9 ideas for protecting your plants from drought

Whether drought is a constant or an occasional fact of life in your region, find out all the ways to protect the plants in your garden from drought.

Plants develop shallow root systems and become more vulnerable to drought if you water them frequently.

• Instead, water less often — but slowly and deeply. This encourages deep root growth, which makes plants better able to search out scant moisture in the soil.

• Using a bubbler, soaker hose or drip-irrigation system, wet the soil to a depth of 30 centimetres for flowers and 45 to 60 centimetres for trees and shrubs.
• Test how deep the water has penetrated by pounding an iron rod one centimetre thick into the soil. It will slide easily through wet soil but stop where the soil becomes dry.

• Stave off the effects of drought by mulching plants before hot weather strikes.

The insulation provided by mulch makes plant roots less vulnerable to damage from surface heat and dryness.

On a hot day, an eight-centimetre  layer of shredded leaves will keep the soil as much as 10°C cooler than any nearby beds that remain unprotected.

Compost goes a long way towards drought-proofing your garden.

• Use it as a soil amendment and as mulch to help the soil retain moisture.
• Spread a layer of compost about five centimetres deep over beds and dig it 30 to 45 centimetres into the soil before planting, then add another layer as mulch.

When watering is restricted by law, use "grey water" from the kitchen sink, bathtub or even your washing machine to irrigate your plants.

Many ornamentals in particular thrive on the phosphates in detergents, which provide potash.

The soap also acts as an insecticide. Just be sure that the detergent you use doesn't contain bleach, boron or other toxic substances.

• Pour the soapy water gently over the plants, applying it to each spot no more than once a week.
• Alternate the applications with fresh water so that soaps won't build up in the soil.
• No-no's for gray water include vegetables and other edible plants, ferns and similar shade-loving plants as well as acid-loving plants, such as azaleas, rhododendrons and violets.

Dormancy is grass's natural defense against drought. If it appears that a drought is going to drag on for a while, stop watering your lawn.

• Once the grass goes dormant — usually in one to two weeks — give it only one centimetre of water every two weeks.
• The roots and buds will stay alive without resuming growth.

• Clover is more drought resistant than most turf grasses, and will stay green through the driest days of summer.

Another reason to grow it: because it absorbs nitrogen directly from the atmosphere, it also works as a fertilizer, amending soil that may later be bedded with plants.

• Plant drought-tolerant flowers for colour.

Annuals that withstand dry conditions include gerbera daisies, sunflowers, portulacas, marigolds and zinnias.

Drought-tolerant perennials to consider include black-eyed Susans, penstemons, coreopsis, evening primroses and yarrow.

• A more permanent way to fight drought is by xeriscaping — using only trees, shrubs, ground covers and other plants that are well adapted to the natural cycles of rainfall in your area.

Don't worry that a xeriscaped yard will appear drab and dry. If well designed, a naturally drought-resistant landscape can be full of colour from flowers, foliage and bark.