It makes good sense to develop a comprehensive landscape plan for your property. A carefully thought out plan will enable you to create a beautiful water-wise outdoor space that makes the most of existing landscape features.
In the Handbook of Water Use and Conservation, Amy Vickers list the following eight fundamental steps for designing and maintaining a water-efficient landscape:
- Group plants according to their water needs
- Use native and low-water-use plants
- Limit turf areas to those needed for practical purposes
- Use efficient irrigation systems
- Schedule irrigation wisely
- Provide healthy soil
- Mulch over soil and around plants to reduce evaporation
- Regular maintenance
Creating A Water-Wise Landscape Plan
If you’re a do-it-yourself type of person, there is no reason that you can’t develop your own water-wise landscape plan.
Start With What’s Already There
Start with a simple base map of your property lines. To measure your landscape, you’ll need a 50 foot or longer tape measure, and a helpful relative/friend. You will need to measure from the property lines to your house, as well as all the exterior walls of your house.
You will also need to measure other impervious surfaces, such as sidewalks, decks and driveways. If there are existing trees, shrubs, etc. that you wish to keep, you’ll need to measure to place them accurately in your plan.
Once you’ve recorded all the measurements, you’ll have to transfer them to graph paper. Most designers prefer to work with plans drawn to a 1:10 or 1:8 scale. This means that every 10 (or 8) feet of actual measure equals 1 inch on your plan. So if your property is 50 feet wide by 100 feet long and you’re using a 1:10 scale, your plan would be 5 inches by 10 inches.
Once you’ve drawn your property lines on the graph paper, you need to fill in the details, including the house outline, sidewalks, driveways, etc. You also need to show direction on your plan by drawing an arrow indicating North. This will help your designer select plants appropriate for specific exposures. Some of the other things you should include on your base plan are:
- The location of spigots, downspouts and external electrical outlets.
- Fences, walls and other structures
- Existing lawn, garden, shrub masses and flower beds
- Trees (both yours and your neighbors, if they shade part of your yard)
- Slopes
- Existing sprinkler system
Once you’ve completed a base plan of your existing landscape, you need to think about how you want to use your new Xeriscape.
List Your Landscaping Goals
What do you want from your new landscape? Some people might want reduced maintenance others might be looking to improve shading and pleasant outdoor areas. Here is a list of some things to think about before creating a new plan.
- Maintenance – Am I trying to reduce the amount of time I spend working in the yard?
- Water use – Do I want to reduce my outdoor water consumption? (We hope so!)
- Play areas – Is my yard an important play area for children, dogs, and/or adults? Can I decrease the size of the play area?
- Sun and shade – Does my yard have enough shade or too much shade?
- Irrigation system – Do I plan to install an irrigation system? For an existing system, can I reconfigure the system for the new landscape?
- Aesthetics – Do I want more flowers? Do I want more trees? Do I want a vegetable garden? Do I want to add a patio or moss rocks or semi-permanent outdoor furniture? Where do I want to spend time in the yard?
- Climate and region – How can I create a landscape that takes full advantage of the climate and region in which I live.
- Budget – How much money do I want to spend on my landscaping project?
Develop a Landscape Master Plan
Once you have evaluated your current landscape and given some thought to the goals of the landscaping project you are ready to develop a master plan.
This plan should be as complete and detailed as possible. You may not complete the entire plan in a single year. It may take many years. By creating a master plan you can progressively work to achieve all of your landscape goals.
Your master plan should be a “map” of the finished landscape on your property. Even if you don’t know exactly what trees and plants you intend to use, you can include a place for planting beds and trees in your drawing.
Here are some design issues to consider when developing your master plan:
- Turf areas – You can save water by limiting turf to only those functional areas needed for walking, sitting, playing, recreation, picnicking, etc. Nonfunctional areas can be covered with drought-tolerant grasses, Xeric planting beds, alternative groundcovers, or hardscapes.
- Planting beds – Nonfunctional planting beds add beauty and shape to your landscape. This is a great opportunity to use native plants, trees, and shrubs.
- Hardscapes – Hardscapes include walkways, patios, driveways, etc. Consider using flagstones, gravel or other porous materials to reduce water accumulation.
- Landscaping shapes and forms – Irregular designs, narrow strips of turf or plants, and small areas can be difficult to mow and water efficiently with an automatic system. However, these forms may be irrigated more successfully with drip or manual techniques. Design your landscape forms to maximize water efficiency.
- Grading and drainage – Your soil type and the slope will affect water infiltration and runoff rates. You can create rainwater detention areas by creating shallow basins in areas with plants that have high-volume water needs. In other areas, by reducing or eliminating slopes you can reduce runoff and preserve topsoil. It is difficult to water and mow grass that is planted on a steep slope. If you yard includes a steep sloped area you could consider terracing – a technique that has been practiced for hundreds of years in steep mountainous regions such as the Himalayas and the Andes.
- Sun and shade – Keep track of areas in your yard that receive morning, noon, and afternoon sun (and shade). Some plants prefer sunny spots while others thrive in shade. You can plan your planting beds accordingly.
- Water use zones – Divide your plant materials into three categories: low water use (fed primarily by rainwater), moderate water use (requires occasional watering), and high water use (requires regular watering). To reduce water use, minimize usage of high water use plants and turf in you landscape plan.
- Maintenance issues – If you want to reduce required regular maintenance in your landscape select low maintenance plants. Fast growing turf grass requires regular mowing, fertilizing, and aeration. Low water use grasses, groundcovers, and plants will require substantially less maintenance.
- Cost – Your budget may be the single biggest constraint on you landscape plan. Consider implementing the plan slowing to spread the cost over several years. Remember, a low water use landscape will save you money in the long run with reduced water, fertilizer, and maintenance costs.
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