Flipping Your Grass: The Final Result

In the 43rd installment and part three of flipping your grass into a beautiful water-wise garden, I discuss the perfect plants to grow. for either a personal garden lawn or community garden.

Prepping Your Area

But first, before planting your garden, design it. Do you want tall plants intermingled with smaller plants, all tall plants, all small ones, or a cascading effect of tall, smaller, and small?

Install the water system. Even though you will grow drought-tolerant plants, you still need to establish them first, which takes regular watering. Drip systems work well for this because they allow you to meter the watering, thus ensuring the correct amount of water at the right time.

Next, are you putting in rock, gravel, or dirt? Any substrate has advantages and disadvantages.

Now, onto the good stuff. Here are tried and true plants to grow in your garden.

The Right Plants for Flipping Your Grass

🌵 Cactus plants (of which there are many) take very little water and repel many pests due to their sharp stickers.

🏵 Yarrow is a great addition to any drought-resistance garden. Multiple bushy flowers are on each sturdy stem in beautiful colors, including red, purple, peach, yellow, and white, with different shades of those colors.

🌻 Sunflowers can make a rock garden shine and make a bold statement. Small and mammoth sunflowers can be used as a backdrop or centerpieces.

🌿 Aloe doesn't need much water, and it's medicinal. Have a sunburn or mosquito bite? Aloe vera helps to calm the itch and pain.

🌼 Rockrose has a perfume aroma and displays large, papery flowers. It is fast-growing, loves the sun, and doesn't need much water to thrive.

🏵 Brittlebrush is a bush teeming with yellow daises that need minimal watering and offer a bright addition to a water-wise garden.

🌸 Crape Myrtle puts on quite a show in summer with gorgeous, showy blossoms that linger into fall. The beautiful, dark bark contrasts with bright pinks, purples, reds, and snow-white flowers.

🌼 Bougainvillea provides an instant tropical feel to your garden. It features vibrant, often vining blooms that peak in summer and bloom from early spring to late fall in milder climates.

🏵 Marigolds, with their strong, aromatic scent and mustard blooms, do quite well in a water-wise garden. The bonus is that they keep away nasty pests, so your plants stay healthy without being food to unwanted insects.

This is a small sample of plants that do well in deserts or without much water.

Do you have a water-wise garden? Post your pics below!

Happy Gardening!!

Hi, I'm Julia Nielsen, your guru gardener of 30 years. I have grown over 500 species of plants and add to my collection yearly. I'm on LinkedIn, www.linkedin.com/in/julianielsen so please check out my posts - like, comment, share, and hit the 🔔 for notifications. Enjoy gardening & murder mysteries; consider joining my newsletter, Musings & Mysteries. Visit my website, Jewels Writes and IG @hotmamagard