SAVE WATER. GO NATIVE.
It’s no secret that the Wild West is home to some wild water issues. Four important concepts will help you both conserve water and grow beautiful trees.
FIRST, install a drip irrigation system to ensure that your regular waterings are efficient and effective. For more info on calibrating your system, click here to see our drip irrigation page.
Remember that even native and drought-tolerant plants will not grow without access to water. As seedlings, most of our native trees develop long tap roots, to access deep soil moisture in dry spells. Newly planted trees have no access to deep moisture, but begin to develop a more capable root system over the first few years after planting. In the meantime, regular watering is essential to keep them alive. Later they can be “weaned off” of supplemental watering, but at a cost: much slower growth, and in some species, winter dieback. If zero water is your eventual goal, be sure to select a species that can survive it.
SECOND, use natives and other drought-tolerant plants. We highly encourage planting native species, which are well adapted to our arid climate, with its vast temperature extremes. Bear in mind however, that native tree options are somewhat limited, and not all native species will tolerate drought. Fortunately, similar climates around the globe have produced additional trees that thrive in our climate and tolerate some drought. In short, not all native trees are drought tolerant, and not all drought-tolerant trees are native here.
In fact, most of the trees we offer are rather drought resistant, to help ensure success for even the amateur gardener. Still, for our curated list of preferred native and water-wise trees, click here. Select the right tree for your purposes, soil, and location, and you’ll be off to a great start. Set up an appointment on our homepage if you’d like help selecting drought-resistant trees that fit your needs.
THIRD, care for your soil—many native trees can struggle due to soil limitations. Urban park strips and parking lot islands, landscapes around newly built homes, and even natural clay fields can all pose a threat to drought-tolerant trees, since they tend to thrive on good drainage. Visit our Deep Soil Aeration page to learn how to address heavy soil concerns.
