Green Thumb: Snowbirds can have colorful gardens without a lot of work

Read this article, even if you aren’t a snowbird!

Remember that we year-round residents tend to use our outdoor spaces more in the winter than in the summer. Everyone wants their winter landscape to be bright and cheerful. But there are a number of challenges to overcome to create a lovely landscape for cooler weather.

Planting low-water native plants that survive on natural rainfall sounds easy, but it isn’t. Any plant from a nursery needs some time to become established out of its container and in its new home. Time to establishment is at least one year, and up to three years. During the establishment period, all plants will need some extra water. They will especially need extra water during drought.

A drip-irrigation system is a must for the months you are away, even with low water desert plants. Extra water will especially be needed during the first summer to insure plants become established, and some irrigation will be needed in subsequent years as well. Even the newest and most modern irrigation system is subject to Murphy’s Law. You may have to replant a time or two to get your garden established.

While succulents appear to be the easy solution to a trouble-free landscape, even they need extra water to become established. Besides, while many succulents make pleasing accent plants, a garden entirely of accent plants will not be visually appealing. It will be like! too! many! exclamation! points! in! your! landscape!

Blend some succulents into your design by all means. Also use low-water shrubs and some groundcovers. Trees for shade are not important in the snowbird garden, but they can help the resale value of your home.

You can also underplant your permanent landscape with plants with the winter flowering short-lived perennials I will discuss at the Green Valley Gardeners’ East Center seminar Thursday. While the winter plant palate is limited, there are a number of very nice, even rabbit resistant, native and low water plants that provide winter color.

Succulents for winter color include the bulbines, available in both yellow and orange (Bulbine species); two Sonoran native milkweeds, highly attractive to winter butterflies, threadleaf milkweed (Asclepias linearis) and desert milkweed (Asclepias subulata); and hummingbird attracting “red yucca” (Hesperaloe parviflora), a member of the Agave family with coral pink flowers.

Shrubs include woolly butterfly bush, (Buddleja marrubifolia), plus three shrubs great as hummingbird attractors: pink fairy duster (Calliandra eriophylla), Baja fairy duster (Calliandra californica) with red flowers, and chuperosa (Justicia californica) also with red flowers. All of these will need irrigation for their first year or two.

Snowbirds and year-round residents alike can have colorful winter landscapes that are also low maintenance and low water use. A landscape that provides color, saves money, saves time, and doesn’t need covering in case of frost — what’s not to like?

About the author

Soule is a botanist, writer and educator. She writes weekly and monthly gardening columns for five Southwest newspapers in Arizona, Nevada and eastern California. Raised in Tucson, she has a B.S. in Horticulture and another in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the UofA, an M.S. in Botany from Michigan State University and a Ph.D. in Botany from the University of Texas. Currently she is the director of the non-profit Tierra del Sol Institute, located in Tucson. Through the institute she offers plant-related workshops, classes and other programs for adults and children.

Thursday’s program

Join the Green Valley Gardeners for coffee at 9 a.m. Thursday at the East Center. The program will begin at 9:30 a.m. Two or three Master Gardeners will be on hand to answer questions about gardening.

Green Thumb is written by Green Valley Gardeners with assistance from seminar speakers. It appears Wednesdays in the Green Valley News.