Tag: Drought Tolerant

How to Plant and Grow Summer Savory | Gardener’s Path

[ad_1]

How to Grow

Savory grows best in rich, well-drained soil amended with organic matter, and requires a full sun location. The plant makes an attractive, fragrant edging for garden beds.

It can tolerate both dry or moist soils, but not soaking wet conditions, and is also drought tolerant.

Fertilizer usually isn’t required if the soil has been enriched with well-rotted compost or manure.

If left in the garden, savory will reseed itself, but this isn’t the most reliable method of propagation – it’s best to start seeds in a controlled environment.

Summer savory is one of the most trouble-free herbs you can grow, its aromatic oils naturally repel many common garden pests, and it has no serious disease problems.

The main issue to watch for is root rot caused by waterlogged soil, which will show up as wilting and yellowing leaves – simply ensure good drainage and avoid overwatering.

Where to Buy

Inexplicably, this tasty herb can be difficult to find in both grocery stores and garden centers.

Look for nurseries that carry a good selection of herbs to find seedlings, or pick up some seeds and start your own.

Seeds are available in garden centers in early spring, or you can shop online.

Summer Savory Seeds

Seeds in a variety of package sizes are available from True Leaf Market.

Harvesting

Begin to harvest leaves as soon as the young plants are five to six inches tall. Pinch the stems about halfway down, just above a leaf node, and use the trimmed leaves for the kitchen.

Photo by Lorna Kring.

Pinching in this way also encourages new branches to form, and prevents leggy plants.

Leaves can be harvested throughout the summer, but the flavor is sweeter and more intense before flowering begins.

Pick leaves in the afternoon when the essential oils are strongest.

Flavor is best in fresh leaves, but they can also be dried and frozen. Or, you can always grow some of the winter variety for year-round supply of evergreen leaves.

Or, you can freeze fresh leaves in a zip-top bag, rolling the bag from the bottom up to squeeze out excess air before sealing.

[ad_2]

Lorna Kring

Source link

February 24, 2026
Nicholas Morton’s SGLD Award-Winning Coastal Garden

[ad_1]

Last Friday night the Society of Garden and Landscape Designers (SGLD) gathered in London to present their annual awards. Gardenista got the scoop on this year’s winners, which include several firms who won multiple awards for their submissions.

The “Garden of the Year Award” went to a family garden in Putney designed by Tomoko Kawauchi, the design director at Charlotte Rowe Garden Design; this garden was a triple-winner, also taking home the prizes in the “Small Residential Landscapes & Gardens” and “Built Landscape Design” categories. Another multi-award winner was a shady, terraced London garden submitted by Adolfo Harrison, which won both the “Judges’ Award” and the “Garden Jewel Award.” Fi Boyle took home the “People’s Choice Award,” which is the only category decided by public vote, for a garden sited in an old quarry.

But the garden that most caught our eye was the winner of the “New Designer Landscapes & Gardens” award design by Nicholas Morton, though he’s no novice designer: Before starting his own firm he worked for more than a decade for well-known designers Charlotte Rowe and Arne Maynard. Morton had also previously won one of SGLD’s Student Awards. “It is an incredible confirmation for a young design studio to be recognised by the SGLD,” says Morton.

Judges praised Morton’s restoration of a coastal town garden as a “a delightful, well-planted garden that overcomes challenging conditions with skill,” while remarking on the thoughtful planting, high-quality materials, and clever use of budget. They also noted: “The restrained design works beautifully with the building and its history.

Here’s a peek at Morton’s winning garden.

Photography by Elissa Diver, courtesy of Nicholas Morton.

Above: Added as part of architectural work on the house, new French doors connect the garden to the open-plan sitting room and kitchen. Morton describes the resulting indoor-outdoor space as “a place that feels like it is very private and a far away from the world outside.

Above:”The clients’ in-town property was a tricky L-shaped garden that wraps around the house, from the back to one side. “The challenge was to connect two arms of a garden, which had very different conditions, using planting that would both look good year-round and have seasonal highlights from multiple windows. All whilst breaking up the space to create a journey that both utilised, and encouraged use of, all of the space,” says Morton.

Above: For the hardscaping, Morton paired reclaimed Yorkstone pavers with a shell-based gravel mulch, which helps the garden retain water, for a welcome time-worn feeling. Outdoor furniture pieces from HAY’s iconic Palissade collection appears in each of the garden’s seating areas.

Above: Custom wood fencing and a row of newly-planted pleached trees and two specimen multi-stem ‘Strawberry’ trees create privacy and vertical interest along the property line.

