Dry to Dazzling: Beautiful Xeriscape Gardens with Elaine Jamerson

In this episode of “The Evergreen Thumb,” we delve into the world of xeriscape gardening, exploring the art of creating water-wise landscapes in the unique climate of Washington State. Join us as we unravel the principles of xeriscape gardening, sharing practical tips on plant selection, soil improvement, and water-conserving techniques.

Discover the beauty of sustainable serenity as we showcase a success story from Kittitas County, Washington’s xeriscape garden, proving that thriving landscapes can be achieved while preserving precious water resources. Guest Elaine Jamerson unravels common misconceptions, and provides insights into the environmental benefits.

Elaine was born and raised in Sumner, WA., and transplanted to Kittitas County 23 years ago. She started her Master Gardener journey in 2018 and has been enjoying and learning since. She lives on a small farm and grows as much of her own food as possible. Her passion is preserving the harvest, and being able to share it with family and friends.

We discuss:

• Plant Selection
• Watering techniques
• Incorporating fire-wise features
• Misconceptions about xeriscaping

• WSU Publication: Gardening with Native Plants in the Inland Northwest
• WSU Shore Stewards Publication on Xeriscaping
• Benton-Franklin County MG Article on Xeriscape Gardening
• Article by Chelan County PUD on Xeriscape Gardens
• Washington Native Plant Society
• Directory of Conservation Districts in Washington
• Kittitas County Master Gardener Program
• Support the Master Gardener Program and/or Master Gardener Foundation of Washington State

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[00:00:00] Erin: Welcome to the Evergreen Thumb episode 13. My guest today is Elaine Jamerson. She is here today to talk about xeriscaping. Elaine is a Kittitas County Master Gardener. She was born and raised in Sumner, Washington, and transplanted to Kittitas 23 years ago. Elaine started her Master Gardener journey in 2018 and has been enjoying and learning ever since.

She lives on a small farm where she grows as much of her own food as possible, and her passion is preserving the harvest and being able to share it with family and friends. Elaine, welcome to the show.

[00:00:42] Elaine: Thank you.

[00:00:43] Erin: So to start off, um, how about tell us a little bit about yourself and, um, your background as a master gardener?

[00:00:49] Elaine: Okay, I was born and raised in Sumner, Washington, and transplanted to Kittitas County 23 years ago. I became a master gardener in 2018 and have been loving it and learning since.

[00:01:05] Erin: All right. So today we’re here to talk about xeriscape gardens. And so to start, I guess, start off, tell us what is xeriscaping?

[00:01:13] Elaine: Xeriscaping, uh, the word xeris comes from the Greek and it means dry. So dry gardening, dry landscaping, and it’s being able to plan and implement a garden or landscape that does not require a lot of water.

[00:01:31] Erin: Okay. Okay. So, and you and your team of master gardeners built a garden in Kittitas County. Correct?

[00:01:40] Elaine: Yes. Yes.

[00:01:41] Erin: Um, so can you tell us a little bit more about that garden and, and how it came about?

[00:01:46] Elaine: Yes, our, we had a small garden at our, at the armory in Kittitas County where our master gardener office is, and it was in need of a makeover. It had a lot of plants that were too close to the building or too large for the spots they were in.

And so we decided we needed to do an overhaul, but we had a nice pergola there and we had some nice rose bushes there. So we chose to keep the pergola and the rose bushes in place and we ripped out all the other plants that were there and repurposed them as best we could into other people’s areas. And then we worked with our county conservation district, and they helped us plan and select.

The plants that we were going to use to get this garden. And then we had another area that had been lawn before. So we brought in an excavator and removed all the sod from that area and went to work and we started in May. And by October, we were finished and, um, that was with just a few volunteers working on it.

So it isn’t that hard and it didn’t take that long, but we, um, reused what we could that we had that was existing and brought in gravel to make, uh, we brought in crushed rock for our pathway and we reused some washed rock that we have and brought in more washed rock and, um, Then we, we chose selected plants that were all natives, all things that would be, could grow well in our area.

