DROUGHT & HEATWAVES: ADJUSTING TO TEXAS’

New Normal

What To Plant For A Beautiful Landscape

by MARC HESS, EDITOR OF “GARDENING SOUTH TEXAS”

There will be no sugar-coating the bad news here. However, stay with me and I’ll bring this around with a positive perspective with some very specific suggestions for keeping your landscape and garden beds attractive as this drought tightens its grip on us.

Texas’ record heat waves and drought are making it especially difficult for us to keep our plants alive and our landscapes green. All the indicators tell us that our summers will continue to get longer and hotter. Of all the places in America, Texas is the state most at risk of continuing the drought. Despite occasional hard rains in some areas, less water is available. Warmer temperatures increase evaporation making soils significantly drier over time. The Texas Water

Development Board figures that average rainfall is likely to continue to decrease until the end of this decade.

This is important because the livelihood of Texas is built on three, very thirsty sectors: fossil fuel production, real estate development, and agriculture. Proudly, we have more farms and ranches than any other state in the union. Cotton, corn, rice, and wheat are among our primary crops, but Texas is also big on peanuts, sunflowers, and sugarcane. And they all take a lot of water to produce. Currently over half (57%, to be precise) of the state’s water resources are used for agriculture. Each of the three sectors mentioned is badly impacted every time a drought occurs.

At this time almost one-third of Texas’ water comes from underground aquifers. The largest single use of underground water is for irrigation. However, with urban populations growing exponentially, our cities will soon become the state’s biggest water user leaving rural communities to depend on underground aquifers as their only source of water.

Drought is not new to us. Since 1822, Texas has seen at least one period of severe drought in each decade. In Texas’ famous “Drought of Record” that ran from 1949 to 1957 the state received up to 50% less rain than in normal times. That is a lot worse than we have it now.

At the same time temperatures rose above average, leading to unprecedented drought and water shortages. This extreme dry period was a turning point for Texas, and led to the formation of the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB), a governmental body responsible for “statewide water planning, collection and maintenance of water resource information, and administration of financial assistance programs for water supply, water quality, flood control, and agricultural water conservation projects.” It is the TWDB that will help us get through the current drought.

And let’s not forget the heatwaves. You have certainly noticed it getting hotter. In the past century Texas’ average temperature rose almost 1.5°F. When you put it that way it doesn’t sound so bad but what that means is that we can expect more summer days in the triple-digits. In fifteen years, you will be able to “enjoy” twice as many triple-digit days as you have now.

Bad News Right?

It’s not going to get any better, or cooler, or wetter any time soon. So, we must adjust to the realities of this new normal.

Even in these tough conditions we can still have lovely landscapes. We can still have colorful flower beds. We can still have majestic shade trees. We just have to select the right varieties and give them our attention as they get established.

Your outdoor water use accounts for 30% of the water you use and much of that water is just wasted on inefficient watering.

How to reduce your water bill

• Reduce the water that doesn’t reach you plants (like water that falls on your sidewalk and driveway) and sprinkler water that evaporates before it reaches your lawn, which is what happens when you water in the middle of the day.

• Design a water-efficient landscape by planting drought-tolerant grass and choosing plants that are native or well adapted to the climate conditions in your area.

You will find many choices of plants, shrubs and grasses to create your water-efficient landscape. You can do this by putting in drought-tolerant ground cover instead of grass in areas that are narrow, small, sloping, oddly shaped, or close to pavement. Limit turf areas to those needed for practical uses. Bermuda, buffalo, and zoysia are drought-tolerant grasses. Plant water-efficient, well-adapted, and/ or native shrubs and trees. When you are selecting plants for your garden beds choose plants that are drought tolerant, and have low water requirements.

This does not mean that you have to give up on your colorful garden. Texas has many beautiful bloomers that love the heat.