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Next wee I will be putting back the fencing and gates so Hedy can start using the front again! It was really hard on her not being able to go out front!
Here's some updates on the gardens I rebuilt last year.
I've been waiting for all the perennials to start blooming!
Pic 3:It is Alyssum montanum 'Mountain Gold'
It is a nice easy perennial for dry soil in full sun!
It has silvery grey foliage and looks good with or without flowers.
Pic 4 is Potentilla atrosanguinea var argryrophilla (sorry, no common name)
Grows to 6 inches high, blooms all summer!
It is Mount Atlas Daisy~Anacyclus pyrethrum x depressus. What you are seeing is the center of the flowers. Not a good photo of it and that particular one is having a rough time! I'll need to replace it with something else!
I have another group in another garden that I need to take a photo of. The flowers only open with sunlight so I'll need to time it right!
It is a mat forming perennial!
Wish the blooms were more upright!
If you like yellow here's a pic Delosperma congestum (at around 1:30 in the same photo) ~a very compact Ice Plant! Blooms continuously right through until late fall!
It really is cool!
Everything is coming together!
I just have to pace myself and don't get too far ahead in my head!:0
I'm having lots of fun and a great tan!
Needed to create a spot for some of my cacti, as wall as the jovibarba!
Spent the afternoon digging, removing the grass, hueled some bags of organic soil, then collect rocks to create a raised rock garden!
Mixed the existing sandy soil with some organic soil to give it more moisture retention
Opuntia "Bumpy" at the top ~started then in December of last year.
Around Bumpy there are 5 Spanish Sedum ~ stays small and forms a mat.
Then 5 Escobaria vivepara ~ Pinchusion cacti~ year old and the size of a quarter.
Along the bottom, a variety of different Jovibarba species and cultivars ~all are a year old.
After setting them all in the rocks I used coir, which is ground up coconut hulls, as a mulch to keep the sandy soil from being splashed onto the plants when it rains!
It will be neat to see how they grow and develop over time now that they are in the planted in the ground!
Nancie, all the ones I'm growing for the gardens are winter hardy cacti!
5 species of Opuntias, and 2 species of Escobarias are the main 2 species that I have that are proven hardy from zone 3 and warmer!
I have a dozen other species ( seed mix from ParkSeed.com) that I will be testing this winter to see how hardy they are! I do not know the names of them yet since they are still too small to identify them!
Most species will survive your zone 9/8!
Main cultural requirement is well drained soil such as sandy loam.
The first one a created for my 2 year old Hypericum prolificum. Around the base I planted 3 Lavandula angustifolia 'Nana' (a dwarf lavender),as a groundcove I'm using Spanish sedum (a dwarf sedum). To the left 3 Dierama pulcherrimum. I used red pine bark as a mulch.
Second Garden:
Around the edge and as a groundcover I used Antennaria alpina (common name Alpine Pussytoes) growns only an inch high, spreads indefinitely, small fuzzy white/grey foliage, white to pink flowers!
Next is Platycodon 'Asta' mix. grow only 6"s high and spreads about 12"s.
Next is Thlapsi stylosum ~ a small spring bloomer, pink flowers over a long period of several weeks, small mound of evergreen foliage, will spread over time...but slowly!
Next, is Helianthemum canadense ~ forms a prostrate mound of evergreen foliage which will spread over time, small yellow flowers over several months from spring until Fall. Flowers open in succession along short flower stalks!
Next is a small shrub called Amorpha canescens, compound leaves, purple flower spikes, grows to 24"s!
Back area is another small shrub Ceanothus americanus ~ the common 'New Jersey Tea', grows to 3', intermixed is a native campanula called C, rotundifolia~ small mound of foliage and 12"+ slender flower stalks from spring until fall.
The the far right and far left are 2 (only 2 seeds germinated, will try again next spring with a different seed starting soil-less mix) Dracocephalum argunense, might grow up to 18"s but looks like it will grow prostrate, leaves are small and shiny, blue flowers look like dragon heads, blooms May and June! May have to move them when they get larger!
Here's some photos of the whole garden area I'm still working on:
Thanks Ron. I thought I was safe but we had such a severe winter last year even my prickly pear died and it was huge. It is statring to come back pretty good though.
Thanks Ron. I thought I was safe but we had such a severe winter last year even my prickly pear died and it was huge. It is starting to come back pretty good though.
They really need well drained soil. You could do a raised bed for them!
Since I have very sandy soil, I add a lot of organic matter to it before planting to help slow down the draining and to hold nutients! Then I mulch to conserve soil moisture and to keep it cool! When I dig out a planting hole the sand is cool, and you can feel the moisture.
Even still, all the perennials I select to grow are drougth tolerant and tend to develop tap roots that grow downwards to where there is moisture. The water table here is a good 6' to 8' down, close to the bedrock! Even the trees and shrubs are all drought tolerant with taproots!
Water may have been on of the problems. When it wasn't freezing it was raining I may make that my fall project to raise the beds some. You would think with all this glorious sand we would be well drained, but being in the river bottom we stay a little on the wet side especially if it's noreaster conditions.
Funny how opuntias love sand as long as it is on the dry side!
All species like pretty much the same conditions!
I let all the seedlings dry out between waterings. I move the flats undercover when it rains so they are not sitting in wet soil for too long!
Lost a few babies this year, so now I know what to do until they are large enough to plant out in the garden! Then they are on their own!
Errol,
Some people think I am!
I really should have gone to get a degree in Botany and Horticulture a couple of decades ago!
I just never got around to it!
Too many other things came up and took me in another direction.
Gardening has always been a passion of mine!
Now that I have the time, I'm devoting a lot of my attention into creating a xeric landscape!
I'm glad you like what I've done so far!
The gardens are growing and are starting to take on a life of their own!
I have plans to make more gardens and expand the ones I already created, and fine tune them with other species of drought tolerant perennials!
I'm aiming are removing all the areas where grass wont grow!
I enjoy it and spend most of my time out in the gardens studying the plants as they grow and develop. If one perennial doesn't work, as in too high maintance, out they come! I replace them with some other species!
If I'm not out in the gardens, I'm online tracking down other perennials that might do for my zone 5/6, and very sandy soil!
I start all my plants from seed. It's inexpensive when I want to plant more then just one plant! The rest I sell to help offset my expenses!
This is the first time I'm actually selling perennials to the public! I used to give them away to friends and neighbors, when I lived in the city, with it's postage sized gardens! I now have a good 1/2 acrea to play with! The other half is bedrock and beach!
I get to meet some very interesting gardeners who have watched my gardens grow and develop since moving here last August! They are always full of wonderful questions!
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I may make that my fall project to raise the beds some. You would think with all this glorious sand we would be well drained, but being in the river bottom we stay a little on the wet side especially if it's noreaster conditions.