And, um, in the end, we were able to become a certified heritage garden by the county conservation district here because of our choice of plants and our low water use.

[00:03:53] Erin: Okay, so that that low water use factor is kind of the key. In, in this type of gardening, right? Especially in the drier climate I can see that the benefits. What are some other advantages of xeriscape gardens?

[00:04:07] Elaine: Well, the advantages of xeriscape, one of the main things is you can do it gradually. You don’t have to go in and tear out your whole landscape and start from scratch.

You can have your existing landscape with lawn or whatever you have, and then just start in one small place and put in a few plants and see what you like and what you don’t like, and then just go from there, and it’s way less maintenance than a conventional garden and the ability to use native plants, no matter what part of the state you’re in, the ability to use native plants of your area is a huge benefit because they will be adapted to your garden.

Uh, your rainfall or your water supply and you also reduce runoff because you aren’t using so much water. That’s going to run off and cause erosion or run into the stormwater. And you can again, you can use. your existing plants and work with them and add to those with plants that have like watering needs.

[00:05:20] Erin: So you mentioned native plants being, um, some of the best choices. What are some of the resources you use, the conservation, your local conservation district? To help select plants. Is that right?

[00:05:32] Elaine: We went to the conservation district, but there are, uh, the Washington Native Plant Society has a great website and a lot of things listed there.

And there are several, uh, nurseries and seed companies in the state that offer native plant seeds for different areas of the state and different native plants that you can get.

[00:05:56] Erin: Great. So are there any disadvantages to xeriscape gardens?

[00:06:01] Elaine: There are a few. For one, it takes a little getting used to the look for some people.

They just aren’t sure about the curb appeal of the, the look of not a green lawn with shrubs and flowers up near your house. They just, some people just don’t like that look. And it can be a little bit expensive. The outlay of, of expense at the start can be a little bit much. If you choose to use weed fabric or landscape fabric.

That can be an expense, and then some of the rock can be expensive or stone, whatever you choose to use. But there are a lot of more inexpensive alternatives out there. There’s like in, in the choices of rock and stone, there’s a lot of choices. in, uh, different types of stone and rock that you can get. So you don’t have to have a huge outlay at one time.

And if you start small, you can make it doable and just work into it gradually as you have the time and the money.

[00:07:03] Erin: So the stone that you used was that as like a mulch or for paths or both?

[00:07:10] Elaine: We did both. We have, um, washed rock. 5 feet out from the building all the way around our garden to demonstrate FireWise, because in our area, people are very interested in FireWise landscaping.

And we’ve been working with a lot of people in the community. They want to know about FireWise. They want to know about WaterWise. And so, having this 5 feet of rock, we used large wash rock, about 2-inch washed rock, 5 feet out, and then we made a crushed rock pathway, and then where we have plants, we have, uh, what’s called maintenance sand, which is a real fine, sandy gravel that’s easy to work with and easy to plant in, and then that, we have our plants in that, and that is our top dressing over it ,over that, where, where we have plants.

[00:08:05] Erin: Well, that, that kind of covers my next question was about mulching and water conservation, which is, um, you pretty much covered. So, what are some of the common misconceptions about xeriscape gardens?

[00:08:16] Elaine: Oh, there are many. Um, the main one that I, I think of is people think of xeriscape and they think it’s this barren, rocky, or just soil with a cactus or something in it, and that’s what they think of as xeriscape. And it, it isn’t that look at all. It doesn’t have to be that look. That would be more of the Zeroscape, which is just your mulch kind of a rock garden, but you can have different plants in a Xeriscape garden that will bloom from early spring to fall by mixing your selection of plants up.

You can have color early spring through fall. You can mix in cool-season grasses and warm-season grasses. So you have different sizes and different colors. Color and texture at different times of the year, and they can be really pretty gardens. They don’t have to be sparse at all as they tend to grow up and your plants get larger after a couple of seasons. They can become very nice-looking.

