A Pacific Northwest Approach to

Xeriscaping
Kate Easton

2012 Garden Vision LLC

www.gardenvisioninc.com

Achieving Low
Maintenance Gardens

Xeriscape gardens are the result of

Planning
Design choices
Plant choices
Maintenance practices

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Xeriscape Gardens

Plan for future needs

Pay now, enjoy sooner

Young children quickly grow and abandon outdoor past-times

Vegetable gardens may need to be downsized as family gets smaller
Plan to modify spaces to other uses as needs change
Purchase larger sized plants
Cover a good portion of soil with easy care materials (hardscape,
groundcovers, wild flowers, grasses)
Hire expertise when needed (masons, concrete, carpenter, etc.)

Create sustainable landscapes and gardens

Ideally, a closed system that produces and uses all soil nutrients and
organic supplements
Example: Dairy cows supply manure for the garden for those with room
Example: Using composted green waste on lawns, beds, pots is
achievable even for apartment dwellers
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Design Principles

Right plant, right place (climate, water, soil, sunlight

requirements)

Use a combination of native and non-native plants with similar

cultural requirements
Suit the existing environmental conditions
Hedge plants that fit the space to avoid pruning
No tall trees under utility lines to avoid pruning
Reduce need to prune, water, fertilize

Right plant placement allows for natural future

growth and eliminates pruning
Use slow growing perennials, shrubs, trees that need
little pruning and dont outgrow space
Eliminate or reduce lawn area when your needs
assessment allows

Largest user of water, fertilizer & maintenance time

Incorporate narrow strips into planted beds or paths
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Design Principles

Use solid surface materials and make paths wide

enough

If using gravel, make it at least 3 deep, preferably 4-6 to

eliminate weeding
Width depends on use: 6-8 for a main path, 4-5 for secondary
Border paths with wide sunny and shady planting areas

Use gravel in service areas to reduce or eliminate

maintenance chores in that area
Make your beds BIG, SIMPLE, FULL

If you have weeds, your bed doesnt have enough plants in it

Use a tight matrix of border shrubs, perennials, bulbs and
grasses that provide a succession of bloom and color
Apportion plant types for even coverage

1/3 evergreen, half to 1/3 native, remainder color, long interest

Choose plants that are drought tolerant, adaptable and or have a
long season of good looks
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Plant Selection

Use hydro-zones to decrease watering need

Closest to house / water source can have higher water
requirements
Farthest away little to no water
In-between less water needed

Avoid trees in lawn

Roots compete with grass for water, air, nutrients
If must have, clear area between trunk and drip line of
grass.
Over time, add plants around the tree (out side the
drip line) to make a shrub & groundcover bed
anchored with a tree

Most woodland plants can compete well with tree roots

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Plant Selection
Select plants that need minimal care, are
disease and pest resistant, and have a long
season of interest
Select healthy specimens at the nursery
Avoid plants with these characteristics or let
the plants grow as they will

hard to establish
susceptible to disease/pest
needs frequent division
short lived
needs staking

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Some Xeriscape Plant Choices for NW

Natives

Acer (Ginnala, Amur,

Vine)
Douglas Fir
Western Red Cedar
Mountain & Western
Hemlock
Salal
Ribes
Snowberry
Huckleberry
Elderberry

Non-Natives
Rudbeckia
Carex
Echinacea
Pennisetum
Miscanthus
Most Viburnums
Heaths & Heathers
Euonymous
Heuchera
Barberries
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Maintenance Approach

Time well spent

When do you have time for maintenance and how much of it?
Where do you spend most of your maintenance time now and how
could that time be better spent?
Prioritize by which areas need the most ongoing maintenance

Remove or reduce the size of each one in priority order

Mixed annual & perennial border into shrub and easy care perennial border

What maintenance tasks are chores or distasteful to

you?

Eliminate the distasteful tasks by changing the plants in the landscape

Replace a fast-growing hedge with a fence

Add easy to care for shrubs, herbs, bulbs, ornamental grasses
Replace fussy plants with drought tolerant ones
Transform the lawn into wildflower meadow or mixed shrub bed or
evergreen groundcover
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Maintenance Guidelines

Eliminate or reduce repetitive tasks

Mowing, trimming, edging, watering, feeding, weeding

Create a maintenance schedule

Weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual tasks

Mowing, plant monitoring, weeding, fertilizing, deadheading, mulching,

pruning, clean-up, etc.

Eliminate tasks or let plants do their thing

Roses will dead head themselves (pick up petals when weeding)

Let lawns get a little taller before mowing and mow at a higher
height
Prune only when necessary for plant health (avoid bonzai and
compulsive shaping)
Self-mulching gardens

Allow plants to die or go dormant with diginity let the leaves lie where
they may

Chop up large foliage with a hoe, shovel, cultivator in spring

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Maintenance Guidelines

Plant in the fall as rains are starting to eliminate need for

watering new plants
Dont water select drought tolerant plants

WEED regularly until plants have filled in

Use drip systems or soaker lines on trees and shrubs for first 2
years
Perennial, vines, groundcovers may need supplemental water the
first season
Once established, leave em alone
Pull all the root out
Use a flame weeder or vinegar-concentrate to control weeds

MULCH! (4-6 applied annually)

Reduces weeds
Reduces need for water
Balance soil temperature

Soil under 3 of mulch is 10 degrees cooler in direct sun

Soil under 4 of mulch is 20 degrees cooler in direct sun
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Maintenance Guidelines

Make good dirt and kick the feed habit (fertilizer)

Fertilizer encourages rapid growth which may result in
added pruning
Properly prepare the soil for micro-organism diversity
Feed the soil compost instead of fertilizer
Add minerals annually
Alfalfa pellets in spring provides fresh nitrogen for
good initial leaf growth
Use compost tea as foliar spray or soil soak

Soak is equivalent to 6 of compost (Dr. Elaine Ingham,

Oregon State University)
If you must use fertilizers, do it judiciously and sparingly

Practice Integrated Pest Management

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