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.