Having a gorgeous garden doesn’t mean you have to spend a fortune watering it!
Lush gardens are desirable and make people feel happy; they even say that gardeners get an extra dose of Vitamin D! In Northern Virginia, we can have the sense of a densely filled landscape without having to buy plants that are going to soak up your dollar bills! There are many options for drought tolerant plants, which doesn’t necessarily mean that they have to be native to the region, although, native plants are preferred in order to ensure that they can survive the climate we experience here in Arlington and the surrounding communities.
We moved here from Central Texas and I was quite used to those plants, and had even gone so far as to fully xeriscape my whole front yard, which actually cut my whole house water bill in half! First I dug up all of the lawn, tilled it deeply and then found 3-5 gallon plants of all varieties which were native to my area and were known to be drought tolerant. I had Texas Mountain Laurels, Pride of Barbados, Mexican Oregano, Salvia Greggi, Blue Agaves and more. Up here above Shirlington, none of these would really work, except for maybe the Salvia, so I had to start from scratch on my plant knowledge for the area and start to understand what will make it in our climate that can range from soupy, hot, humid Summer days to snowbound Winter nights that we experience here in Arlington.
Native plants to Northern Virginia aren’t all the most colorful things around. Most of the plants that I found for our recent project are actually considered “domesticated” drought tolerant plants. Meaning, that they have been cultivated in the region to have become drought tolerant as well as temperature bearing. For color, we went with red and light pink Knock Out roses (the easiest of the roses to deal with), April Kiss Camellias, Purple Russian Sage, electric blue Endless Summer Hydrangea, and White Star Clematis Armandii. For height, I chose native Hedge Maples, Sweet Bay magnolias and Heritage River Birch. I also have a non-native, but again, drought tolerant Dynamite crape myrtle. I plan on filling in the beds with more native perennials seasonally, and making sure that my drought tolerant plants are happy with the compost that we have recently started.
Something that I like to remember is that a nice, well kept yard will add value to my home (and yours). So by that rationale, a home that has a well kept, low maintenance, low resource consuming yard will be that much more desirable upon resale. As I add more and learn more about the native plants and drought tolerant varieties, I will try to keep you posted!
Here is a starter list of the top Virginia Drought Tolerant Plants which will give you plenty of happiness in your drought tolerant Norhtern Virginia garden:
Herbaceous Plants-
- Swamp sunflower
- Liverleaf
- Cow parsnip
- Jewelweed
- Turk’s cap lily
- Gayfeather
- Common Evening Primrose
Ferns-
- Evergreen woodfern
- Northern Maidenhair fern
- Rattlesnake fern
Shrubs-
- Black chokeberry
- Wax Myrtle
- Gray laurel
- Azaleas
- Red elderberry
- Sweet or smooth sumac
- Possom-haw
- Hollies
Trees-
- Dogwoods
- Swamp birch
- Hawthorn
- Eastern Redbud
- Atlantic white cedar
- American Holly
- American Beech
- American sycamore
- Sweetbay magnolia
- Tulip poplar
If you have a drought tolerant, or native plant garden, post your photos for us on our facebook page!
