How to plant your garden and grass

Ready to plant your garden and grass but not sure where to start? Here are some tips to help you create the perfect landscape.

• Before you get to planting your garden, you'll want to have a plan.
• Choose plants and grasses based on the climate in your location, and how much work you are willing to put into maintaining them.
• Decide where you'll plant what you need to buy in advance, so you don't wind up buying more than you can plant.

• Select drought-tolerant, native plants suited to your local growing conditions. Using a plant suited to the growing conditions means little to no fertilizer and pesticides are needed. Also observe which of these plants better survive your annual average rainfall. Search online for plants native to your area.
• Create windbreaks — two or three rows, if possible — with drought-tolerant trees and shrubs. Less wind means less water evaporation. A windbreak can affect an area 2 to 10 times its height! (See below for a list of heat-tolerant trees and shrubs.)
• Provide shade for plants by growing drought-tolerant trees and shrubs or erecting pergolas and trellises — then adding vines and climbing flowers. Even a tiny bit of daily shade helps reduce moisture loss.
• Protect heat-sensitive plants by locating them in areas that receive only cooler morning sun (the east side of a home).
• Plant spring-flowering bulbs, which bloom before the hottest weather arrives.
• Consider planting plants that beat the heat, and won't wither in warmer weather.

• Heat-tolerant trees
• Heat-tolerant shrubs
• Acacia
• Barberry
• Buckeye
• Beauty bush
• Catalpa
• Blue Mist spirea
• Cedar
• Broom
• Crape myrtle
• Butterfly bush
• Desert willow
• Cassia
• Eucalyptus
• Cotoneaster
• Golden-rain tree
• Germander
• Hackberry
• Heavenly bamboo
• Juniper
• Kentucky coffee-tree
• Potentilla
• Mescal bean
• Sumac
• Oak
• Rock rose
• Pine
• Rose
• Poplar
• Rosemary
• Silver linden
• Snowberry
• Wafer ash
• Vitex (or chaste tree)

• Convert lawns to perennial ground covers, which usually consume less water and require less maintenance than lawns.
• Grow grass where it is functional, like play areas. Use ground covers elsewhere, such as slopes that are hard to mow or shady areas where sun-loving grass struggles.
• Plant grasses suitable for your climate in order to minimize watering needs. In northern areas you might do well with fine fescues or slow-growing drought-tolerant buffalo grass, for instance.
• Again, look online or speak to someone at your local garden centre to find out what is native to your area.