Free Issue! Try Saltscapes Magazine before you buy. Download Now

But don’t despair if this season has been an exasperating one for your gardening activities. To begin with we’re technically barely into summer. We still have weeks and weeks to add new plants to our gardens, and to fix garden challenges due to weather, or ongoing problems that we hadn’t yet gotten around to solving. Whether you’re dealing with shady growing sites, or hot, dry, sunny conditions, there are plants for every situation.

High and dry

If you’re used to coping with hot, dry weather (and limited water resources), you’re probably unconcerned by the dry spells we’ve been experiencing. Your garden likely has plenty of xerophyte plants that don’t require a lot of water once established. But if you’re not used to such weather, what can you do with your existing plantings?

Mulch, mulch, mulch

Sometimes I feel like a record stuck on repeat, but it bears repeating: mulch is one of the most valuable investments you can make for your garden. Organic mulches, such as those composed of bark, straw, or even shredded newspaper, will break down over time and supply organic material and small amounts of nutrients to the soil. Applied correctly (at least an inch or two, not a mere scattering) they will help to prevent weed seeds from germinating. And most importantly for those dealing with dry growing conditions, they keep soil cool and help it to retain some of that precious moisture that you want going to your plants rather than evaporating back into the air.

Add more compost

If you’re expanding an existing planting or adding a new one, remember to add generous amounts of compost to the soil. Compost is a gentle fertilizer that supplies a variety of plant nutrients, but also improves soil whether you have clay that holds too much moisture or sandy soil that doesn’t hold enough.

Water well, not often

I’m a tough-love sort of gardener when it comes to watering. Container plantings, the tomatoes and herbs in the greenhouse, newly planted shrubs or trees, and just-divided perennials are the only parts of our garden that get watered. Containers need daily watering, but clustering a number of them together can actually help reduce watering frequency. Fruit and vegetable crops need a regular supply of water in order to grow to good size, but most well-established landscape plants can usually tolerate a rain-free period of a few days or even weeks with only an occasional watering.

In the interest of saving you time, well resources, or money, if you’re on a metered water supply, here’s a piece of advice. Unless you have young children who enjoy playing in the water as a treat, throw away the old-fashioned lawn sprinklers that fling water all over the yard. They are not effective ways of delivering water to lawns or garden plantings; much of the water evaporates off foliage and flowers before it has a chance to soak into the soil. A drip or trickle hose works far better, for ornamental or vegetable gardens: simply place these sorts of hoses so that water coming from them soaks directly into the soil rather than splashing all over the garden. Not only is this a more economical and efficient means of watering, it helps reduce the potential spread of disease due to overly-wet foliage.

Add xerophytic plants to your gardens

Let me stress again: you have plenty of time to plant additional perennials, trees or shrubs in your gardens. I keep adding plants until early autumn, when I switch to planting spring bulbs. Xerophytes, or drought-tolerant plants, can be shrubs, trees, annuals or perennials. They often have silver or grey foliage, sometimes with a fuzzy or wooly texture, or may have very succulent leaves. These features help to reduce water loss or damage from excessively warm, dry sun and wind conditions. Plants with taproots that plunge deep into the soil are also usually quite tolerant of periods of low rainfall.

Given that they are tolerant of dry soil with minimal rainfall, you need to have excellent drainage for xerophytic plants to be able to survive winter in Atlantic Canada. Some are more tolerant of wet soil than others: while rose campion (Lychnis coronaria) does brilliantly in my garden, I am hopelessly unable to overwinter Russian sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia) and simply grow it as an annual because I like its airy growth habit and blue flowers in early autumn. Be aware also that plants with taproots dislike being transplanted or divided, so make sure to situate them where you want them.

Made for the (dry) shade

Although some gardening authorities will list about half a dozen different types of shade, based both on soil moisture and on the amount of light that a site receives, for simplicity’s sake we’re going to go with two main categories. Unless an area is underneath a deck or in a deeply wooded location, chances are it will receive sun for at least a couple of hours a day.

The more important question to ask is whether your shady garden location tends (in an average year) to have moist or dry soil. Just because an area is shaded from the hot sun most of the day, doesn’t mean its soil will be moist. This is especially true when your home is surrounded by a number of mature trees, especially deciduous species that send their roots out for dozens of yards in all directions in search of moisture. Dry shade is a real challenge, because many plants that like it dry also require sun, while those that are content to grow in shade also tend to require ample soil moisture.

