Gardening with Zero Irrigation and No Fussing

22 July 2015 Prev Next

Heather Lattanzi got interested in California native plants 5 or 6 years ago because she wanted to save water and didn't want to work too hard. Natives don't need a lot of fussing, she said, unlike a cherry tree in her old garden that needed to be sprayed regularly. Nor does the soil have to be amended.

Since then, she has been learning what works where through trial and error: adding a few plants at a time, and moving them around if needed to find the place best suited to them in her yard's microclimates. “You have to be tough to take the rejection of plants dying,” she said. The ones that survive do well in clay soil and don't get a lot of attention.

“I am shooting for zero irrigation after plants are established,” Lattanzi said. Referring to the Las Pilitas and Calflora websites, she chooses natives that “survive on 15 inches or less annual precipitation.” Her favorites are the tough plants that look good almost all year long (“don't have an ugly duckling phase”) and don't require much water.

Indeed, natives that evolved in summer-dry conditions can be longer-lived if they don't get watered in the dry season. Neighbors told Lattanzi that a row of ceanothus plants in the front yard, for instance, has been there for 40 years.

When the plants succeed, “the wildlife is amazing,” she said. Other gardens look beautiful but are sterile; her “scruffy” yard has birds, butterflies, and bees. “It's really fun! Birds are nesting in my yard!” she said. The cheeping from the nests wakes her up early in the morning. “I'm happy to be providing a little habitat,” Lattanzi said. Also, “tons of hummingbirds” visit her plants.

The garden looks prettiest in early spring, she said, with a profusion of California poppies and penstemons blooming in the front yard. Three original penstemons have expanded into a small colony in a few years. One neighbor comes over especially to admire the poppies. Lattanzi got the seeds from a friend and sowed them in the fall. The following spring, the plants came up, and they have thrived ever since. She now collects seed and has given packets of poppy seed to two friends.

In addition to the ceanothus, penstemon, and California poppies, other favorites that have thrived on her tough-love regimen include the following.

A low purple-flowered aster in the front yard “looks good all summer” in full sun with very little water, she said.
A bright green coyote bush in the front yard gets no summer water and lives in the root zone of a large cedar tree.
A large native buckwheat, St. Catherine's Lace, graces another side of the front yard. This large mounded shrub is covered with sprays of tiny white flowers that attract a wide range of pollinators. “A friend gave me a transplant from her garden,” Lattanzi said.
A couple specimens of Sugar Bush in the backyard are thriving. These large shrubs eventually grow into a rounded form, with large leaves and reddish stems.
Several butterfly-attracting Pozo Blue sages have formed large mounds, and Lattanzi planted a few additional ones a year or two later.

“I've been able to enjoy it a lot and so have the birds,” Lattanzi said.

Birds enjoy foraging in the native garden among the California poppies, under the silktassel tree and the St. Catherine's Lace shrub.

The California poppies are in full bloom in the spring, watered by the seasonal rains. By midsummer, only a flower or two remains in this unwatered garden.

The Pozo Blue salvias attract a multitude of pollinators.

The six-foot St. Catherine's Lace shrub is buzzing with bees.

The wonderfully curving leaves of the Sugar Bush stay fresh and green with no summer water.