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Category Archives: drought-tolerant

WaterSmart Landscape Makeover Class

03 Saturday Oct 2015

Posted by ninagarden in compost, drought-tolerant, planning, Southern California Rain, Uncategorized, water-wise garden

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drought tolerant gardening, Water-wise

It took about six hours to dig up the turf.

Bye, bye lawn. It took two guys about six hours to dig up the turf.

I attended my first WaterSmart Makeover Class a few weeks ago. It was really inspiring, so inspiring that I went home and ripped out the grass in the front yard! Actually, I learned that you don’t have to do that. There is a way to eliminate your turf without the expense and hard labor of digging it out, but that is for the next class.

Workbook for WaterSmart Landscape Makeover Series

Workbook for WaterSmart Landscape Makeover Series

The class is put on by the San Diego Water Authority and started with an overview by the Assistant Water Resource Specialist Joni German. I won’t get into all the details of the drought in the state of California but for San Diego, I learned some interesting facts that explain why my Hydrangeas look dead and my vegetable garden won’t grow the same way it did.

First of all she explained that the rainfall in San Diego this year is actually above average! We usually get 10 inches a year and this year we have had 11 inches already. Then why do my plants look so crappy? It is because our temperatures have been hotter than normal for the last fifteen months. 2014 was the hottest year on record for San Diego. This heatwave, combined with our water conservation efforts, have left my garden looking horrible. It’s definitely time for a change.

Change requires work–and homework. I had to do some drainage testing, soil testing, and draw up a basic sketch of the existing landscape and irrigation features. It was stuff I like to do…

Dig a 12 X 12 foot hole fill with water. Let sit 8 hours. Then fill with water. Let sit one hour. Measure how far water has gone down. Look up your results on drainage scale.

Drainage test. Dig a 12 X 12 foot hole and fill with water. Let sit 8 hours. Then fill with water. Let sit one hour. Measure how far water has gone down. Look up your results on drainage scale.

Next class is on landscape design–I’m so excited. The third class is where we put our skills to work and show our design plans to an actual designer. We each get thirty minutes of consultation.  The final class is on irrigation. If you are considering replacing your lawn with water-wise plants, I highly suggest you sign up for this free WaterSmart Makeover Class. It is a very useful and interesting class and it’s FREE. You can’t beat that. You get dinner too.

The next class is on my 15th anniversary. Your spouse can go with you. I’m sure it will be a very educational anniversary. Maybe I can bring some champagne!

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Chicken Yard Planting: Euphorbia or no Euphorbia? That is Isn’t Really the Question

22 Tuesday Sep 2015

Posted by ninagarden in chickens, drought-tolerant, water-wise garden

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

chicken, euphorbia

I haven’t been planting much with the drought and watering restrictions, and even though it was almost 90 degrees a week ago,  I got the urge to get back in the garden. After all, it was September!

My husband and I did some pruning and raking. With so much to do, I was overwhelmed. I decided to focus on cleaning up the chicken yard. At least, that gave me one corner to focus on.

It was humid and hot beyond belief, but I cleaned up everything while the chickens panted in the shade of the roses and geraniums under our bay window.

I bought two plants that I thought might endure the drought (both are said to need little water) and the chickens’ constant snacking:

Bulbine Frutescens Hallmark Orange–looks like a grass crossed with a succulent. It has long-stemmed yellow and orange flowers. I like it for it cottage-y appeal. The yellow flowers are frothy and I saw them planted at the Balboa Park Alcazar Garden:Alcazar

(See the yellow spikes on the far right? The pink Siskiyou (Gaura) looks good en masse too. It is in the middle.)

bulbine

Here is my flower pot with the bulbine (above).

Euphorbia Milli–I call it a “secret cactus” because you can’t tell it has thorns. The one I selected has dark green tiny leaves and red flowers. It reminds me of ocotillo from Arizona, but it is actually a “tropical” plant native to Madagascar, common name — Crown of Thorns. I thought — hey, the chickens won’t eat this and it will be water-wise and I like the flowers.

euphorbia milli

I planted both in a pots, hoping the chickens wouldn’t notice. I hoped the thorns on the euphorbia would keep them away and that the bulbine would not attract them because it seemed insubstantial. They looked good there for about a day.

