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If you think a low-water-use garden can’t have much in it besides rocks and cactus, then look at the front yard of Tim Hill and Christine Watten, and think again.
A lush, Asian-themed oasis, their home garden contains beautiful, deceptively tough California natives as well as verdant plants from South Africa, Australia and other dry places. The plants are all perfectly adapted to living with drought — in fact, they thrive on it.
For Hill and Watten, the husband-and-wife team behind the award-winning Hill Dale Landscapes, the evolution to the low-water-use philosophy has come with time and experience. The couple work together to create and maintain landscapes for clients; Hill is a licensed landscape contractor and Watten, an artist and teacher, works with him on design.
“When I first moved into this house in 1992, I planted a lawn and birch trees,” recalls Hill, something he wouldn’t dream of doing today at his Monterey Peninsula home because of the amount of water it takes to support such landscaping.
Now, in their front yard, manzanita and California buckwheat team up with drought-tolerant non-natives such as seascape mat rush, grevillea and coast woolly bush, all Australian imports. There are also hellebore, a leafy Mediterranean shrub, and exotic-looking pincushion protea, a South African plant with long-lasting blossoms.
A number of succulents add grace notes to the garden, and these fleshy-leaved plants are well adapted to surviving harsh environments. They only need a little water every six weeks.
Hill Dale’s goal is to provide landscapes that don’t need water — or only a little bit — after the plants are well established. It’s a far cry from many traditional landscapes that require watering several times a week.
Hill said most people tend to overwater their gardens. Given the extreme drought conditions on the Central Coast this year, he said, it’s time to rethink watering practices.
Other features of Hill and Watten’s yard that help save water are stone paths and generous mulching — mulch helps feed the soil over time as it breaks down, and keeps moisture in the ground longer. A pond with a waterfall adds to the ambiance, as do lanky ceramic sculptures and plant containers.
In the backyard, their garden includes vegetable beds and “Roger’s Red” native California grapevines, as well as espaliered apple trees and other trees and shrubs.
All that, on a minimal amount of water. The couple say their average water bill is $110 a month. “That includes a lot of clothes washing,” Watten points out, due to the nature of their business.
Hill and Watten were recently featured in a New York Times article, “Brown is the New Green,” about how Californians are adapting to the drought. They have been leading a low-water-use life for some time now, and their goal is to show people how beautiful a garden can be, even on minimal water.
So how do they do it? Careful plant choice, for one: “We’re constantly searching for new plants, especially those that are unique or interesting,” said Watten.
When they find a drought-tolerant species, they will bring it home and try it out in their own yard before recommending it to clients. “This is our research and development,” said Hill.
Recently, they’ve sought out what Watten calls “soft plants,” those with tender, pliable foliage, as opposed to the spiky-looking plants that often make up drought-tolerant landscapes.
Hill and Watten also look for no-fuss plants that do well with minimal care and will grow well in sandy loam soil.
“We pick plants where the maintenance is very low,” said Hill. “All I’m doing is trimming them once a year to keep them from being overcrowded, and I’m not fertilizing, or fertilizing very little.”
Plants do need some water to get established, and watering during the first three years is important, said Hill. After that, though, many of the drought-tolerant plants they recommend will do perfectly fine without water in the dry months.
In fact, some native plants prefer the arid summers, and will do better if not watered. Although native ceanothus has a reputation for being short-lived, Watten said that’s because most people overwater it.
Hill said it’s important to be out in your garden on a regular basis, or to have someone who is, to see how the plants are doing. It sounds pretty basic, but that way you can monitor which are doing well without water, and which may need some supplemental water or other help.
Plants that are healthy will do better on a minimal water regime, so the couple continually build their soil by adding organic material.
The payoff, besides a low water bill? Seeing all the birds, insects and other creatures that visit the yard to feast on the native plants or make their home there.
“It’s a thrill to see that happen,” said Watten.
Hill Dale’s picks
Here is a list of Tim Hill and Christine Watten’s 10 favorite plants:
· Arctostaphylos pumila (sandmat manzanita), native, spreading ground cover
· Arctostaphylos silvicola (ghostly manzanita), native, 8-foot shrub
· Ceanothus rigidus (snowball ceanothus), native, spring bloomer
· Epilobium, many varieties (California fuchsia), fall blooms, hummingbird food
· Eriogonum (native buckwheats, many varieties), provides insect and bird food
· Grevillea “Superb,” Australian native with large coral-pink and yellow blooms
· Hellborus argutifolia (Corsican hellebore), good for dry shade once established
· Lomandra confertifolia “Seascape” (seascape mat rush), a soft grassy shrub
· Mimulus (Diplacus) (monkey flower), native flowering shrub, many varieties
· Verbena lilicana “De la Mina” (Cedros Island verbena), native flowering shrub