They Work in Dry Climates Too
In arid landscapes, you can easily spot the waterways--even when they contain no water--because they support relatively lush plant life. You'll see stripes of green winding down reddish slopes and snaking through flat, tawny plains.
Bioswales mimic these waterways. Their physical shape allows them to catch more water than flat gardens. Being self-watering, they offer dry-climate gardeners a prime opportunity to grow a wider variety of plants with less work.
Redesigning Your Ditch
Whether your ditch flows for months on end or only fills occasionally, take advantage of its aqueous bounty. Add rocks and plants to slow the flow; this gives soil and roots more time to soak up more water.
What to plant?
Trade that lawn for ornamental flowers and grasses, woody plants, and plants native to stream banks and shorelines in your region; these will develop deeper and denser root systems over time, so they will be able to absorb more runoff each year.
(Frequently cut lawns can't expand their root systems because they keep losing their leaves to the mower blades.) Include moisture-loving shrubs and trees to anchor the banks against erosion.
Now's your chance to increase your garden's biodiversity -- that's right, you'll be needing some new and different plants!
If your Swale Garden is bordered by lawn, you can plant "indefinite spreaders"
in it and use the mower to contain them. (In a dry climate, control spreading plants by refraining from irrigating outside your Swale Garden.) Also plant tall flowers... and for once, you'll get a chance to look them in the eye.
Well-chosen plants will attract animals as well.
Native plants create the most effective wildlife habitat, as your local animals have evolved alongside the plants.
Berry-producing native shrubs are particularly valuable for adding bird habitat to your yard, while native flowers and grasses will invite pollinators, butterflies, and insect predators.
In arid landscapes, you can easily spot the waterways--even when they contain no water--because they support relatively lush plant life. You'll see stripes of green winding down reddish slopes and snaking through flat, tawny plains.
Bioswales mimic these waterways. Their physical shape allows them to catch more water than flat gardens. Being self-watering, they offer dry-climate gardeners a prime opportunity to grow a wider variety of plants with less work.
Redesigning Your Ditch
Whether your ditch flows for months on end or only fills occasionally, take advantage of its aqueous bounty. Add rocks and plants to slow the flow; this gives soil and roots more time to soak up more water.
What to plant?
Trade that lawn for ornamental flowers and grasses, woody plants, and plants native to stream banks and shorelines in your region; these will develop deeper and denser root systems over time, so they will be able to absorb more runoff each year.
(Frequently cut lawns can't expand their root systems because they keep losing their leaves to the mower blades.) Include moisture-loving shrubs and trees to anchor the banks against erosion.
Now's your chance to increase your garden's biodiversity -- that's right, you'll be needing some new and different plants!
If your Swale Garden is bordered by lawn, you can plant "indefinite spreaders"
in it and use the mower to contain them. (In a dry climate, control spreading plants by refraining from irrigating outside your Swale Garden.) Also plant tall flowers... and for once, you'll get a chance to look them in the eye.
Well-chosen plants will attract animals as well.
Native plants create the most effective wildlife habitat, as your local animals have evolved alongside the plants.
Berry-producing native shrubs are particularly valuable for adding bird habitat to your yard, while native flowers and grasses will invite pollinators, butterflies, and insect predators.