Then I got out my chicken garden book just to make sure the plants were both okay for chickens (yes, I should probably do this before I bought them, but go figure.)  I saw a type of euphorbia on the dangerous poisonous plant list.  Like the euphorbia in my front yard that has a sap that burns your skin, the sap of the Milli is also poisonous and probably burns skin too.  Okay, I thought, still wanting my yard to look good, those chickens won’t eat it. It will taste bad. They have other things to eat that are better tasting.

Wrong. As soon as I quit reading, I went looked out the window and there they were on the edge of the pot, all eating the red flowers off the plant, oblivious to thorns or dangerous sap. I got my husband who got the dolly and moved that giant flower pot right out of there.

Why would they eat something that supposedly tastes so bad? Why? Okay, the chicken brain is quite tiny.  Do we need more evidence?

The Bulbine survived untasted for about a week. Then in preparation to write this post, I went out to take a picture of it. I noticed some of the flowers weren’t looking as good as they did a few days ago.

As I snapped my picture, the chickens saw me and presto, they all ran over and started eating it. Ugh! There is no escaping a hungry chicken–and they are usually hungry, especially when they see me because they know I bring treats!

chickens eating bulbine

What has worked so far in the chicken yard? Rosemary, society garlic and Nandina can survive, although Bubbles likes to eat rosemary and when the Nandina fruits (I say fruits because it doesn’t really bloom), they eat the little berries that come. They don’t eat Society Garlic probably because it smells so bad. The chickens really like to hide under all of these shrubs.

I guess I could just keep planting the same things over and over!

Here’s one of the main snackers! Minnie Mouse chicken a.k.a. Minnie.

Minnie

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Getting Tough on Turf

09 Wednesday Sep 2015

Posted by ninagarden in drought-tolerant, water-wise garden

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Tags

drought-tolerant, waterwise

Now we are on a fast track for turf removal. My first waterwise landscaping class is September 23. The class comes with a survey of your yard to help you make your new landscaping plan. They came to survey our yard last week and let me to take a picture to document the process.


See Cleo in the picture? She can’t stand not being in the middle of everything!

They tested the water pressure of the sprinklers too.

Now I just need to speed up time so I can go to class and make my plan.

Back to school for me too!

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Water-wise Gardening: San Diego Demonstration Gardens to Visit

13 Monday Apr 2015

Posted by ninagarden in butterfly garden, drought-tolerant, Southern California Rain, water-wise garden

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

drought tolerant gardening, Water-wise

 ( I apologize for publishing this earlier without the text!)

With the turf replacement rebates from San Diego Water District and the state, we are thinking of replacing our turf in the front yard with some lower-water use plants. Since I have a cottage garden, I need to find something in this style. I don’t want rocks like above, but I liked that fake stream, which we might put on our hill one day.

I recently went to the Master Gardener demo garden at the Flower Fields in Carlsbad for a look at different water-wise plants from different regions: Mediterranean, South African, Australian, native… it’s a good way to learn about different plants from different regions but not so much about landscaping.

Over the weekend, I went to Cuyamaca College Water Conservation Garden in Rancho San Diego (www.thegarden.org), which was tremendous and I recommend going.

Most of the pictures are from the Cuyamaca garden. I loved how natural everything was, yet there was still lots of color and lots of green. (The rock stream with the log “bridge” photo at the start of the blog is also shot there.)

Below are photos of plants that want to remember for my yard: African daisy and creeping germander below. My landscaping idea is to replace our turf with patchwork meadow of water-wise groundcovers. We will also add a much needed walk-way meandering through it. The trick will be to find ground covers that look good all year and don’t die down in the winter. I will need some evergreens and hearty heat-lovers.

A very cute bunny topiary with two other cute bunnies on display in the topiary garden.

I like the fern below. Once established, some types of ferns do not require much water. This is a Wooly Lip fern. There is a lantana in the front (purple ground cover).

The blue fescue grass in the lower left of the next photo will probably be one of the main grasses in my front yard meadow.  Then I think I will plant Santa Barbara Daisies and blue geranium incanum  with it. In the lower left part of the photo is snow in summer ground cover, but it doesn’t live for more than a year or so and it needs water. Maybe that’s why it is under the pink bush.