Above: Morton describes his drought-tolerant planting scheme as “deceptively simple,” noting he used repeated structural planting with a matrix of grasses that “allow the feature plants to really stand out when it is their turn to shine.” Strategically-placed, naturalistic evergreen shrubs break up the space and define different areas within the garden.

Above: Note how Morton cleverly concealed an external oil boiler (at right) that dominated the view along this arm of the garden. Morton designed what he calls a “collector’s table,” a reclaimed slate table top with custom-made corten legs, to hold the clients’ potted sun-loving plants.

See also:

(Visited 761 times, 761 visits today)

[ad_2]

Source link

February 12, 2026
Vernonia lettermannii ‘Iron Butterfly’: Plant of the Year for 2026
[ad_1]
The Garden Club of America (GCA) has named Vernonia lettermannii ‘Iron Butterfly’ Plant of the Year—which, according to its website, “is awarded annually to acknowledge the cultivation and use of native plants, trees, shrubs, ground covers, vines, and perennials that are little known but deemed worthy to be preserved, propagated, promoted, and planted.”

“We engage with a small group of horticulture professionals from various botanical gardens and arboreta in the US. They receive all nominations and rank the plants based on growth factors, ecological services, adaptability, etc.,” explains horticulturalist and Freeman Medal vice chair Cynthia Druckenbrod, of the selection process. “They chose Vernonia lettermanni ‘Iron Butterfly’ because of its late season color, compact growth habit making it successful in backyard gardens, and drought and disease tolerance.”

Above: Photograph by Krzysztof Ziarnek via Wikimedia.

While ironweed itself is not unknown, this cultivar is a recent addition. “More nurseries are growing and selling this cultivar now. It was a relatively recent introduction in 2014, and Mt. Cuba Center’s trial of Vernonia cultivars was conducted between 2020 and 2023. During that time, their botanists ranked V. lettermannii ‘Iron Butterfly’ very high,” she shares.

The cultivar has a lot going for it—and landscape designers have taken notice (Piet Oudolf has been known to incorporate the plant into his landscapes). With beautiful, almost fern-like narrow leaves, it adds soft mounds of texture in the garden. Its clumping habit makes it well behaved. It can tolerate drought as well as the occasional deluge, making itself happy in just about any part of the garden that has full sun. It can grow in poor soil and doesn’t require much attention, but can benefit with a Chelsea chop in May. Its purple-ish flowers bloom as early as July and can continue to frost, providing food for migrating hummingbirds and butterflies.

Above: A 5-inch deep pot of Iron Butterfly Ironweed is $17.99 at High Country Gardens.

“Gardens should provide nectar sources for pollinators equally during spring, summer, and fall if possible. I think most tend to focus on mid-summer blooming perennials. Fall-blooming perennials are a real delight providing color until frost and important food resources for insects that overwinter or are laying eggs in the fall.”

One last thing, if you are wondering if the plant was named after rock band Iron Butterfly, the answer is, yes! Steve Castorani, from North Creek Nurseries, gave it its name as a nod to the band and to the plant’s toughness and ability to thrive in poor conditions.

Cheat Sheet

Above: Joe-Pye weed and Vernonia lettermannii in a Pennsylvania garden. Photograph by Larry Weaner, from Garden Visit: Out with the Lawn, In with the Native Plants.
- Native to Arkansas and Oklahoma, the hardy perennial does best in zones 4 to 9.
- Tolerates a wide range of soils.
- Grows to 24- to 36-inches high and 18- to 36-inches wide. Clump forming.
- Drought tolerant once established.
- Low maintenance. Happy in a prairie as well as a rock garden.
Keep It Alive

Above: A 1-pint pot of Vernonia lettermannii ‘Iron Butterly’ is $19 at White Flower Farm.
- Prefers full sun but will tolerate light shade. Too little sun will make the plant floppy.
- Quite happy in poor soil, since over-rich soil will do the same as too little sun.
- Very disease- and pest-resistant.
See also:

(Visited 99 times, 98 visits today)
[ad_2]

Source link
January 20, 2026
‘The Dry Lush Garden’: A Review of the New Book from the Ruth Bancroft Garden

[ad_1]

The title of the new book Designing the Lush Dry Garden: Create a Climate-Resilient, Low-Water Paradise reveals much of what you need to know about what’s between the covers, but hearing the story behind it will tell you a lot more.

