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Tag Archives: California native plants

Water-wise Demonstration Gardens Teach Conservation and Design

14 Tuesday Apr 2015

Posted by ninagarden in landscape, water-wise garden

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Tags

California native plants, rebates, turf replacement, Water-wise

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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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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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