Below are pictures from the Flower Fields Master Gardener displays. The first picture is of native plants, and I like the Dudleya succulent in here this picture. To the left is a native huechera and in the front is a native penstemon. It’s a little sparse for my taste! (And I had that native penstemon and it died fast!)

The plant below with red flowers are  a type of protea from the South African garden–great for flower arrangements, too. These would be good on our hill. The next photo with the “bee hive” is of a herb garden with thyme, rosemary, etc.

The Cuyamaca Water Conservation Garden will have a Butterfly Event in May 9 and also the college has a spring garden festival coming up. They sell plants too.

As I am writing this, I realized I missed the meadow garden. I was on the way to see my horse, and I had three little girls with me so I was in too much of a hurry and a little distracted. Oh well, good excuse to go back!

If you know of any groundcovers that would look good in my meadow, let me know! I want ones that will look good in winter and summer.

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Garden Stars: Flowers that Re-Seed

25 Wednesday Mar 2015

Posted by ninagarden in drought-tolerant, Flowers, geranium, wildflowers

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

annuals and perennials, California native plants, chickens, drought-tolerant

My friend was visiting my yard a few weeks ago and she said, “Wow. You really worked in your garden a lot this spring. You have so many flowers.” Truth is, I haven’t! I have mostly been crawling around on my hands and knees pulling weeds.  The flowers I have are self-sowers or perennials that re-seed. Every spring, they come up and I just sit back and pull weeds out so they can grow.

Here is an example of Toadflax, which is growing in my front yard. I planted a package of Toadflax about ten years ago, and every year it comes up like this, a frothy mass of colorful flower eye-candy. Of course, it needs water, which our winter rains usually supply, but even in the drought and hardly any water at all, it grew like this:

Below is a native purple geranium ground cover that also grows all over my front yard. I love native geraniums because they re-seed. You can also see lavender mixed with it. Lavender will also re-seed  and you can transplant the baby lavender as well as the geraniums around the yard to fill in bald spots.

Another great re-seeder is verbena. I just learned that the type of verbena that I have growing naturally in my yard is called Moss Verbena. It is drought tolerant, according to the new book I just bought Water-Wise Plants for the Southwest, by Nan Sterman, Mary Irish, Judith Phillips and Joe Lamp’L. Nan Sterman is in San Diego so her advice is particularly relevant.

GROWING TIPS: What are the secrets to re-seeding these plants? You have to live with a little ugly when the blooms die. Just let them go to seed and let them get brown. Then when you cut them, leave the cuttings out where you want them to re-seed. You don’t have to do this forever, just until they dry up a little.

For example, have you ever noticed that when you cut lavender and bring in for a bouquet, after a while you see little black dots all over your counter? Those are the seeds. They are miniscule. When I trim back all the lavender after the spring blooms, I thrown the stems in the ground for a while so the seeds fall out. Same idea.

Here is my list of perennials that can re-seed in my garden–hopefully, they will in yours too:

  • lavender
  • native geraniums; geranium incanum; also Bill Wallis geranium as referenced in my post on Annie’s Nursery; oh great, geranium incanum is also invasive according according to the link above. Oh well, I can live with invasive. I can’t live with dirt!
  • verbena (moss)
  • euphorbia caracias
  • Santa Barbara Daisy
  • Jupiter’s Beard or Red Valerian (some say this is invasive but my hill is so hard to grow on that I don’t care)
  • Pacific Coast Iris or Douglas Iris (a native plant, it is considered invasive by some so beware)
  • yarrow (but it often doesn’t bloom in my yard)

For annuals that re-seed in my yard:

  • Toadflax
  • Other wildflowers like California poppies or any poppy
  • sweet peas (believe it or not)
  • nasturtiums

The hens might help. I find little tomato plants growing from seeds that they pooped out growing all over!

Nasturtiums on the hill:

Mother-in-law’s Squash Tip: Plant squash in mounds. Put five or six seeds in each mound and place a stick in the middle of it. That way you can find where you planted it.

I think that makes sense, right? At least it did when she told me on the phone yesterday. Now that I write it down, it doesn’t. But I’m going to give it a try.