Like every public garden, the legendary Ruth Bancroft Garden in Walnut Creek, CA, closed when the pandemic struck. Wanting to connect with gardeners during that time, the garden began offering online classes. “After a year we had a pretty good idea of what people were interested in as well as what they needed to know—but maybe didn’t know that they needed to know,” explain Cricket Riley and Alice Kitajima, two of the book’s coauthors. In March 2021, Riley and Kitajima helped the Ruth Bancroft Garden launch their Dry Garden Design Certificate Program, which hundreds of gardeners have since completed. Now, Designing the Lush Dry Garden is meant to bring the ideas taught in this course and the deep institutional knowledge of the Ruth Bancroft Garden to an even wider audience.

Photography by Caitlin Atkinson for Designing the Lush Dry Garden.

Above: The Ruth Bancroft Garden in Walnut Creek, CA. This is what the authors mean by a “lush dry garden.”

So who is this book for? Fellow Gardenista contributor Kier Homes, the third coauthor of the book, tells me, “It’s for gardeners curious about switching or tweaking the way they currently garden to an approach that is more water-conscious, sustainable, resilient, and in-sync with their climate.” Riley adds the book was written with both the novice and experienced gardener in mind. The lessons in the first part of the book lay out the basic steps to design a low-water garden, but “we also provide extensive lists of dependable, low-water plants that many people experienced in the field might not know about,” she notes. (The favorite plant lists alone might be worth the cover price.)

Above: Aloe ‘Creamsicle’ in full bloom under a mature Aloe ‘Hercules’ in the Ruth Bancroft Garden.

[ad_2]

Source link

October 2, 2025
13 of the Best Yarrow Varieties for the Home Garden

[ad_1]

Another low-growing variety that you might enjoy is A. ageratifolia, which has white flowers, silvery-green foliage, and a maximum height of about nine inches.

7. Moonshine

A. millefolium ‘Moonshine’ sports beautiful bright yellow flowers with silvery-green foliage, and grows to a mature height of 18 to to 24 inches tall.

‘Little Moonshine’ is a recent variation of the original ‘Moonshine’ variety, a hybrid of A. clypeolata x A. taygetea.

It’s a compact, mounding plant that reaches nine to 12 inches in height, making it perfect for container gardening.

8. New Vintage Rose

A. millefolium ‘New Vintage Rose’ is a compact, mounding plant with medium-sized non-fading vibrant deep pink to red flower heads.

Leaves are green, and stems reach 12 to 15 inches in height at maturity.

The intense color of this type is best as a stand-alone specimen in gardens and containers. A striking violet ‘New Vintage’ cultivar is also available at some nurseries.

9. Paprika

A. millefolium ‘Paprika’ is a Galaxy series hybrid that has green leaves and dusty brick red flowers that measure a medium-sized two to three inches across.

‘Paprika’

Blossoms fade to shades of pink, and perch atop upright stems that top out at at a mature height of 18 inches to two feet tall.

‘Paprika’ plants are available in #1 containers from Nature Hills Nursery.

10. Red

Red yarrow (A. millefolium rubra) is a vibrant, brightly colored variety with rusty red blooms that are excellent for attracting pollinators.

A. millefolium rubra

Reaching a mature height of twelve to 30 inches, it’s perfect for bouquets or to save as a dried flower.

A variety of package sizes – from 400 milligrams up through a whopping one-pound sack – are available from Eden Brothers.

11. Strawberry Seduction

From the Seduction series comes A. millefolium ‘Strawberry Seduction,’ with medium-sized flowers that resemble red, ripe strawberries, and fade to straw yellow in late summer.

Characteristic of this series, its green-leafed stems grow in compact mounds that reach 18 inches to two feet in height at maturity.

This cultivar tolerates heat and humidity exceptionally well. Plant en masse, or in a container on its own for a focal specimen.

Note: All Achillea cultivars are members of the Asteraceae family that includes daisies, sunflowers – and ragweed.

Some people may be allergic to it via pollen inhalation or skin contact. In addition, the ASPCA warns that yarrow is toxic to cats, dogs, and horses.

12. Summer Berries

A. millefolium Summer Berries is a mix of Galaxy hybrids that offers multi-colored medium-sized blossoms in an array of light hues, including pastel shades of mauve, orange-red, pink, purple, rose, and salmon.

These top green-leafed stems with a mature height of 18 inches to two feet tall.

A. millefolium Summer Berries Mix

This is a compact, mounding variety that does well as a filler in mixed patio containers. Known for its excellent tolerance of warmth and humidity, its colors may fade during heatwaves.

Seeds for the Summer Berries Mix are available from High Mowing Organic Seeds.

13. Sunny Seduction

A. millefolium ‘Sunny Seduction’ has green leaves and medium-sized muted yellow blossoms atop stems ranging from 18 to 30 inches tall at maturity.

It’s an excellent filler in containers, particularly those with blue specimen plants such as sage or gilia.

