Be Water Wise

High summer means high water bills as you try to protect your landscaping and keep everything green. Installing pine straw or mulch will help protect your landscaping from drought and heat, but you will likely still need to water. Being water wise will protect your plantings and your wallet.

The Georgia Water Stewardship Act went into effect statewide on June 2, 2010 and supercedes what was formerly a patchwork of watering regulations. The act allows daily outdoor watering for purposes of planting, growing, managing, or maintaining ground cover, trees, shrubs, or other plants only between the hours of 4:00 PM. and 10:00 AM. by anyone whose water is supplied by a water system that operates under a permit from the Georgia Environmental Protection Division.

That restriction of 4:00 PM to 10:00 AM is not just the law, it's a good idea! If you water in the heat of the day, you'll lose a lot of that expensive water to evaporation. The law provides exceptions to the time limits, including for the use of soaker hoses.

Other Outdoor Water Use

Outdoor water use other than for irrigation remains restricted by both the Georgia Water Stewardship Act and by local regulations. According to the Act, odd-numbered addresses can use water outdoors on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Even-numbered and unnumbered addresses are allowed to use water outdoors on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays. Each locality may have additional regulations.

Soaker Hoses

Soaker hoses are one of the exceptions to the time restrictions on outdoor watering. Soaker hoses should be staked down so they'll stay in place and covered with about two inches of mulch so the water goes into the ground instead of evaporating. Run hoses across the slope, not up and down, and space them about 18 inches apart. Start by watering for 20 minutes twice a week. If leaves are droopy after the hottest part of the day, increase watering time slightly.

Soaker hoses are great for beds, but not they're not for lawns. Only sprinkling really works for lawns.

You can find more information on soaker hoses here.

Native Plants

One of the best ways to save on watering is to landscape with native plants. There are drought-tolerant plants from all over the world. In many ways, those native to the area in which you want to grow them are the best adapted to the challenges you are likely to give them: they thrived in that climate and soil without human intervention, so they won't need much of your time or resources once you get them established. But the natives are also the plants that are healthy, normal parts of the local ecosystem. That means that they also provide critical parts of the local "food web." Even if the exotics can be used by the local wildlife (not always the case), it's often the equivalent of "junk food."

By using natives, you can not only create a more "water-wise" landscape for your own enjoyment, but contribute to the survival of the birds and butterflies you'd probably like to attract to your yard as well. Even a few native plants to provide nectar and larval sources for butterflies and a wide range food sources for birds can make a difference, especially if each of us would plant a few! And it's not just the plants that are stressed in drought--so easier access to the plants they need to thrive is even more important for the birds and butterflies in times of drought.

The UGA "Native Plants for Georgia" document, available (in several formats) at: http://www.gnps.org/resources/Native_Plants_4_Ga/Start_Show.html

This is only one of many resources accessible from the Georgia Native Plant Society web site: http://www.GNPS.org , but the GNPS web site itself provides a wealth of resources created with the experience and talents of the society's members.

There are several links to info on drought-tolerant plants for the southeast at: http://www.wateruseitwisely.com/100-ways-to-conserve/outdoor-tips/plant-lists.php#Southeast Including a good one on drought-tolerant trees at: http://www.marshalltrees.com/articles.asp?p=2&id=26&cid=0 But while the info on characteristics of drought-tolerant trees is good, the list of trees includes tree of heaven (an invasive exotic--not a good thing, but a successful invasive in part because it's tolerant of poor conditions ... )

Here are 10 natives that have thrived on neglect in my own East Cobb garden:

Butterfly weed: Asclepias tuberosa (like all milkweed, a good nectar plant and a host plant for butterfly larvae; this is the showy orange one you see along the roadside in early summer)
Christmas Fern: Polystichum acrostichoides (evergreen, tough as nails, wet, dry, slopes--just an all-around great plant; the individual leaflets on each frond look like Christmas stockings or Santa's sleigh, depending on whether you hold them vertically or horizontally; it's the first native plant I teach people young or old because you can find them all over, any time of year, and reliably identify them every time)
Goldenrod: Solidago spp. (yes, goldenrod; there are lots of kinds, all native, and all beautiful; the pollen is too heavy to travel on the wind--ragweed blooms at the same time and doesn't bother with showy flowers because it's wind pollenated; it causes the allergy problems and goldenrod gets all the blame because it does produce showy flowers; Ben Franklin thought it should be our national flower, and Europeans have treasured it in their gardens for several hundred years)
Coneflower: Echinacea spp. (yes, the purple one "everybody" knows, but there are lots of others, too,)
Indian Blanket: Gaillardia spp. (the common name is because they come in combinations of yellows, oranges, and browns that remind people of ... well, you get the idea)
Blazing Star: Liatris spicata (lots of people know this one as a garden flower already, but not that it's a native)
Black-eyed Susan:Rudbeckia spp. (like Echinacea, one lots of people know, but comes in a lot more variety that you'd expect--and many forms and colors are available in the nursery trade)
Eastern Redbud: Cercis canadensis (small tree, early spring bloom, heart-shaped velvety leaves, great plant!)
American beautyberry: Callicarpa americana (attractive, open shrub with cool purple berries)
Southern Wax Myrtle: Morella cerifera (another berry shrub; this one has aromatic evergreen leaves)

and 3 more (for a baker's dozen) that are happy dry and that I wish I had:

Serviceberry: Amelanchier arborea (a shrub; berries ripen in early summer--great for birds!)
Pink Muhly grass: Muhlenbergia capillaris (beautiful ornamental grass.)
Adam's Needle: Yucca filamentosa (one tough plant, with beautiful white flowers!)

The section on Native Plants was contributed by Dr. Julie Newell.

Last updated: 2011-08-03 14:45