[00:09:27] Erin: So what were some of your favorite plants that you put in that garden?

[00:09:32] Elaine: My very favorite is, it’s called Desert Globe Mallow, and it’s a really nice plant. A very low water use and it is, um, has beautiful orange flowers. little flowers on it that are pollinator attractors and other beneficial attractors, and it’s just, it blooms and blooms and blooms. It will self-seed a little, but I did harvest some of the seed this year, so hopefully we’ll have some more of that next year. And then we also have a lot of different types of penstemon that we planted. And they bloom at different times of the year.

They’re different colors. Some of them are lower-growing and some are larger. And so they’re, that’s just a really nice mixture and some really nice grasses.

[00:10:25] Erin: Yeah, penstemons are nice because they’ve got the nice deep flowers that the hummingbirds like, and you can get lots of different colors and sizes and that’s one of my favorite flowers.

We’re taking a quick break to tell you all about the WSU Extension Master Gardener Program’s Endowed Chair Campaign. WSU Extension Master Gardeners use knowledge to empower healthy and resilient communities. But what if we could do more? The WSU Extension Master Gardener Program is raising 1. 5 million dollars to hire a horticulture professor fully dedicated to the program and to the volunteers who give their time and talents.

This professor, or endowed faculty chair, will teach new and existing WSU Extension Master Gardeners cutting-edge horticulture and environmental stewardship in perpetuity. They will create tools to support volunteer outreach, such as publications and fact sheets. They’ll represent the program locally, statewide, nationally, and internationally, and partner and collaborate with like-minded organizations to leverage program strengths, and finally, they will conduct meaningful research and develop robust curricula that will build upon our program and find solutions to address difficult challenges like pollinator decline, increasing number of wildfires, food security, and climate change.

Learn how your gift will support a greener, healthier Washington when you give to the WSU Extension Master Gardener Endowed Chair Fund at mastergardener.wsu.edu/how-to-donate/. That’s how hyphen to hyphen donate. Links will be in the show notes for this episode.

Erin: Were there any other misconceptions that, that you wanted to share?

[00:12:13] Elaine: Well, I think people think it, it can be kind of boring. Um, Or that you can’t have grass and it, you can still have a xeriscape garden and keep a patch of grass, like, in a play area or an area where you might want to sit in your lawn or something. You can still have that and have maybe a lower. Water use grass planted, or you could have your regular traditional lawn and then have xeriscaping with it.

So it doesn’t have to be all or nothing. And then you just again, in the choice of rock and different types of stone and different sizes of rock that you can use, um, it just, it’s not dull and it’s not boring.

[00:13:00] Erin: All right. So we talked a little bit about water conservation and, um, that xeriscaping can prevent runoff, but what about other environmental sustainability benefits to xeriscape?

[00:13:13] Elaine: If you use a sprinkler to water, the sprinkler is watering everything in its path. It’ll water the sidewalk and the weeds and everything else. But if you use drip irrigation, which would be highly recommended, you can adjust how much water you have to a certain area.

If you have plants that need higher water needs, you can group those together. And then you can work your way out as far as how much water you need. But with drip irrigation, you can add more emitters. You can add drip line that has more holes per foot or that’s larger in diameter, so it’ll give you more water.

And you can go then in an area where you don’t need that. You can do less water to plants that require less water. So you’re not just watering everything the same. And that’s a really big deal for those who are trying to conserve water. And it’s, it, it also prevents your weeds from growing if you’re watering only where you have plants, you can prevent yourself from watering the weeds, which is a nice thing.

Also, for sustainability, it reduces maintenance, um, for mowing a lawn and trimming, weeding, any chemical inputs a person might use. You can eliminate a lot of that by going to more water-conserving plantings.

[00:14:47] Erin: So what is the weed pressure like in a Xeriscape garden? Is it lower than your typical ornamental bed?

