Pamela Poulter’s plants tell the story of this summer.

Hot, dry and dead.

“They all died,” Poulter said of the six or seven plants she and her husband planted at the beginning of the summer. “You can’t just keep watering all the time at 95 degrees.”

Nor do you have to.

Lawrence Parks and Recreation leaders are unveiling this weekend a new city garden that is designed to educate residents about a variety of plants that need little water to survive.

The concept is called xeriscaping (pronounced zero scaping), and it uses many native plants that have learned how to survive on the Kansas prairie without much tending. The new one-acre garden that showcases the landscaping method is part of the Lawrence Rotary Arboretum near Wakarusa Drive and the South Lawrence Trafficway.

“When it was hot and dry this summer, we watered these plants at the most once every two weeks,” said John McDonald, a field supervisor for the Lawrence Parks and Recreation Department’s horticulture division. “And that’s just because they were newly planted. We’re real hopeful we won’t have to water them at all once they get established.”

The garden has about 50 varieties of plants. It also will feature identification tags that will allow visitors to easily see the different types of plants. In the center of the garden is a pergola – donated and built by Westar Energy using recycled utility poles – that will serve as a gathering area and a place to have landscaping seminars.

“We’re really trying to stress the water-conservation issue,” said McDonald, adding that the city’s water department helped come up with the idea for the garden. “As more and more people put in irrigation systems and the town grows, the demand for water keeps growing.

“We want to educate people that you can do a lot with plants that don’t need a lot of water.”

Ken Johnston, a horticulturist with the city, estimated that the xeriscape garden takes about half the maintenance of a traditional garden, although he said weeding is still an issue. But he said he thought people would be surprised at how much colorful foliage the plants could produce.

“They may not be as green or as lush as some plants, but they do provide a lot of character to a garden,” Johnston said.

Crystal Miles, landscape supervisor for the city, estimated that the new garden has cost the city about $20,000, with most of the costs related to concrete paths, benches, the purchase of plants and seasonal labor.