I have a friend whose family has had a fishing cabin for several generations on the Deschutes River near Dant, Oregon. For those of you unfamiliar with the area, the cabin is subject to both fire and flooding. The weather is severe cold in the winter and severe heat in the summer. In my not so humble opinion, autumn and spring are the only times the area is livable.

My friend recently inherited the cabin and hopes to replant the vegetation lost to fire a few years back.

The irrigation system has been broken for 20 years and she wants to have it replaced. I have no enthusiasm for this, because, irrigation systems are built to fail, and fail when no one is around to notice. There is a reason no one has repaired the old system in the last 20 years. It is hard enough to find an irrigation dude to come to your house in town when you need one. Good luck finding one willing to drive hours to cross a fast moving river on a dinky, hard-to-maneuver boat out in the middle of nowhere, with no stores nearby in case you forgot something. Take the hint. No irrigation system.

The average precipitation for nearby Maupin is 13 inches of rainfall and 14 inches of snow. I'm just not that familiar with this degree of dryness. Here in Portland, we average 43 inches of rain and 3 inches of snow, and I complain it isn't wet enough.

There is little food out that way so animals are quick to devour whatever they can find. She worries grasses will attract rodents. It will, but everything attracts rodents, so, so what?

I am inclined to recommend plants from the sites below because I trust the information there to be accurate. I was wondering if any one here has experience with similar dry locations and if so, their recommendations.

http://www.boskydellnatives.co...

http://www.boskydellnatives.co...

Thanks!