SunnyDryGarden

Wild Ginger Farm

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**This is the Reference area of the Wild Ginger Farm website. **

Plants listed on this page may not be available for sale at this time.

Please visit our mail order catalog to view currently available plants.

Some plants are available exclusively at our retail nursery.

Create a Sunny Dry Garden

Creating a garden that will not be irrigated during the dry season is a special challenge to gardeners. This is particularly true here in the Pacific Northwest where plants must be able to survive our persistent wet conditions in winter while also doing well during the very dry, warm months of summer. To make matters more challenging, heavy clay soils are common in our area. The physical characteristics of clay make it absorb and hold too much water in winter and become hard, dry and difficult to water in summer.

Ensuring good drainage will greatly help plants survive the wet months, while a generous layer of mulch will enable the soil to retain whatever moisture is available during the dry months. As described below, we have had excellent results using crushed rock as a mulch in the dry garden.

Plant selection is also critical to the success of the Dry Garden. We make a distinction between drought tolerant plants that will survive dry periods and dryland plants that thrive under these conditions. Drought tolerant plants survive but don't necessarily look their best without supplemental water. On the other hand, many dryland plants require dry conditions while the most adaptable plants can be grown in both irrigated and non-irrigated gardens.

Sunny Dry Garden

Sunny Dry Garden ©

Early Summer in Our Sunny, Dry Garden

This garden receives no supplemental summer water and we selected plants that thrive in dry summer conditions. The garden is situated on a sloping hillside which helps the winter rainfall drain away quickly. If created on a level site with poor drainage, the soil would have been mounded to create berms.

The beds were mulched with crushed rock (grit) ©

Mexican Feather Grass (Nasella tenuissima) rustles in the slightest breeze, bringing movement to the garden.

A series of dry garden beds were created as floating islands in this unirrigated lawn area. The garden beds were mulched with a generous 2-4" of grit (1/4 #10 crushed rock). The grit mulch very effectively cools the soil and helps retain any moisture during the summer months. Because it does not harden into a thick crust as do organic mulches such as crushed bark, it readily absorbs any rain that falls. As with other mulches, it also inhibits weeds.

Penstemon barbatus 'Coccineus' ©

Penstemon barbatus 'Coccineus' attracts hummingbirds over a long period in summer

Cistus albidus ©

The fuzzy leaves of the White-leaved Rockrose (Cistus albidus) helps it retain moisture

Agastache aurantiaca, Orange Hummingbird Mint ©

Orange Hummingbird Mint (Agastache aurantiaca) blooms well into the fall

Penstemon virgatus 'Blue Buckle' thrives under the hot dry conditions.

The vivid color of the Albanian Pink (Dianthus myrtinervius) is a real eye catcher in the early summer garden

What next?

Browse List of Dryland Plants or Succulents

Check Mail Order Catalog for Plant Availability

Problems? Comments? Questions?

Contact WEBMASTER