groundcovers (Arctostaphylos), and other admittedly prudent choices were crowded together for immediate effect rather than at a more realistic distance to allow for future growth.

Certainly not all gardeners make this mistake, but too-close plantings are not uncommon in both home and commercial landscapes.

Using negative space

The design concept of using open or negative space applies to garden composition as much as it does to other art forms. This principle intends to direct the observer toward an arrangement or structure yet gives the eye a place to rest.

It’s a bit of a stretch to consider negative space as an artistic notion in setting out a few dozen small plants in lawn replacement, but the idea takes on deeper meaning when only a few specimen plants inhabit a given space.

Replacing a lawn does not have to mean filling an open area with many small plants. One or two major focal points may be all that is needed with a few low groundcovers. Large eye-catching specimen shrubs like native ceanothus, exotics such as smoke bush (Cotinus), pineapple guava (Feijoa, aka Acca), as well as wiry clumps of sculptural South African restios such as Chondropetalum all demand center stage surrounded by negative space with minimal companion plantings.

A small front yard could be home to one of these or to a small evergreen or flowering tree subtended by tidy organic or gravel mulch. Crape myrtle (Lagerstroemia), xChitalpa, Arbutus Marina, Luma, olive and Little Ollie (Olea), redbud (Cercis), and various conifers are all candidates.

Stressed tomatoes

If you are one of the optimistic gardeners who has already planted tomatoes, your plants may look a little limp and bedraggled. Low nighttime temperatures below 45 degrees and into the 30s have caused enough stress in some gardens to set back growth and development by several weeks.

Different tomato varieties experience stress at different levels, so be prepared to replace plants if yours look like they may not recover. But generally, some coddling may help.

Although it may seem counter-intuitive, hold back normal watering and fertilizing until plants show some recovery. Water just enough to prevent wilting to allow air in the soil and prevent root rot.

If more cold nights materialize, cover plants with plastic bottles or woven row covers. Mulch with compost after a warm, sunny day.

Rosemary McCreary, a Sonoma County gardener, gardening teacher, and author of Tabletop Gardens, writes the monthly Homegrown column for The Press Democrat. Contact her at rosemarymccreary@gmail.com or write to P.O. Box 910, Santa Rosa, 95402.