S17: E6: How to Create a Water Smart Garden

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’t want to miss!

Podcast Episode Highlights

• Why water smart gardening is for everyone
• How to start the transition to a water smart garden
• Step One: identify your thirstiest plants
• Step Two: let your plants grow to their natural size
• How to help our vegetable gardens become more drought-tolerant
• How to water your vegetable garden
• What Noelle's garden looks like in Arizona
• How often to water the garden
• Thoughts on shade cloth
• Best time to plant trees and shrubs for saving water
• The problem with plants from big box stores
• Olla watering system
• Rain water harvesting
• Thoughts on annual flowers and lawns
• Final thoughts and tips from Noelle

Resources Mentioned in This Podcast Episode:

Learn more about Meal Craft here: https://mealcraftmethod.com/meal-craft-main177846-9453

Learn more about Noelle Johnson here: https://www.azplantlady.com/and here: https://www.instagram.com/az.plant.lady/

Find Noelle's book The Water Smart Garden here: https://amzn.to/3QebPSD

OTHER HELPFUL RESOURCES FOR YOUR HOMESTEAD:

• Sign up for weekly musings from my homestead: http://theprairiehomestead.com/letter
• Get my free homesteading tutorials & recipes here: www.theprairiehomestead.com
• Jill on Instagram: @jill.winger
• Jill on Facebook: http://facebook.com/theprairiehomestead
• Apply to be a guest on the Old-Fashioned on Purpose podcast: https://www.theprairiehomestead.com/podcast-guest-application

Did you enjoy listening to this episode? Please drop a comment below or leave a review to let us know. This can help other folks learn about this podcast and we also really appreciate the feedback!