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A Visit to Annie’s Annuals and Perennials Nursery

08 Sunday Mar 2015

Posted by ninagarden in California native plants, drought-tolerant, geranium, mail order gardens, Sonoma Valley, Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Annie's, geranium maderense, Geraniums, little Bill Wallis geranium, Sonoma

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My garden is in full bloom from the spring-like weather we are having. It is nice to sit and looked out on all the colorful nasturtiums growing on my hill, filling in many of the dirt spots. I spent a few hours weeding then digging up the little Bill Wallis geranium seedlings that had grown in on our path up the hill. I transplanted them to the edge of the retaining wall on the second part of the hill. I hope they grow there. They have a good chance because I can easily water there with the hose in the summer. You can see the strip of growth where that water reaches.

I mention the Bill Wallis geraniums because they are some of the most thrifty and thriving plants in my terrifically difficult clay hill. They came in the mail from one of my favorite places to shop for plants Annie’s Annuals and Perennials. I circle plants in that catalog the same way I used to circle all the toys I dreamed of in my mother’s Sears catalog at Christmas.

Then I occasionally buy a lot–probably too much. Some of the plants I have bought haven’t lived as expected. I find little sticks around my yard with Annie’s name on them marking where I tried to grow things: a cigar plant–it looked so much bigger in the picture; clarksias–they were awesome until they died; verbena bonariensis–I loved those but they died in the drought last summer, etc. Some of the most enduring plants from Annie’s have been these great re-seeding, low water geraniums. They are the native type of geraniums and are purple. Annie calls them”floriferous, fast and easy.” They are heat tolerant and self-sow. The other reseeding favorite of mine is the rare geranium maderense or as Annie’s calls it “ginormous geranium.” Unlike Bill Wallis who hugs the ground and mounds, the maderense is tall and has dark green leaves and pink blooms when you can coax it into blooming. I like it for its dark green foliage and dramatic looks. It needs water and a cool, shady spot.

I have been trying to go to Annie’s for a couple of years because the catalog is so enticing. I wanted to see her gardens and the place where all my plants came from.

So when we flew into the Oakland airport on our way to Sonoma, I knew Annie’s was nearby in Richmond, CA, and I planned a morning stop there on our way back home. It was literally “across the tracks”– two train tracks and back in an industrial zone. My husband said it was built on a parking lot, but I didn’t notice. I was so excited and so bummed that I couldn’t fly home with a couple boxes of plants. If I had been driving, I would have loaded up the car!

Here is the front entrance. Oh so exciting!

Here are some of the beds of plants. Everything is arranged by type of plant: “Rarities,” “Annuals,” “Natives,” “Vegetables,” “Drought-tolerant,” etc.

 

This is a verbena that does really well in heat and drought:

I liked this succulent display:

One of the planted beds is below. I was a little disappointed by these demonstration gardens because in the catalog, they look huge. But this was a serious nursery with a ton of green houses where everything is grown right there. You can’t go in a lot of them. Since the plants are typically sold in small container (4 inch pots for $7.95), Annie has big pots planted at the end of each row (like the verbena I showed above) so you can see what the plants will look like when they grow.

One of my favorite plants that does well in my yard is below: the majestic Geranium Maderense.

Something I wanted to buy…I am really into purple and orange in my garden right now.

I walked around with my mouth hanging open and I could barely ask the salespeople any questions. It was a bit overwhelming and it was probably for the best that I could not load up my car and drive them home eight hours to San Diego. I would have bought way to much and then been in a panic to plant it all!

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Santa Barbara Gardens

08 Monday Sep 2014

Posted by ninagarden in Botanical Garden, California native plants, California Riviera, drought-tolerant, Santa Barbara, Santa Inez

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

drought-tolerant, native plants, Santa Barbara gardens

This is a pictorial of beautiful places around Santa Barbara and Santa Inez Valley.

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Enjoying the day at the Buttonwood Winery & Farm in Santa Inez Valley.

 

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Zinnias and salvia at Buttonwood Farms in the picnic area.

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Seaside daisy for sale in Santa Barbara Botanic Gardens, a great place to visit! It is great for kids too because there are tons of short trails to walk, shade in the canyons, a cool gift shop, etc.