‘Sunny Seduction’

The Seduction series of plants offers sturdy, compact foliage and a long bloom season.

‘Sunny Seduction’ plants are available from Nature Hills Nursery in five-inch containers.

My Hero

Yarrow earns its keep where other plants fail to thrive. And it sure saved the day for me.

I had all but given up on a dry, gritty patch by the driveway that grew nothing but scraggly weeds. I had tried amending the soil and watering constantly, but the hot blacktop seemed to create a microclimate just short of desert.

Once I planted rugged Achillea varieties, I was able to create a focal point that said, “Welcome! A gardener really does live here!”

So, whether you’re already a fan, or have just discovered it today, you’re bound to enjoy good value and a pleasant view when you introduce one or more of our 13 varieties to your outdoor living space.

In addition to beautifying the outdoors, yarrow is an exceptional cutting flower.

[ad_2]

Nan Schiller

Source link

August 22, 2025
Ojai Gravel Garden by Terremoto: An Interview with David Godshall

[ad_1]

It’s always a delight to catch up with our friends at the California design studio Terremoto. Talk inevitably ranges beyond the confines of gardens, touching on issues within the landscape industry that are rarely addressed.

Appreciation of laborers and the creativity that they bring to a project is part of the Terremoto DNA. Co-founder David Godshall explains how this dynamic collective of garden thinkers and doers continue to meet the moment, while showing us around a lovely little garden in Ojai, northwest of Los Angeles.

Photography by Caitlin Atkinson except where noted.

On the Client Brief

Above: At the back of the house, old Chinese elm trees provide protection from the elements.

“The bones of the property were very beautiful but needed updating to be more functional for the clients, as their needs were softly different from the previous property owner’s. An avocado orchard existed, which we, of course, preserved and protected, and coast live oaks surround the property in a beautiful halo,” says David.

Above: For an area in full sun, “We created a mosaic of native and non-invasive Mediterranean plants.” These include sage and lavender.

“The magic of Ojai (I say this as a plant nerd) is that it sits at the confluence of multiple horticultural typologies,” David continues. “It’s a place where coastal sage chaparral crashes into agriculture (most notably avocados and citrus) and more cottage-y, slightly old-school garden-making traditions. Opuntia and geraniums have a surprisingly synergistic relationship. Our clients wanted to bring their garden into a thoughtful new era while being respectful of the innate qualities of Ojai that make it the place that it is.”

On Making Use of Free Materials

[ad_2]

Source link

August 5, 2025
Lessons Learned: My Gravel Garden that (Almost) Looks After Itself – Gardenista

[ad_1]

All week, we’re republishing some of our favorite Garden Visits that have a personal connection to our writers. No public gardens here, no vast estates, no professionally designed landscapes—just the backyards, vegetable patches, and flower beds that remind our writers of home. This story by Gardenista contributor Clare Coulson is from June 2022.

In the summer of 2017, I planted a gravel garden along a scrappy stretch of land that edged a recently renovated studio. I wanted to create a small garden that was a space for guests to look out to or sit in. I knew that this was a sunbaked area—it faces south and has no protection from either the summer sun or the wind that whips through the fields it faces out onto. And with extremely free-draining sandy soil, whatever was planted here had to be resilient and, as I had no plans to irrigate, drought-tolerant, too.

Photography by Clare Coulson.

Above: Stipa tenuissima is the star plant in the garden, acting as a tactile and shimmering base for the spires of verbascum and verbena to move through.

I signed up for the excellent gravel garden study day at Beth Chatto’s garden in Essex, which was a step-by-step with David Ward (he worked with Beth when she created her famed gravel garden in the 1980s). His key tips were: 1) choose plants carefully (Beth’s mantra, after all, was ‘right plant, right place’); and 2) start those plants off well. That means digging in some compost at the outset to ensure that you’ve got good soil and then soaking plants really well before you plant them, ideally leaving each plant soaking in a bucket of water for an hour before planting. Water everything well, but beyond this do not get out the hose.

Above: Dianthus carthusianorum is the perfect dry garden plant; from a low mound of fine leaves, it sends up leggy stems topped with hot pink flowers. They will occasionally re-flower if deadheaded.

We used a sub-base to stabilize the areas where we would walk around the beds and this was topped with gravel. I was left with two organic shaped large beds and once everything was planted I added some gravel around the plants, too, which helps minimize weeds but also retains some moisture.

To save money I grew almost every plant from seed. Some of those plants were incredibly easy to grow: Stipa tenuissima, Dianthus carthusianorum and Verbascum chaixii ‘Album’. Others, including Verbena bonariensis and Eryngium giganteum, I found much more tricky from seed, but they were brilliant self seeders; from a couple of verbena plants, there is now a self-seeded verbena forest in high summer of hundreds of plants that have just placed themselves in any available crack.

