Water-wise gardening and a soil booster

You can save water and still have a beautiful garden. All it takes is noting moist and dry areas of your property and choosing the right plant for the right place.

• Think of your yard as radiating outwards from your house like a bull's-eye target. The wettest areas are closest to the house — particularly around outdoor faucets where water drips.
• The next wettest area is within reach of a 15 or 30 metre (50  or 100 foot) garden hose.
• Beyond the reach of your hose are the driest areas.
• For efficient water use and healthy plants, grow water lovers like ferns and woodland perennials near the house, and select drought-tolerant perennials with deep roots that can reach groundwater, such as coneflower, rudbeckia and ornamental grasses, outside the reach of your garden hose.
• If you live in a mild-winter climate, consider water-conserving garden plants that are native to South Africa, Australia and the Mediterranean.
• Or select plants that are native to your region, which are naturally adapted to your local soil and rainfall.

• Wood ashes from a fireplace or wood stove (not coal or charcoal ashes) are a free source of the plant nutrients potassium, calcium and phosphorus.
• They can also be used, like lime, to decrease soil acidity.
• Benefits of treating soil with ashes include improved hardiness and flavour of fruits.
• Be sure to apply in small amounts or compost well before applying to keep the caustic ashes from burning plants.
• Water-soluble nutrients can leach from ashes, so be sure to use fresh ones that have not been exposed to rain.

Wood ashes

1. Apply 2.5 to five kilograms (five to 10 pounds) of ashes per nine square metres (100 square feet) of garden in the fall.

2. To reduce soil acidity, use as a substitute for ground limestone. Apply up to twice as much wood ashes as limestone package recommends, and allow ashes to weather over the winter before planting.