Xeriscaping: Water Wise Landscaping

If it were better understood, xeriscaping would be practiced more often than it already is.

This type of landscaping can be very beautiful and generally requires less water, fertilizer, maintenance, and pest control than traditional landscaping.

And, of course, using less of these will save you time and money.

The principles of xeriscaping deal mostly with slope, plants, plant groups, watering methods, and soil. Shape and other aspects of design can be dealt with by traditional principles of landscape design.

The main fundamentals of xeriscape are:

• PLANNING AND DESIGN
• CREATE PRACTICAL TURF AREAS - manageable sizes, shapes, and the right grasses.
• SELECT LOW WATER REQUIRING PLANTS - select native or addaptive plants and group plants of similar water needs together.
• USE SOIL AMENDMENTS - like compost, manure, leaf mold, etc.
• USE MULCHES - to reduce evaporation & to keep the soil cool.
• IRRIGATE EFFICIENTLY - with properly designed sprinkelr systems.
• MAINTAIN THE LANDSCAPE PROPERLY

There are two approaches to xeriscape. One is to "adjust" your existing landscape to be more water wise. The other is to design and construct an entirely new water wise landscape.

The basics of transforming an existing landscape to water wisdom are really very simple. We'll look at xeriscaping basics and principles here and for design considerations, you can go to Xeriscape Design Ideas.

A common misconception is that xeriscaping is strictly rocks and cactus. While this may be one way of doing it, there are a lot of other attractive planting options that you can use.

Plant selection. Besides the native plants already adapted to your area, there are many colorful drought tolerant plants native to other climates such as Southern Europe, North Africa, Western Asia, South Africa, and Australia that will thrive in your garden.

A reasonable knowledge of plants is an essential key to a successful water-wise garden or any landscape design.

You can discover a lot of helpful information about native plants and their properties from: xeriscaping and native plant directory.
However, if you're serious about creating your water-wise landscape, you should have a good plant encyclopedia in your gardening library.

-Steve Boulden
In less than five years, S&S Designed Landscaping,LLC has grown to be one of the top and most sought after landscape companies in the area.

Landscape Design Basics

Every good garden design owes its effectiveness to certain basic design principles. These rules apply to all levels of gardens, from a simple garden border to an elaborate classical design. Remember, in any well-designed garden no one feature, plant or structure is completely dominate. Instead, all features work together to establish a sense of unity.

A. Repetition: Repeat certain plants, textures or colors.

B. Simplicity: This is the result of constraint. It keeps your design from being cluttered and unfocused.

C. Unity: A unified design ensures that the garden reads as one whole design rather than a hodgepodge of separate elements.

D. Scale: Scale refers to the balance between sizes of various elements, which includes the house, walkways, paths, fences, garden beds and plantings. No one element or feature should overpower all of the others.

-Gizmo Creations
The staff of Gizmo Creations LLC has been involved in landscape design for over 20 years. They have a licensed landscape architect on staff who studied landscape architecture at Iowa State University (Ames, Iowa).

City Joins Flower Show Effort

With barely a month to go before the doors open, organizers announced price reductions and a new partnership designed to invigorate the 2006 Portland Flower Show.

With advance ticket prices dropped from $15 to $10 and a new affiliation with the city of Portland — which will help create the largest single exhibit in the show’s history — the seventh flower show at the Portland Company Complex looks to bounce back from the early March blizzard of 2005. This year’s flower show is scheduled for March 9-12, with an awards ceremony preview on Wednesday, March 8 at 6 p.m.

“The emphasis is on creating a great show for a price that everyone can enjoy,” said Jan Love, the show coordinator. “People will see a lot of changes for the better this year, with several new exhibitors and vendors who will add vitality and interest.”

As the cornerstone exhibit for the show, which came to the Portland waterfront for the first time in 1997, the city of Portland’s Parks and Recreation Department will work with the Friends of Deering Oaks and Robin’s Nest Water Gardens to re-create aspects of the Deering Oaks pond and gardens at the flower show. The original antique duck house, constructed in the 1800s, will be brought indoors to house ducks and geese for all four days of the flower show.

“We thought this was a great way for the city to be involved in a show that benefits us all,” said Jeff Tarling, the Portland city arborist. “There will be volunteer opportunities, a chance to learn the history of the park and a sense of camaraderie that goes into this experience. We’re really excited about being involved.”

Another coup for this show was enticing Ted Carter, the renown landscape designer from Hollis, to exhibit at the show for the first time in many years. Carter plans the show’s second largest exhibit; he has historically been a multiple award-winner at shows in both Portland and Boston.

For a change of pace from previous years, the flower show will also showcase a tropical fruit expert as its keynote speaker. Chris Rollins, from the United States Tropical Fruit & Spice Park in Homestead, Fla, will talk about the journey fruit makes from the tree to the local supermarket. Samples of many of his unusual fruits will be available for tasting.

Chris is a dynamic personality who people up here will really enjoy. We met him two years ago during taping of our television show; he’s also been on with David Letterman and hosted his own radio show, so he knows how to have a good time.

I am still the coordinator for the speaker series for this flower show, even though PPP is no longer running the show. The slate of experts is widely varied this year, with topics covering everything mulch and lawns, to orchids and irises.

Ticket prices have been reduced across the board, with $9 advance tickets for seniors and $25 for admission to the awards preview night. Tickets at the door will be $12. Advance tickets are on sale at Hannaford Supermarkets and several local garden centers. Visit www.portlandcompany.com for more information, or call 207-775-4403.

-Paul Tukey - February 6, 2006