Fuel‑efficient cars are one solution to fuel shortages. Water‑efficient plants can be a solution for water shortages.
Whether or not you think climate change is the reason, summers to come are bound to bring droughts of some degree. If you’d like to save yourself from future concern and water expenses towards keeping trees, shrubs and flowers alive, then you ought to consider using drought‑resistant plants.
The coring fall season is the best time to plant most trees and shrubs, so now. is the time to start planning, choosing and seeing about ordering the plants.
All plants require extra water during the first two years after planting, even the drought‑tolerant ones, but once established, these plants will usually get by with very little water for many weeks.
Other than using drought‑tolerant plants, mulching is very helpful, especially if organic mulches are used. A mulch keeps the soil cool. and slows evaporative losses of water. Shrubs and trees that I mulched with crushed corncobs some tine ago have flourished over the years.
Trickle irrigation (water seeping very slowly out of soaker hoses over several hours) is very efficient and not expensive. See my recent article on this topic at https://pegbalbach.wordpress.com/trickle-irrigation/
The following lists contain names of drought‑tolerant plants, all hardy in this area. Nothing can be guaranteed to be 100 percent tolerant under all conditions, but these are more tolerant in general. Some of these plants are not very commonly sold, but you can obtain them by special order from local garden centers or by ordering from catalogs.
Trees and shrubs ordered from catalogs will not be as big as plants shipped to local garden centers. But the trade‑off is that, over time, a small plant started in your yard will become established and adapted to its new situation a little more easily than an older one transplanted. However, with proper post‑planting care, large plants With good root balls do just fine. .
DROUGHT‑TOLERANT TREES
Small ‑ 25‑30 feet: Amur maple; Shadbush (Serviceberry); redbud; smoketree; cockspur and Washington hawthorns; some junipers; crabapple; Hop hornbeam; Amur
cork tree.
Large ‑ 40 feet or more: Norway maple; yellowwood; green ash; Ginkgo (buy the male tree); honey locust (buy the thornless, fruitless types); some junipers; spruce; pine (avoid Scots and red pine that are susceptible to nematodes); London planetree (not the American sycamore commonly defoliated by anthracnose disease in wet cool springs); Bradford pear; white and red oaks; Japanese pagoda tree; mountain ash; European littleleaf linden; zelkova.
DROUGHT TOLERANT SHRUBS
Small ‑ 4 feet or less: barberry; some cotoneasters; some forsythias;
Large ‑ 6 feet or more: some cotoneasters; autumn olive; some forsythias; witchazel; privet; honeysuckle (ask for types resistant to the Russian aphid); Chinese hawthorn (Photinia); ninebark; pyracantha; fragrant sumac; alpine currant; snowberry; lilac; many yews; nannyberry and wayfaringtree viburnums.
pegbalbach 
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