Its Your Yard Gardening Mall

— Water-wise landscaping more popular than ever, but it’s not maintenance-free

By LORI GRANNIS for the Missoulian

Let’s get one thing straight. Xeriscaping is not “zero”-scaping.

That distinction is important, according to Missoula veteran landscaper Bill Caras, of Caras Nursery, because the term seems to cause a lot of confusion.

Xeriscaping is the speech-stumbling term coined back in 1978 by the Denver Water Department when drought issues weighed heavily on the area.

According to the Colorado WaterWise-sponsored Web site, www.xeriscape.org, the landscape method uses less turf and features more drought-friendly foliage. Xeriscape’s methods also provided a way for Denver residents to cut back on watered areas during drought, and create permanent conservation solutions.

According to Caras, xeriscape landscape techniques aren’t about creating voided spaces that use just rock and bark or replicate the surface of the moon.

“Xeriscape improves overall landscapes - and soil - to actually reduce the need for water and lawn maintenance,” he said.

According to xeriscape.org, the method can actually reduce the need for residential water by a whopping 60 percent.

Because of the confusion, Caras prefers to call the landscaping technique “water-wise.”

“We don’t tell people we’re going to xeriscape their yard,” said Caras.

The term, he said, has hurt the industry because people always misinterpret the term to mean something that it is not.

“We’ll say we are going to use methods that minimize turf areas, cut corners, and reduce water use,” Caras said.

And besides, he said, “gardens are just a lot more interesting than lawns.”

That’s just what Sean Carlson thought when he bought his house on Kent Avenue near Southgate Mall in Missoula a few years ago.

The tiny space of yard that went along with the new construction seemed an odd place for him to plunk down turf.

He also hated mowing grass, and wanted to consider other alternatives.

When Carlson saw an article on xeriscaping online, he thought it was funky and different, and wanted to experiment with it in the compact 26-by-10-foot area just off his front deck.

“I wound up picking up a used book (on the subject) and decided on the kinds of plants I wanted to use,” Carlson said.

Then he began sketching.

In the beginning, he chose plenty of plants that just didn’t work in a Montana garden.

Today, after three years and plenty of trial and error, Carlson’s water-wise garden is full of well-established foliage that is both native and non-native to Montana, and features shrubs, plants, grasses, trees and flowers.

But, he said, it looks nothing like his original sketch.

“I have adapted some and moved some stuff around,” said Carlson.

The only thing Carlson said he might do differently is add drip irrigation. Still, standing on his deck on summer evenings and spraying the garden with a misting hose can be relaxing.
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You may recognize Harold McGaughey from one of many short clips on lawn and garden topics featured on KECI’s “Montana Today” show.

He’s been landscaping residential and commercial plots for Earth and Wood in Missoula for about 30 years.

McGaughey said that less water use over time is the real goal of xeriscaping, and what makes it most attractive in a conservation sense.

It’s why xeriscape ideally relies upon drip-irrigation, he said.

According to McGaughey, drip-irrigation uses water at about one gallon per hour, whereas traditional sprinklers will use between 1 1/2 to 4 gallons per minute.

“Two sprinklers spitting out water over the course of an hour kick out about 120 gallons - a dripper only kicks out a gallon,” said McGaughey.

That can mean a huge savings for consumers on a public water system.

Both McGaughey and Caras install drip-irrigation regularly for their residential and commercial clients in the city. The veteran landscapers agree that lower volumes of water can save money, but it necessitates the elimination of some grass lawn, and the use of drought-hardy plants.

“But not always,” according to Caras.

By using drip-irrigation, you can xeriscape with a lot of alternatives, he said.

The nursery once installed a small rose garden in an otherwise drought-resistant landscape. Once rooted properly, the roses thrived and were able to be part of a traditional water-wise garden.

Caras said he designed his own home garden using xeriscape principles some 20 years ago.

At the time, he recalled that people really didn’t like it because they couldn’t get over the idea that a good landscape wouldn’t feature grass.

They like it now, he said, but just “weren’t used to the look” back then.

These days, Caras chooses not to use the term “xeriscape” with clients at all - he just naturally incorporates its principles into his work.

“Landscape design is a blank slate,” he said, “and there are no rules.”

Designing a water-wise, lower-maintenance garden is something clients actually end up preferring, he said, but for a few exceptions.

“There are some people who just don’t want to give up their turf,” said Caras.

For those people, he tries to strike a compromise of both turf and water-wise plants and shrubs.

Caras likes to use plants that are native to Montana in xeriscaped gardens whenever he can, because they are most drought-resistant. Many, he said, can also be fire-retardant.
Sagebrush, a native to Montana, is often used in xeriscaping, but it is possible to overwater. The results of overwatering are a straggly bush and possibly rotting roots. “Xeriscaping is not growing rocks, they are living plants and require some care and water,” says Tanya Olson, owner of Ginkgo Designs in Missoula.
Photo by KRISTA MILLER/Missoulian

Grasses, such as yucca, sagebrush, rubber rabbit brush, antelope bitter brush, and mountain mahogany, make great choices for xeriscaped gardens, as do vines like Montana’s native honeysuckle and rose.

Native trees - Montana maple, and hawthorn, juniper or spruce - are also stellar, he said.

But it’s really a mix of native and adaptive plants that make for the best gardens of this type, he said.

“I like using blue and gray tones,” said Caras. Sage and fescue with a blue tone to them most replicate the native landscape.

The fun in xeriscape for professional landscapers such as Caras or McGaughey - or do-it-yourself gardeners such as Carlson - is found in the design and aesthetics of a garden.

“You can make beds and bunch grass any shape you want,” said Caras. “Native bunch grasses are very ornamental.”

Basically, you can take different directions with design, he said.

“I like to use bunch grasses and boulders and flowers - it’s an eastern Montana or plains look,” said Caras.

Carlson said he designed his own garden around a single dwarf aspen tree that came with the house.

Now that the thirstier-than-average tree is well-established, he said, it just requires only a brief dousing with a spray hose.

These days, water isn’t an issue for his garden. It’s weeding, he said. “That’s what you have to stay on top of.”

While xeriscape may suit Montana’s arid climate, McGaughey warns against taking maintenance lightly. Less grass, he said, doesn’t mean homeowners can vacate maintenance practices.

“Don’t ever call a xeriscape (landscape) maintenance-free,” said McGaughey.