MG: Are you coping well with drought?

14 years ago

I was away in Australia & Polynesia and came back to a very dry Victoria,BC. It was so muggy in Honolulu but I arrived here to very dry conditions. Many gardens are bone dry. Yucca aloifolia is doing well in the garden. So are the cacti. I prefer rigid yuccas over the common droopy Y. recurvifolia.

I noticed Lemon Bottlebrush in southern Australia. It reminded me of the nice tree on Salt Spring Island. I have not noticed this type of bottlebrush at nurseries in Victoria.

The tall palm tree that was moved last year is ok. One out of three 6 ft windmill palms need tlc. The soil from its old garden turned into a solid mass. Probably during the big heatwave in Jul.

I'll plant large rhodos once the palms provide enough shade. The plan is to have fall-winter, early spring, native and late season specimens. Other nice trees to mix with palms are camellias & Magnolia grandiflora "Victoria". The "Victoria" is more compact that the regular grandiflora. The Strawberry tree was a great idea as the deer do not eat the foliage. Photinia is ok because I can use city water when it gets too dry. We can also water everything but I do not maintain a lawn. Too much water required in our summers. California lilac looks good but it's messy come summer. I'll phase it out with Fatsia. The variegated Fatsia did ok during the heatwave in Jul which was a nice surprise. It defoliated at 36C a few years ago. Laurels are coming up better than weeds. They have ripe berries and are flowering in shade. The type in the garden has narrow, deep green leaves. The small fig tree has produced nice fruit for the first time. I'll use cutting to add that same type of fig to the garden. I noticed a nice kiwi vine up-island with a good crop. We started two cultivars, one of which is the local Victoria-area Saanich cultivar. I'll be looking at your website.

Cheers

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Comments (5)

Mystery_Gardener
14 years ago
Hi Denis:

Sorry about the delay in responding, I have not been at this site for a while.

No drought problem now of course as it poured this weekend. We have a good producing well so water is seldom a problem.

The pine you gave me last year has filled out and looks great. I will probably plant it this fall along my new fence. The brug has gotten a little larger but it remained indoors for a long time with our very poor spring. Next year it should do better.

We would like to come by sometime and see your place, please let us know when a good time would be. Of course we are always open to a visit but there is not as much to see as we are nearing the end of blooming season.

Cheers,
MG
sharont
14 years ago
So you'all in Victoria, did you lose any shrubs or plants due to the dry desert like summer?

We've had wonderful blooms in our gardens as such not seen in recent years in Ontario. We usually have a month of drought. No patches of brown grass this summer!
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i'm coping by giving up, it sounds like i'm not alone! i had given up earlier in the summer but finally in july i gave up on everything and it looks now like it was a great decision. we still haven't had rain, i would be crazy by now if i had tried to save everything. now that most of my more expensive/favorite plants are dead i don't seem to care as much. this spring i spent tons of money (as usual) planting all kinds of things and they all got fried, i could never get them established. i had to let them all die and become crispy. the last thing i tried to do was to go out and get a lettuce patch growing for autumn but by watering the lettuce to get it to grow i attracted deer to the yard and they have eaten it all, the deer will come right up to houses in a suburban neighborhood and eat when the drought is this bad. now my only projects that require water are a small 4x4 bed of evergreen bunching onion seeds that i have been watering, they don't seem to want to germinate though, and also a small patch also about 4x4 foot of corn that i am watering as an experiment to see how late in the year i could grow corn to maturity. oh and i planted a bed of kale as well, it too hasn't yet germinated but i expect it to. one of my few successes is a single rose that i grew from cutting this year, it was the only rose to live out of about 15 cuttings. this one rose i keep watering out in the vegetable garden and it is happy as a clam lol. my one bright spot! people not in the drought i know they must think right you people just should not give up like that all you have to do is go out and water everything, they just don't understand that you can't keep tender plants alive when the drought is killing TREES. this place is like a desert that doesn't know it is a desert yet, we just haven't had any rain.
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eddie ,you hit the nail on the head. We can all be great garden gurus but with Master Gardener Volunteers it is more about the people we help. You must possess or LEARN people skills and be willing to concentrate how to help others . Many times people are grieving for a diseased plant,it could have had sentimental value.Sometimes they are feeling depressed because a plant dying makes them feel like a failure.Being in Florida we get many Top Gardeners from the north who come here thinking they can grow 12 months a year and want the same monster tomatoes and killer zuchinis only to discover they must cope with 12 months of bugs, lifeless sand,scorching heat ,and fungus from humidity. These once confident gardeners given the right tools and materials to educate them will soon be back to picking tomatoes but will have learned to do it in a different way. One new to the area gal wanted to cut down her 3 dead pine trees. I lived nearby and decided to take a look as pine borers have been killing many trees. It was winter and they were not pines but 2 bald cypress and a jacaranda tree! Thankfully she asked for help before cutting them down! An elderly woman was concerned about her gardening efforts at her age and how she could still amend her soil when she cannot lug 40 lb bags around any more. Mentioning how helpful red wagons are in my garden her voice lit up with excitement .Seems she had one in her garage and loved the idea of putting it to use. These people become our friends and friends are better to collect then gardening awards. That's what makes Master Gardening worthwhile.
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den_vic
Original Author
14 years ago
Yes, MG is close to Victoria and I'm in Greater Victoria but at a distance from the ocean. So my temps are lower in Jan and higher in Jul.

Things burned again this summer because it was very El Nino-ish. But I'm better equiped for summer drought. I also used to live in Ontario where drought were short and not severe near the Nickel Belt but I had frost in early June and late Sept on most years. I could usually depend on the rain in Ontario. I just can't do that in Greater Victoria. I lost another rhodo but once I get better shade my rhodos should do well with summer. My problem this summer is that I had to travel so the garden got less watering.

This image probably gives you an idea on the dry summer conditions.

Here is a link that might be useful: Summer on southern Vancouver Island
den_vic
Original Author
14 years ago
The garden is mostly foliage and I have even fewer flowers thanks to the deers. They have decided to eat my blue hybiscus. I did away with grass at the back and turned it into veggie gardens and patio slabs. The grass would never look good in summer and would be green but muddy in winter. I found a clean solution that serves me all year. This photo shows a tree surrounded by patio stones. The small area around the tree serves to plant bulbs. A bit of veggie garden can be seen. It was just added. So imagine a terraced backyard with no lawn. Note that the tree will not lift the patio stones unlike a hardwood or a growing conifer.

Here is a link that might be useful: Patio tree
Mystery_Gardener
14 years ago
Hi Den:

I too have been slowly eliminating lawn areas. Our soil (and rain) is quite acidic and grass prefers alkaline. It is a constant battle to make it look good, I prefer investing my time in plants and shrubs instead ;-)

Nice photo of your patio tree, I know you love the tropicals.

The brug you gave us has 'Y'ed and is producing a bud. I do not know if it will actually flower before it gets too cold but I am keeping my fingers crossed.

Cheers,
MG

Here is a link that might be useful: Our website

MG: Are you coping well with drought?

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MG: Are you coping well with drought?

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Mystery_Gardener

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