PAGE 2 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
SATURDAY, APRIL 18, 2015
HOME & GARDEN
Not all landscaping requires a lot of water
Xeriscaping
provides attractive
areas with time and
cost benefits
DEFINITIONS
BY SEAN HART
HERMISTON HERALD
People who do not want
to spend the time and mon-
ey watering landscaping
features can utilize xeri-
scaping techniques to create
aesthetically pleasing areas
that require little water.
Xeriscaping
simply
means designing an envi-
ronment that minimizes the
need for water, and nursery
manager Gail Redberg said
people can choose certain
plants that grow well with
only natural precipitation,
Xeriscaping (zeer-i-skey-
ping), noun: environmental
design of residential and
park land using various
methods for minimizing the
need for water use. Origin:
1980-85; xer(ic) + (land)
scaping.
Xeric (zeer-ik), adjective: of,
relating to or adapted to a
dry environment.
--Information from Dictio-
nary.com.
even in Umatilla County.
“Xeriscaping is land-
scaping your space with
plants that thrive on very
little water, and the goal for
most people that do xeri-
scaping is to be able to have
either minimal doses of wa-
ter in the hottest part of the
WIKI COMMONS PHOTO
This picture shows blue fescue, an ornamental grass that
can be grown in this region as a candidate for a xeriscaped
garden, according to OSU Extension Service.
summer or else none at all
after they’ve established
them,” she said.
Redberg, interim nurs-
ery manager of the Confed-
erated Tribes of the Umatil-
la Indian Reservation Tribal
Native Plant Nursery, said
people can xeriscape all or
only a portion of a property,
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as any landscaping proj-
ect: analyzing the aspect,
soil and slope of the space
and then selecting proper
plants.
“Usually, in any kind of
yard, there are microcli-
mates within a landscape, so
you might have one side of
your house that because of
a tree or the way the house
is situated on the property
that it’s really in fairly deep
shade for a portion of the
day — you choose the type
of plant that suits that loca-
tion,” she said. “The other
thing (with xeriscaping) is
there are some water con-
servation tactics. You want
to have the opportunity to
conserve as much water in
your soil as possible.”
Redberg said moisture
can be conserved by cov-
ering the soil with a weed
barrier mulch and then cov-
ering that with pebbles or
bark.
According to “An In-
troduction to Xeriscaping
in the High Desert” by the
Oregon State University
SEE XERISCAPING/11
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