It is just a few weeks into the damp season here in Southern California. I'm happy to report that my garden came through the Summer without any watering. None. Zero gallons. No irrigation. No dragging around the hose. Almost every plant not only survived, but now looks the picture of health.
I came across Olivier Filippi's The Dry Gardening Handbook last winter. I have been planting an assortment of drought-tolerant greenery in my small yard for several years. Filippi gave me the courage to put the entire assortment to the test. Filippi is a plantsman in Mediterranean France. The Mediterranean climate is characterized by hot, completely dry summers and cooler winters with more or less rain. The length of the dry season varies across the Earth's Mediterranean climate zones, which include Southern California. We think of ourselves as England with better weather when driving through thousands of acres of trim suburban lawns and masses of tropical flowers. We maintain this illusion by importing huge amounts of fresh water, most of which is spread over a landscape we otherwise see as desert. But we are not in a desert. We just don't get much rainfall. What we do get is concentrated in short periods of days or weeks sprinkled from October to May.
Filippi maintains that much of the problem gardening in this climate is that we mistakenly water our gardens in the Summer even with drought-tolerant plantings. Well, how else would we keep the plants alive? Filippi maintains that plants which evolved in these climates exhibit many strategies for coping with Summer. They switch to conservation mode in the Summer and back to growing mode in the Winter. If we water them in the Summer, we trick the plants back into Winter mode. In one of a dozen perverse examples, we encourage plants to develop shallow root systems which dry out quickly in hot weather. When pushed into Winter mode during the Summer, plants frequently die from environmental stress even with frequent watering. They cannot operate in two modes at once. We literally water our Mediterranean gardens to death.
Last Summer I took the pledge. I put away the hoses, turned off what little irrigation remained. Whatever died would die. Faced with a dead spot, I vowed to plant something different in the fall. I am simply amazed at what actually happened. By late September most of the plants were still alive but clearly dessicated. The fat, shiny leaves on my jade plants were thin and dull. But they had not fallen off.
We have had a few moist days now during the last three weeks. Mostly this has not been "measurable precipitation" as they call it. Mostly rain at this time of year looks like fog that is just a little too dense to stay completely in the air. The street may look wet in the morning, but the gutters are empty and all will be dry well before noon. We are still getting a few hot days in a row in mid-October. And to my great amazement, the plants look great. Leaves full and plump, you would never guess they looked near death a month ago. I was prepared for the plants to react to the rain, but not this fast. They waste no time getting back into growing mode.
Last Summer was on the mild side here, climatically speaking. It was not quite as hot for quite as long, but the garden may not have fully adapted to my new, hands-off policy either. New plantings, Filippi observes, may need special care for the first year or two. I will take special care to leave the hose in it's dusty pile. I will not water in the Winter either. I will encourage my dry garden to put down deep roots, to adapt to the small amount of water we get in Winter. Next Summer the garden will be even more ready to survive my total neglect.
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