Maintenance Tips
Nurture your plant babies with a beverage in hand.
A great way to enjoy and maintain your new Oasis, is to connect it with activities you already enjoy. Listen to a favorite podcast and grab a beer or cup of coffee. Enjoy watching those babies grow. Think of it as time well spent in (urban) nature.
Months 1-3
Water every day. It’s counterintuitive considering they’re low water plants, but this will help them get established.
Pull a few weeds for 15 minutes once a month. Weed with one hand, hold your beverage with the other. Weeds will diminish over time as you pay down your “weed seed debt” and the land isn’t disturbed.
Months 3+
Water 2-3 times a week.
Keep up the same weeding routine.
Have fun “editing” your Oasis. Add cool rocks you find. Take a trip to the garden center and add fun new plants.
Enjoy the evolution of your Oasis and all the fun visitors you get: butterflies, bees, birds.
Beyond Year 1
If it doesn’t rain, water once a week during the summer for 5-10 minutes.
Winter
Water until it starts to freeze. In the winter, if there isn’t much precipitation for a while and it warms up, give your plants a good soaking.
Trimming
Once flower stalks die in the fall, you can either leave them as habitat and food for birds and pollinators or you can trim them to 1’-2’.
If you choose to leave them, you should trim them in late winter to 1’-2’.
New growth will emerge in the spring and cover the old stalks.
Pruning
Pruning trees is best done in the winter or early spring when trees are dormant.
If you can, avoid pruning from March-June when trees and shrubs provide food and shelter for pollinators and birds.