At the Apr. 13 meeting of the North Thompson Valley Garden Club, Thompson Shuswap Master Gardener Elizabeth Ratcliffe spoke to the group about xeriscaping. Xeriscape, pronounced ‘zair-i-scape’, can mean a multitude of things: dry landscaping, water-smart gardening, dry land gardening, drought-tolerant landscaping, and gardens with limited water.
Ratcliffe went over the seven principls to xeriscape gardening: planning and design, soil analysis, soil preparation, turf, water use, mulches, and maintenance. She also recommended several books for those who want more information about the subject.
* The Home Owners Complete Tree and Shrub Handbook by Penelope O-Sullivan
* Perfect Plant Perfect Place by Roy Lancaster
* Dryland Gardening by Jennifer Bennett
* Creating a Kamloops Xeriscape, a City of Kamloops booklet
The next meeting of the NTV Garden Club will be on May 25 at 5 p.m. at the NT Volunteer Centre (the Ridge) and will be a pot-luck. The next event will be the Plant Sale on May 10, from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Bandshell in Fadear Park, where master gardeners will be on hand to answer your gardening questions.
