Waukesha County Home

NOVEMBER 2015 HOMES PLUS 3 The warm luster of laminate wood flooring makes any room more inviting. And right now, it can be yours at no extra cost. Sign up to build your new Bielinski home by Nov. 30 th and we'll install wood laminate flooring throughout the first floor living area for FREE! Best of all, our design team is here to help you choose the color and style to complement each room. To learn more, visit a model home and speak with a new home consultant. We think you'll agree…an offer this good is hard to walk away from. 262-448-4044 | BielinskiFloorUpgrade.com Model Homes Open | 12pm to 5pm | Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tues Speak to a new home consultant for details. To qualify, sign a new build contract between October 1, 2015 and November 30, 2015. RediHomes ® , model homes, and condominiums are excluded from this offer. Offer includes laminate fl ooring in the fi rst-fl oor main living area, which is comprised of the great room, dining room, home offi ce, powder room, laundry, and hallways when the above mentioned rooms are included in the base plan. Laminate fl ooring is included in the kitchen, morning room, and entry as standard. Unless noted otherwise, this offer cannot be combined with any other offer, with exception to the current lot discounts as shown on the neighborhood price list. All pricing must be current for offer to apply. Offer subject to change at any time at the discretion of Bielinski Homes. 241690004 Fall and winter are a great time to plan new gardens for your landscape. Why not think about a xeric design? A xeric garden uses drought-tolerant plants paired with an efficient watering program to both con- serve water and create an attractive land- scape. Why create a xeric garden? Less watering means less time spent in the garden and less money spent on water. But it goes much deeper than this. It comes down to being good stewards of the earth. All one has to do is pick up the newspaper or turn on the TV to see how our water resources are changing. Besides the long- term water level in Lake Michigan, the severe drought and watering restrictions that occurred in years past and communi- ties bickering over water rights have become all too common these days. This doesn't mean we all need to start planting cacti, but it does mean we need to search out plants that use water more effi- ciently. Let's start by looking at the mainstay of our landscapes, trees. Many trees do have drought-resistant features and are more tol- erant of dry conditions once established. You did notice I said once established. Newly planted trees need to be watered the first couple of years. Also, trees with small- er leaves use water more efficiently than larger-leafed varieties. Deciduous trees that have drought-resistant qualities include red maple, hickories, hackberry, redbud, ginkgo, honey locust, northern red and bur oak, lindens, and elms. Evergreen trees that are drought-tolerant include east- ern white, red and Scotch pine, white and blue spruce, and junipers. What about shrubs? There are actually a lot of shrubs out there that are drought-tol- erant. A partial list would include barber- ries, cotoneasters, spireas, service berries, smoke trees, summersweet, forsythia, priv- et, ninebark, alpine currant, lilacs, tamarix and viburnums. Now let's add some color with perennials. Plants like yarrow, asters, butterfly weed, tickseed, coneflower, blanket flower, daylilies, lavender, gayfeather, catmint, black-eyed Susan, sages, sedum and orna- mental grasses are just a few good options. If you want to add even more color, annu- als like cosmos, moss roses, petunias, marigolds, sun daisies, verbena, vinca and zinnias are great choices. We also need to look at our watering prac- tices as well. How and when we water is important. First, if you're using a sprin- kler, stop. It's a very inefficient way of watering. Soaker hoses are the way to go. You can water only the areas you want and with less evaporation. When we water is also important. The best time is early in the morning. This allows the water to soak in properly, reach- ing the root zone of the plants, while still allowing the evaporation of excess water which can cause disease problems. As you can see, it's still possible to have beautiful gardens and conserve water at the same time. Create a xeric garden in your landscape next year and save time, money, and water without sacrificing beau- ty. Happy gardening! (Michael Timm is a horticulturalist with Ebert's Greenhouse Village, Ixonia.) MICHAEL TIMM Plan a xeric garden: Pair efficient watering with drought-tolerant plants Photo courtesy drought-smart-plants.com Benefits of a drought-tolerant garden include preserving water, time and money.

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