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Home › Departments and Agencies › Departments H - P › Public Utilities › Water and Sewer Divisions › Xeriscape Demonstration Garden |
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Xeriscape Demonstration Garden
The Wallingford Water Division wants to help residents save water outdoors with low-water-use garden designs.
Using seven basic principles of sound landscaping practice, a homeowner can manage and enjoy an investment in a beautiful and drought-tolerant garden environment. The benefits to the gardener include the ease and pleasure of a healthy, natural environment and reduced water and sewer bills compared to conventional landscaping.
The community is served when natural ecosystems of the area are preserved, including habitat for a valuable wildlife population. Birds, bees, and butterflies, as well as the food chain that they are part of, contribute to the health and beauty of the neighborhood.
The Town water utility is able to control its costs of operations and improve its service to all customers when water supply demands during peak hours of operation are reduced with efficient irrigation practices.
Since the spring of 1994, the Water Division has sought to examine and practice Xeriscape landscaping at its property at 377 South Cherry Street, in order to educate by example. A space of approximately 1800 square feet has been set aside to develop and practice the value of the Xeriscape principles:
1. Planning and Design: A good design aims to produce the highest quality landscape at the least possible cost with limited maintenance and water requirements.
In 1994 a landscape designer drew up a master plan for our demonstration garden to include a sequence of environments from shaded woodland to part-shaded fern and groundcover areas, sunny areas for a perennial flower bed, a rock area and climbing vines.
The plant varieties were chosen for hardiness in this area, as well as size, color, bloom time, and wildlife appeal, also to limit water use and maintenance needs.
2. Limited Turf Areas: Formally maintained and irrigated turf areas create the highest water use in landscapes. Physically limiting the square footage of turf to areas of functional use or to areas near entryways or other locations with frequent visual contact is an easy, quick way to reduce water need without sacrificing important visual impact.
All grass is excluded from our Xeriscape area for convenience. Other areas of turf on the premises flourish or suffer with weather conditions in contrast to the Xeriscape that can be maintained easily during the contrasting dry and wet growing seasons that were experienced from 1994 to 1999.
3. Efficient Irrigation: Irrigating turf areas separately from other plantings and separating high-water-use plantings from low-water-use plantings can be effective in saving water and in producing better quality plants.
Soaker hoses are placed among our various plantings to allow efficient watering when needed. A soil moisture meter is used to measure the approximate moisture level at the root zone of plants.
4. Soil Improvements: Soil improvements, based on site-specific soil analysis, promote moisture penetration and retention and make maximum moisture available for plant intake.
We had the soil tested by the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station in New Haven and learned that our soil type was sandy loam, the pH was 4, the organic matter content was medium, and fertility measured medium nitrogen and phosphorus with low potassium. Their laboratory recommended organic treatments of limestone for pH, cottonseed meal for nitrogen, bone meal for phosphorus and wood ash for potassium. The area was to be planted in the fall and soil amendment was embarked upon with a view to building the soil with compost, fertilizing as recommended, and planting a cover crop to maintain soil structure and fertility during the first summer.
5. Use of Mulches: Properly used, mulches benefit the landscape by reducing water needs, reducing weed growth, cooling the soil, preventing erosion, and providing visual interest.
The Town of Wallingford's recycling facility is our source of composted leaves for mulch.
6. Appropriate Maintenance: Routine maintenance keeps landscapes at peak attractiveness and helps reduce water use. Weeding, proper pruning, and irrigation-system adjustment are some maintenance practices that help reduce demands for water.
Natural fertilizing, hand weeding, pruning, mulching and efficient irrigating keep the garden healthy and attractive, reduce water needs, and promote a naturalistic garden that is easy to maintain and enjoy.
7. Plant Selection: Native and naturalized plants will survive on natural precipitation or with minimal amounts of supplemental irrigation. They provide insurance against loss of plant material during drought or other water supply crises and reduce the need for water on an ongoing basis.
Trees, shrubs, groundcover, vines and perennial flowers were chosen for their drought hardiness, pest-resistance, and low maintenance qualities as well as attractiveness. The result was an assortment of native, naturalized and hybridized plants that can be maintained with relative ease as an example of outdoor water conservation that recommends itself.
In our Xeriscape project, the most successful plant materials have been:
- Trees: Serviceberry (Amelanchier canadensis) River Birch (Betula nigra) Thornless Honey Locust (Gleditsia triacanthos)
- Shrubs: Crimson Pygmy Barberry (Berberis thunbergii) Butterfly Bush (Buddleia davidii) Annabelle Hydrangea (Hydrangea arborescens) Oakleaf hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia) Bush Rose (Rosa rugosa) Spirea (Spiraea x bumalda 'Anthony Waterer')
- Vines: Climbing Hydrangea (Hydrangea anamalo petiolaris)
- Perennial Flowers: Columbine (Aquilegia vulgaris) Tickseed (Coreopsis verticillata 'Moonbeam') Rose Mallow (Malva alcea and M. Moschata)
- Russian Sage (Perovskia verticillata) Black-Eyed Susan (Rudbeckia fulgida 'Goldsturm')
- Salvia (Salvia nemorosa "Lubeca') Sedum 'Autumn Joy'
- Ornamental Grasses: Blue Oat Grass (Helichtotrichon sempervirens) Black Fountain Grass (Pennisetum alopecuroides)
- Ferns: Hay-Scented Fern (Dennstaedtia punctiloba) Christmas Fern (Polystichum acrostichoides)
For more information on Wallingford Xeriscape contact Pat Crabtree at (203) 949-2672.
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