Low Maintenance -Xeriscaping

Sometimes, I think we just carry this too far.   One of the towns here
created a so-called xeriscape garden with native plants.   It is a
triangular piece of land that used to be a great tangle of growth where
a sideroad met the highway.  I used to enjoy driving past this area -
there used to be great splashes of wild red rosehips and white
Snowberries (Symphoricarpos alba) in the winter.  For many years, two
horses lived in the field behind this corner, between the two roads.
The sideroad was closed off several years ago with the widening of the
highway.  Now a bank is where the horses field was and we have a sample
"xeriscape" garden to teach us how to do it.  This is what the town
fathers and local experts did:

Tore out the tangle of native growth.
Installed a sprinkler system.
Planted, on a gentle slope, clumps of low-growing native
groundcovers/small               shrubs
Spread a thick layer of bark mulch over the whole triangle
Put an article in the newspaper expounding the wonders of it all,
including the
          explanation that the 'garden' won't need much water
Cost:  - hold onto your hat! - $85,000
A sign to EDUCATE us in wisdom of xeriscaping - cost:  $15,000

This kind of education we don't need!   For that kind of money, one
could purchase a 5-acre parcel of forest here - it wouldn't need mulch
and watering.   And the lovely tangle of native growth would still be
there on the corner, full of chickadees and robins - a real haven for
birds in an urbanized setting.  I doubt they bother to stop there now
that man has 'improved' it - not much interest in the neatly mulched
little hummocks for man or bird.

Man-made gardens are one thing and natural native growth is another.  It
doesn't have to be either/or though - I have inserted my garden into the
native growth, leaving some areas completely undisturbed.

Diane Pertson
Otter Point Haven otterpt@macn.bc.ca
Nature Notes from Vancouver Island
http://zapbc.com/nature.htm at
Parksville & Qualicum Beach Online http://zapbc.com
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