Water-Wise Gardening Photo Gallery

Click on the links below to view photos of Water-Wise Gardens here in the Calgary region.

If you have a water-wise garden and would like to contribute to our photo gallery, please contact the Society office @ 403-287-3469 for details.

Front Yard Water-Wise Garden #1
This Water-Wise Front Yard Garden won 1st prize in the Society's Garden Competition for Best Low Water-Use/Xeriscape Garden in 2002. The pictures show how it looks from spring through to late summer. One of the close-ups shows a hosta 'Sunlover' which likes it hot and dry.

Front Yard Water-Wise Garden #2
This 2008 Winning Garden owner's favorite way of getting water to plants is to bury plastic water bottles alongside new shrubs, annuals and perennials. She makes a pin hole or two in the bottom of the bottle, buries it and covers it with bark mulch. She fills each bottle with water when the plants need to be watered. Some of her favorite plants for xeriscaping are drought-tolerant grasses, stonecrop and her favourite, False Spirea, a beautiful, lacy-leafed shrub with soft white blooms.

Water-Wise Garden #3
I believe that we all must care for our earth to the best of our ability. For me, that includes composting, grass-cycling, mulching, and catching and using rainwater, instead of artificial fertilizers, pesticides, and treated water. Especially succulent, silver-leaved and fuzzy leaved plants are able to thrive with very little moisture. Many plants, once they are established, manage relatively well with the water that nature provides.

Water-Wise Garden #4
The owner designed and developed this space in a new subdivision (staged over the past 3 years), after attending one of the Society's landscaping workshops. Plants such as irises, lilies, sedums, alpines and drought-tolerant shrubs were chosen for their various blooming times throughout the season and need for little water or care. Many plants were 'rescued' from vacated farmsteads, having proven their survival through seasons of neglect and drought.