What can you do if you have dry shade? If you have mature trees with large, shallow roots, you can often create little planting nooks, adding soil between the roots and tucking plants into those locations. Make sure the soil you add is rich with compost or other organic matter, which will help to retain moisture as well as provide nutrients to your plants—soil under trees is also often nutrient-deprived along with being dry. As with dry, sunny sites, mulching around your plants will help to retain moisture. If you’re putting in new perennials or shrubs, be prepared to water them regularly to help them get established; once they’ve settled in (usually after their first growing season), you shouldn’t have to water unless there is an extreme drought—which is highly unlikely in Atlantic Canada, although it seems nothing is utterly impossible with weather conditions.

Many plants will tolerate dry, shady sites once they have established themselves. Some perennials, such as bleeding heart (Dicentra) and Astilbes will go dormant if weather continues to be hot and dry for more than a few days, but will re-emerge from the soil once conditions are more to their liking, usually in late summer or early autumn.

You may decide that there are some plants that you simply must water because you are so fond of them that you’re willing to invest that time and possible expense to nurture them. If you’re a vegetable gardener or have fruit trees and shrubs, you know that you need to provide adequate water and fertilizer in order to get good yields from your crops. Likewise, if you have a fondness for roses, hostas, or hydrangeas, you’ll probably choose to provide these plants with water while letting others fend for themselves. It all depends on your preferences.

What about the lawn?

If it continues to be a dry summer, put the lawn mower away for a while. Cutting the grass to the height of a putting green just sends it into dormancy or death, making the lawn unpleasantly brown. Letting it grow longer between mowing also helps to reduce germination of weed seedlings—the longer grass blades act as a living mulch.

If you’re creating a new lawn, look for a grass seed mixture that includes clover, which not only stays green in dry conditions, it feeds the soil, and also fescue, which are slow-growing and drought tolerant. Wildflower Farm in Ontario sells an excellent, low-maintenance and sustainable grass mixture called Eco-Lawn™, which is gathering rave reviews across North America. You can learn more about this product at www.wildflowerfarm.com.

Is that rain I hear on the roof?

Plants for the dry garden, sunny sites:

Plants with grey or silver, sometimes-furry foliage: yarrow (Achillea), rose campion (Lychnis coronaria), wormwoods, (Artemisia), lambs ears (Stachys), some of the sages (Salvia), and mullein (Verbascum).

Plants with deep tap root systems: poppies (Papaver), false indigo and lupins (Baptisia and Lupinus), gas plant/dittany (Dictamnus), milkweed or butterfly weed (Asclepias), sea holly (Eryngium).

Species native to the prairies and other dry, sunny locales: coneflowers (Echinacea), blazing-star (Liatris), yucca, some of the grasses such as blue fescue (Festuca) and silver grass (Miscanthus).

Plants with succulent, water-holding foliage: There are numerous types of sedums, both trailing and clump-forming, houseleeks or hen-and-chicks (Sempervivum), spurges (Euphorbia) and perennial ice plant (Delosperma).

Shady sites:

Ground covers such as wild ginger (Asarum), periwinkle (Vinca), deadnettle (Lamium), and bishop’s cap (Epimedium).

Other perennials include wood fern (Dryopteris), coral-bells (Heuchera), cranesbills (Geranium), daylilies (Hemerocallis), bellflowers (Campanula), and common foxgloves (Digitalis)

Shrubs include St. John’s Wort (Hypericum), snowberry (Symphoricarpus), Japanese barberry (Berberis), smoke bush (Cotinus), northern bayberry (Myrica), cotoneaster, and most of the junipers.

Other Stories You May Enjoy

A Bird’s Eye View

Springtime is the busiest season for birds. Each species has a predictable pattern of post-winter activity that centres around raising youngsters. Many males sport brilliant feathers to attract the...

The Gentle Art of Rock Gardens

Create a mini, mountainous terrain in a plot—or a pot

Spring is in the Air

Step out into your backyard one warm sunny day this month and listen to the noise. Dozens of birds are singing their most beautiful songs to attract a mate, often all at the same time. Spring has...