Help Drought-Proof Your Garden

If you're tired of watering to keep your garden going through a hot, dry summer, take a few tips from Denver Botanic Gardens' Panayoti Kelaidis.

- Sherri Ribbey

He's had to learn how to create a good-looking garden that thrives through heat and drought and has some advice that can help all of us.

PANAYOTI KELAIDIS

Director of Horticulture Outreach, Denver Botanic Gardens

RIGHT PLANT, RIGHT PLACE For starters, Panayoti suggests doing an inventory of your yard with an eye out for microclimates. Make sure you're growing drought-tolerant plants in the driest spots and not trying to baby something along that isn't happy there. You might find dry microclimates at the top of a slope or even in the shade of shallow-rooted trees. Most common are spots near driveways, house foundations or retaining walls, where heat from the sun is often reflected onto the garden. Panayoti likes to say that the north side of his house is like Alaska, and the south side is like Arizona. He grows ferns and woodland plants on the north side, while xeric plants make their home on the hot, dry Arizona side. If a plant is struggling, it's probably not in the right place.

HOW PLANTS TOLERATE DROUGHT Characteristics that help plants through dry times include large, thick or fleshy root systems and leaves that are slender, succulent, waxy or fuzzy.

Prairie plants, such as little bluestem, purple coneflower and cup plant, grow roots deep into the soil to seek out moisture. Fleshy bulbous roots or bulbs of all types, including the foxtail lily at right and the woody rhizomes of bearded iris, store water. Small-leaved herbs, such as lavender, rosemary and fennel, are able to withstand long periods without rain.