It’s sacrilegious to even think that there is good news in the ongoing severe drought plaguing the Golden State. Yet, apparently, there’s a bit of good in this bad situation of historic proportions. More appropriately perhaps, just a bit of silver lining.
Sue Viegert, nursery manager at Silverado Nursery in Ripon, elucidated on that, based on what she has observed about customers and their purchasing habits.
“They are starting to be concerned (about the drought),” said Viegert whose educational and experience background is in horticulture and design.
“They are looking for plants that are going to take less water more and more. And a lot of people are coming in and telling they are taking their grass out and they want to put plants and boulders, maybe cobblestone walkways, and maybe a bench. So they’re completely replacing the lawn,” Viegert said.
Homeowners and gardeners don’t necessarily have to go that far and completely get rid of their lawn, she pointed out.
“There are some groundcovers that are drought resistant, like the one called dymondia. While it, in no way, rivals the lush green hues of the Kentucky grass and other popular lawn coverings, the hardy dymondia has stunning blue-grey foliage forming a thick and compact carpet on the ground.
“It has a sort of silver color and certainly can be used to replace your lawn. It will spread and will fill in nicely,” said Viegert.
The dymondia is no new groundcover grass in the garden block.
“It’s been around for a while. It is considered a water-wise groundcover so it doesn’t take as much watering” as the regular traditional lawn grass, Viegert explained.
The nursery carries a full slate of drought-tolerant plants that avid gardeners can choose from, she said. These choices range from full and dwarf trees like olives, grasses like fescue, and other garden attractions such as purple fountain grass, daylilies, all of the sage varieties like salvia, and lavender.
Many of these such as the salvia are not just guaranteed visual feasts. “They also attract butterflies, hummingbirds, and bees, and they come in all different colors,” Viegert was happy to point out.
Even the notoriously spoiled roses have drought-resistant varieties. “Carpet roses are drought resistant,” she said of the ground-hugging variety that is seen in many island landscaping of major thoroughfares such as Daniels Street going toward the Big League Dreams west of South Airport Way in Manteca. Even better, these ground-hugging roses come in different colors – dark or crimson red, variegated pink, orange, and white.
Most of the above drought-resistant plants are perennials, Viegert said.
There’s another thing that plant lovers can save water in maintaining their drought-resistant plants.
“One thing that people can do as far as helping retaining water around their plants is to add bark around the drip lines, and mulch, to keep the moisture in,” she said.
Bark and mulch covers even come in different colors and sizes. “Some are fine, others are in bigger chunks; it doesn’t really matter” what kind you use, she said. They will equally do the job of saving you water, she added.