[00:14:55] Elaine: I think that’s going to depend on where you’ve planted because if you planted in an area that you really had weed pressure before, you’re going to fight the weeds for a while. Eventually, whatever you’ve used for mulch is going to help you get rid of those weeds. Some people use landscape fabric underneath whatever their mulch is, but a nice heavy coat of mulch will really help keep the weeds down. It will really help with, with that. And then by conserving water, you’re not watering weeds, not encouraging them to grow.

[00:15:31] Erin: All right. So, um, so what was the deciding factor to actually make a xeriscape garden as opposed to a typical ornamental garden?

[00:15:42] Elaine: Well, because of learning about, um, fire-wise and water-wise as a master gardener and having so many community members come in asking what is recommended to plant or how they could do that. Because people just aren’t sure where to start with that. We decided that since our garden needed a makeover, it would be a good way to demonstrate to the community some of the principles of xeriscape gardening and fire-wise if we had a demo garden there to be able to showcase that for the public.

[00:16:19] Erin: All right, so can you explain a little bit because you’ve mentioned fire-wise a couple of times. I know you said you have a 5-foot ring of rock around the bed. Can you explain what fire-wise is and how that fits into that?

[00:16:31] Elaine: Yes, Firewise is keeping plantings away from a building or having things that are trimmed up.

So they aren’t shrubby right at a building; um, it’s recommended to be 5 feet away from any building with, and having no plants in that space, or if you have plants in that space, something that’s not woody, maybe daylilies or some kind of succulents. If you had something in that area or containers that could be moved away, but the recommended distance from a building to have any, uh, tree or shrub would be at least 5 feet.

And so we just used a different type of rock. To make that 5-foot line, so it was easy to see how far out 5 feet is from the building and that it doesn’t look like half your area is bare.

[00:17:28] Erin: Okay. And so the, the purpose of that is if there is a wildfire, then it’s less likely to come right up to the building. Is that correct?

[00:17:37] Elaine: That’s correct. And then it wouldn’t climb any, uh, Any tree or shrub that’s planted there, the fire wouldn’t climb that and head toward the building.

[00:17:48] Erin: Is there anything else that you would like to add about the garden? The garden you built in particular or xeriscaping in general?

[00:17:55] Elaine: I just think that people should have a look. If they, if they don’t; if you don’t think they like the look or they aren’t sure what the look is, get a look at some, because, and they aren’t just in central and eastern Washington, there, there’s resources on the west side, too, where there are some real nice gardens that are put together, but these gardens, the first couple of years, they do require a little bit more water, but then after that, they don’t require much more water than what Mother Nature provides

In a year’s time, these plants should be adapted to that, but these gardens can just be really pretty and really a nice attraction to a business or a home and they are pollinator attractors and they attract a lot of beneficials as well.

[00:18:49] Erin: Okay, do you know of any other xeriscape gardens in particular that we could share?

[00:18:57] Elaine: On this side, in central Washington, Benton Franklin Master Gardeners have a nice one down in Benton Franklin County. And then, um, in Wenatchee, Chelan Douglas Master Gardeners have a very nice xeriscape garden. I think there’s a couple of them actually up there.

[00:19:15] Erin: Well, we’ll try to include links or photos to those in the show notes. Um, and I’ll do some research and find some on the West side. I’m sure there’s multiples that are in, um, on the West side here.

[00:19:26] Elaine: There is at the Arboretum in, I believe, King County Arboretum, but I’m not positive on, on which Arboretum.

[00:19:35] Erin: Any last thoughts that you’d like to add?

[00:19:38] Elaine: No, I don’t think so, other than give it a try. It’s a good choice for all areas and you can start small, but give it a try.

[00:19:49] Erin: All right. Well, thanks for so much for being here today and talking to us about Xeriscape and a little bit about Firewise too.

[00:19:56] Elaine: Thank you.