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Santa Barbara Bontanic Gardens where you can learn about native plants and drought-tolerant plants, plus get ideas for water features like this one. Now wouldn’t that be nice in your backyard?

 

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Going to Santa Barbara? You gotta go to Andersen’s Danish bakery! I just had to throw this in! You get hungry gardening (and visiting gardens).

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Coastal redwoods in the canyon at the Santa Barbara Botanic Gardens, a place to cool off and slow down.

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Native plants for sale at Bontanic Gardens. I hauled home three: a verbena (Verbena lilacina “De La Mina”), a coral bells variety native to the Channel Islands (Heuchera maxima) and a Seaside Daisy (Erigeron glaucs). I wanted to buy a lot more but I didn’t.

 

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Santa Barbara Mission on a Sunday morning with rose garden in forefront. Overall, it was very dry and dusty but the roses were still in bloom and better than mine at home!

 

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Yarrow and verbena bonarensis at Buttonwood Farms.

 

Last stop was Rancho Olivos to buy olive oil. I snuck into the corral next door to take a picture with a horse because I needed one for the Babbit Ranch newsletter where my blog will be mentioned soon! Can I please keep this horse?

Last stop was Rancho Olivos to buy olive oil. I snuck into the corral next door to take a picture with a horse because I needed one for the Babbitt Ranches newsletter where my blog will be mentioned soon! Can I please keep this horse? Thank you to Christopher Davis of the Grapeline Shuttle for taking this photo! (and a great tour of the wine country!)

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Carpenteria Californica in Bloom

10 Thursday Apr 2014

Posted by ninagarden in California native plants, drought-tolerant

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

California native plants, drought-tolerant, flowers

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Finally, one of my Carpenteria has bloomed. I planted these plants up on my back hill almost two years ago–here’s a picture of it when I first planted. I don’t know if the warm, dry winter encouraged it or not, but I’m glad it finally bloomed.  I noticed little pods forming all over the bush a few weeks ago and finally they opened to reveal a white flower with a bright yellow center. I see one of my other Carpenterias now has pods too so another one will bloom any day.

This California native has dark green leaves. They are shiny and waxy looking. The plants are shrub like but mine grow taller than wider. You might say they are a little spindly, but they are a nice bright spot of green in the landscape. They are supposed to grow 4 to 8 feet high and five feet wide. (Mine are maybe two feet wide.)

The blooms are pretty and almost look like roses. I think in a few days, the shrub will be covered with blossoms.

I don’t even water it! Very drought tolerant! Keep that in mind! (They were very hard to find at a nursery. I think I had to order them and no one even knew what they looked like.)

The soil up on the top of the hill is not too bad, but not too good either –patches of clay everywhere. The description of this plant says it lives in clay or loam soil, tolerant of sun or shade. Flowers May through August–yipee! And they are supposed to be fragrant.

I guess I better go smell the Carpenteria Californica!

 

 

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Serious Drought Stuff

01 Tuesday Apr 2014

Posted by ninagarden in California native plants, drought-tolerant, garden, Southern California Rain

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

drought-tolerant, planning, succulents

Note: of course, I started writing this last week and now that I have time to finish, it is raining :-0

I heard the governor on the radio the other day, and it made me realize my yard might not get much water this summer.

This is serious stuff. And it is likely to continue into the future. I might as well face the facts.

I have decided to delay planting our front yard. Why plant, if I can’t water or shouldn’t water? I am going to wait until the fall when it is cooler.

That said, I am also going to plant even more drought-tolerant plants. This poses a problem for my style of gardening — I love cottage gardens. I am not a fan of a cactus or succulent garden; I have seen enough of those growing up in the desert!

I am going to search for cottage plants that don’t take water. The one that comes to mind is lavender. My lavender on the “hell strip” by the street never gets water. I spray it for a second or two once in a while to wash off the salts. I think the morning mist waters it.

I could plant my whole fountain area in lavender and have a few of those succulents that have the hot pink flowers–Calandrinia spectabilis. It is supposed to be indestructible, which is good.

