S17: E6: How to Create a Water Smart Garden

Old Fashioned On Purpose

Jill Winger

Farm, Canning, Education, How To, Home & Garden, Gardening, Cows, Farming, Homesteading, Leisure, Hobbies, Cooking, Chickens, Homestead

4.8 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 17 February 2025

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this episode, I sit down with Noelle Johnson, aka the AZ Plant Lady and author of Water Smart Gardens, to uncover practical tips for making your garden more water-efficient without sacrificing beauty or productivity. We dive into time-saving watering strategies, the best veggies to grow in dry climates, creative rainwater collection ideas, and whether your lawn really deserves all that water. If you're ready to grow smarter, not harder, this conversation is packed with advice you won...

Transcript

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0:00.0	So if you listen to this podcast for any length of time, you know that I have had lots of
0:13.0	gardening struggles over the years. And many of them are very creative. I can find a way to
0:18.5	complicate gardening in pretty much every form possible. But one of the
0:23.0	struggles that I have had, and I feel like a lot of potentially you, as listeners have had as well,
0:27.6	is water. Now, we don't live in the desert. We live on the high plains prairie, but it's not a rainforest
0:32.4	here. And so water is something I'm always thinking about. And over the years, we have put in
0:37.1	different sorts of irrigation and drip systems and things like that. But I'm always thinking about. And over the years, we have put in different sorts of irrigation and drip systems and things like that.
0:40.5	But I'm always looking for ways to water less, to conserve the water we have, to help the soil hold on to moisture.
0:48.5	Because not only is that more sustainable, but it also can save you time if you're thinking ahead of that instead of being
0:54.6	reactionary. So I'm really, really excited to be joined by an expert in this very topic today.
1:01.2	Noel Johnson is a horticulturist, a landscape consultant, and a garden writer who lives in
1:05.9	Phoenix, Arizona. So much more dry than me and probably a lot of you. So I know she knows what she's talking about in this realm. She is also known as the Arizona plant lady. And her passion is to inspire and teach people to create, grow and maintain beautiful gardens that thrive in a hot and dry climate climate climate. She also has some really awesome books out.
1:24.8	Desert or sorry, her blog is Desert Gardening 101, and then she has
1:28.4	dry climate gardening, and then I think the Water Smart Garden just came out, so we're going to
1:32.0	talk about that today as well. But she has a lot of practical strategies. I'm excited to dive into those
1:36.7	today. So welcome, Noel. Thank you. I am thrilled to be here. Yes, I think we have a lot to talk
1:43.1	about to commiserate. So I guess just to
1:47.4	start us off, if someone's listening to this, let's say they live in a place that isn't super dry.
1:51.4	Maybe they're, you know, in the summer where there's more rainforesty, a lot more moisture.
1:56.3	Is it worthwhile for them to pay attention to this information? Should they skip to a different
1:59.9	episode? Is this just for people like you and I or is there other applications here?
2:04.3	You would be really surprised.
	...

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