Landscaping in drought-prone areas means taking steps to reduce irrigation needs while also working to retain the natural moisture in the soil. Decorative landscaping rocks can be an important tool for creating a yard with minimal water needs.
1. Reduce Watering Needs
Soil dries out quickly when it is directly exposed to air and the sun. Heat and wind can speed up evaporation. This means the need for more frequent watering, which can lead to exorbitant water bills all summer long. Rocks placed on the bare soil surrounding trees, shrubs, and other heat-tolerant perennial plants help shade the soil against direct sunlight so that less water is lost.
2. Fix Evaporation Issues
Water loss from areas surrounding the lawn and garden beds can also become evaporation hot spots, which sucks the moisture out of the surrounding lawn areas as well. If you have areas with bare soil, then cover them with an attractive and durable rock mulch. Not only will covering up bare spots slow water loss, but it also looks much nicer than rough soil and weeds.
3. Reduce Heat Issues
As it gets hotter, the more rapidly water evaporates out of the soil. It's common knowledge that darker colors absorb more heat and create a heat sink effect. This effect can raise the temperature in your immediate environment by several degrees on a sunny day, which means the surrounding soil dries out more quickly. To cut down on heat issues, install a light-colored landscaping rock. The lighter color reflects light and heat away from the soil, which combined with the mulching effect of the decorative rock can greatly reduce water loss.
4. Collect More Moisture
Rock mulch does more than reduce loss of soil moisture, it can also help add more moisture to the soil. Rain can be infrequent in dry climates, but when it does come it often pours down. Dry soil can become inundated before it has a chance to absorb the moisture, so the water is lost to evaporation before it has a chance to soak in. Creating dry creek beds or lining low areas to make a rain garden creates a reservoir for the collected moisture. The rainwater will quickly seep beneath the rocks, where it is shielded against evaporation so it can slowly soak into the soil below.
Contact a decorative landscape rock supplier to see what options they have for your yard.
Share26 September 2022
Hello, I’m Donna. Welcome. I am excited to share my passion for landscaping with you all. I regularly change the layout of my garden, depending on the plants I want to grow each year. I keep my garden beds full of flowers and edible plants to have a variety of vegetation to enjoy. I would like to use this site to cover all of those varieties and talk about the growing techniques and supplies that work best for each option. I invite you to visit daily to learn the information you need to help your garden grow. Thanks for visiting my site.