Sage (the herb), salvia, alstoemeria, moonshine yarrow and a native verbena like De La Mina also might be good. I rarely water my alstoemeria once established and it still blooms. I also think artichokes would be nice–of course, they will likely need a little more water. That is one thing I have learned that can be difficult about mixing low water plants with ones that need more water–if you water too much, you kill the drought tolerant ones and if you water too little, well you know.  I think you have to pretty much go whole hog with drought tolerant! At least zone your plantings to match your sprinklers so you can have a low water area, and if you need it, an area that needs more sprinkling. Usually the plants will live without water but they just won’t bloom. I have found this true with day lillies.  They like water to flower.

Of course, grass falls into this category. We have a tiny figure eight of grass, which is ugly anyway due to other grasses mixing in and compacting of the dirt (and holes the dog dug).  We could brick it over or try a native grass–no more mowing. Another option is to make the grass even smaller and edge each border with a gravel or river stone then have the grass. I have seen this in larger yards and it looks beautiful.

In the shade, I like drought-tolerant ferns: here is the article I have been searching for in Sunset Magazine on ferns that like it dry. And this article has some other ideas for “wild and romantic” drought tolerant designs. Some of those look pretty.

Better Homes And Gardens has some other good garden ideas for drought-tolerant plantings. This page for Intermountain Nursery has a lot of the plants I like. You can see moonshine yarrow, mimulus, and other plants here, including Carpenteria Californica, which is planted on my hill and is about to bloom for the first time. (Maybe it needed a really dry year to bloom.) I am really excited to see it and will post a photo.

Looks like I will have time to plan this new drought-proof garden all through the hot, long summer.

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Rainy Day Gardening/Dreaming

04 Tuesday Mar 2014

Posted by ninagarden in California native plants, drought-tolerant, gardening, geranium, high-desert, planning

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

mail order gardens

This past weekend we were stuck inside because of the rain. This never happens here so I went a little stir crazy . I know we needed the rain, but it seemed to last forever. One day I went out in it and scatter snail bait just so I could be outside.

Like gardeners everywhere who have to endure winter weather, I turned to gardening catalogs. How handy they arrived right when the rain did.

High Country Gardens had some really interesting plants and pre-planned designer gardens you can order. They sold me on Russian Sage. It sounds good for the hill because it is low water and likes clay soil, plus it is blue in color. I am going to order some.

I also really like the “garden in a box” packages they sell and I’m really tempted to get one. I’m thinking about Habitat Hero Birdwatcher pre-planned garden by designer Lauren Springer Ogden. All the plants are for sun, low water and clay soil. I’ve never ordered from them so I’m thinking of testing out a few plants first. Since they are based in New Mexico, the plants also withstand cold weather but I don’t know if they will take humidity. Also, they will have to travel from New Mexico here so there is a possibility they won’t last through the mail.

The mail order plants I highly recommend–like a broken record–are from Annie’s and this catalog is full of wonderful temptations.

I know Annie’s plants arrive healthy and ready to grow. My upper hill is full of Annie’s wonderful Bill Wallis geraniums. They flower almost all year and are reseeding. My verbena bonarensis are also amazing and pretty well adapted to the hill, although the ones with full sun have done better than the others. A few things died from the dog trampling them like a tiny fragile cigar plant (which I should not have ordered!) and a heleborous or two. Oh ya, I also killed my beautiful Geranium Maderense when I over pruned it, but it is reseeding too and I still have one big one left, which I hope blooms this spring. (My post called “Easter Greetings” from March 2013 shows both Geraniums.) And my post here, shows another geranium that I bought from Annie’s–it is a more typical geranium with a heart shaped flower. You can also see the verbena boneriensis behind the alstromeria on the hill but it isn’t blooming yet so it looks a little stick-like. It definitely needs to be planted with lower-level plants growing in front of it. But once it blooms, it will bloom all summer.

Anyway, I know you can’t go wrong with Annie’s recommendations. She grows her plants in the Bay Area so they don’t have to travel far in the mail.

I am looking at her “indestructibles” collection and the orange alstroemerias on her web site. She sells out fast so create your wish list on the site and you will get an email telling you when they are in stock and you can order! Then plants arrive in the mail. How great is that! (Just make sure you are home when they get here so you can unpack them and plant them in 24 hours. They usually arrive within two days, I think, but check their website to make sure.)

Here’s a close up of the verbena bonariensis–they make great bouquets:
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