The Many Benefits of Water Wise Gardening in the Dry Okanagan, Canada

1. Capital News Friday, May 20, 2011 www.kelownacapnews.com A19
NEWS
▼ XERISCAPING
The many benefits of water wise
gardening in the dry Okanagan
W
ith the warm- scape Assessment Tool to
er weath- determine water use on
er, many of your lawn and ideas to re-
us are already working duce it, a database of 400
in our yards, visiting gar- water-wise plants for the
den centers, planning our Okanagan, and a listing of
gardens, and getting our nurseries specializing in
lawnmower out. native or xeriscape plants.
How we plant and During watering re- your family’s health, the For more on Oka-
what we plant can have strictions, xeriscape gar- environment and keeps nagan WaterWise, visit
a tremendous impact on dens thrive compared to toxic chemicals out of our www.okwaterwise.ca.
how much water we use. conventional landscapes. drinking water. Okanagan Water-
Did you know that And, over a 20-year For existing land- Wise is an initiative of the
about 24 per cent of the period, a well-designed scapes, start small. Im- Okanagan Basin Water
Okanagan’s water is used and maintained xeriscape mediate water savings can Board. Gwen Steele is the
on residential lawns and can cost as little as 30 per be achieved by covering executive director of the
gardens? cent of what it would cost bare soil with a five cen- Okanagan Xeriscape As- AUDREY WAGNER/CONTRIBUTOR
In fact, on average, to maintain a convention- timetre layer of organic sociation and a Capital AUDREY WAGNER’S two-year-old garden in Kelowna’s South Slopes area,
Okanagan residents use al lawn-based landscape. mulch. News columnist. reclaimed from a patch of lawn.
more than two times more Avoid rock mulch as it
‘‘
water than the average intensifies heat and is hard
Canadian. to weed.
O
Yet we have less avail- Check irrigation sys-
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MAY BE MORE duce evaporation and
Studies indicate that APPROPRIATE TO avoid runoff.
more rain and less snow, CALL IT GLOBAL Visit local xeriscape
but at the wrong time WEIRDING. gardens for ideas:
for our growing season, • In the North Oka-
and long hot summer nagan: Allan Brooks Na-
droughts are going to be- Also, plants in a xeri- ture Centre, Bishop Wild
come more common in scape are planted in their Bird Sanctuary, Xerindip-
the Okanagan. ideal conditions so they ity Garden;
Of course, with
drought comes more wa-
thrive and are much less
vulnerable to pests and
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makes sense then to move The need for pesti- H2O Garden in Kelowna;
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to landscaping.
cides can be eliminat-
ed. The need for chemi-
• In the South Oka-
nagan: Summerland Re-
FROM , FROM ,
Xeriscaping is the per- cal fertilizers can also be search Station’s Xeri-
fect solution. eliminated with the use scape Garden, Penticton’s
When done proper- of organic-type mulch- Marina Way Park on Oka-
ly, one can reduce outside es (e.g. compost, manure) nagan Lake, and Okana-
water use by 30 to 100 which fertilize at a slow gan College campus’ Na-
per cent, depending on even rate throughout the tive Plant Garden.
the landscape design and growing season and help Check www.oka-
plants used. create healthier soil. naganxeriscape.org for
Contrary to common Plus, eliminating more on the Seven Princi-
perceptions of xeriscape
as rocks with a few cactus
chemicals also protects ples of Xeriscape, a Land-
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