Above: Considering a garden from inside a house or building is crucial, creating vistas and sightlines from the place where you might sit and look out.

And the garden has really evolved to be a garden of self-seeders. Poppies have introduced themselves, flowering earlier than everything else in the summer and providing some color. These are followed by hundreds of white verbasums in June and July before the verbena peaks in late summer. I’ve also added some bulbs too—Narcissus ‘Thalia’ for spring and then Allium spaerocephalon for a later color pop around late June.

Light and movement are key to the garden’s success and I can’t say I thought that much about either when I was starting out as a gardener. The sun rises directly behind the garden providing some jaw-dropping moments in the morning. When the grasses here, which include Stipa gigantea and Calamagrostis x acutiflora ‘Karl Foester’ and especially the Stipa tenuissima, move gently on the breeze, it becomes a mesmerizing highly, tactile space. But this is also a garden for insects, and through the summer the garden hums all day and evening with a succession of bees, hoverflies, and butterflies.

Self seeders can, of course, be a pain to garden with. Each summer something edges more into focus and threatens to take over. There’s a constant battle with bronze fennel; its hazy clouds of foliage provide beautiful texture in spring and I love the towering umbels and incredible aromatic element they provide, but leave them to seed at your peril.

[ad_2]

Source link

August 30, 2024
The Best Low-Maintenance Flowers for Your Garden: 8 Sun-Loving Favorites

[ad_1]

In general, flowers are probably less important than form. Some have a fleeting season, perhaps blooming just once before doing nothing for the remaining eleven months of the year (I’m looking at you Iris germanica). Others have an important support act, providing an abundance of flowers or beautiful foliage for the majority of the year.

Yes, I want plants that are beautiful (and that work well together), but I also want them not to be too much trouble. So increasingly, as I’ve realized that you can never really fight the existing conditions in your garden, I just plant more of these low-work plants. If something does well, and needs little to no TLC then it’s very welcome in my garden.

Earlier this week I read a quote from the late plantswoman Beth Chatto, about her much-copied borders in Essex, England. “The point I need to stress,” she wrote in her ground-breaking book Drought-Resistant Planting, “is that copies of my gravel garden will not necessarily be successful or suitable if the principles underlying my planting designs are not understood. When visitors to my garden tell me they have attempted to make a gravel garden but the plants don’t look or behave as they do in mine, they wonder what they have done wrong. I ask ‘What type of soil do you have?’, ‘Very good,’ they reply. The amount of rainfall? ‘Twice what we have here,’ they tell me. I laugh and tell them if I had good soil and adequate rainfall I would not be growing drought-resistant plants.”

Favorite plants should always come with this disclaimer—what works in one garden may not work in another, because the soil, moisture, and conditions will vary immeasurably. Some of my most cherished plants will flourish in all conditions, but some do particularly well because they are especially suited to my garden, which has very free-draining sandy soil and is largely in full sun.

With that in mind, here are the plants I would not be without.

Photography by Clare Coulson.

Salvia nemorosa ‘Caradonna’

Above: I love almost all salvias and they all tend to love my garden, too, so long as I put them in a sunny spot. ‘Caradonna’ has the most intense deep purple flowers that will be smothered in bees for weeks on end. Once it’s finished flowering I cut it back and it will re-flower again, although less prolifically. This is a very upright salvia and looks best softened with hazy grasses or more unruly perennials such as Knautia macedonica.

Nepeta ‘Six Hills Giant’

Above: Arguably the most prolific, no-trouble plant I grow. Catmint springs into life early in the season, often flowering well before any other herbaceous perennial. It’s healthy, seems to cope with almost any conditions, and is particularly beloved by bees that smother this plant while it’s in flower. As soon as it starts to go over, I cut the whole plant back to a few inches from the base and it will usually regrow and flower again within a few weeks. It’s also very easy to divide and replant and looks fabulous flopping over a pathway.

Verbena bonariensis

Above: All the verbenas work really well in my garden, but the tall, billowing Verbena bonariensis is a brilliant border plant, emerging in mid-summer amongst other perennials and grasses. It’s a favorite of many butterflies and has an extremely long season. It looks wonderful though the autumn and winter as it holds its structure, but it will also happily self-seed so I am normally selective in how much of it I leave standing. Finches love to eat the seeds in winter, too.

Stipa tenuissima

[ad_2]

Source link

August 7, 2024
What to Do in the Garden in Extreme Heat: Tips for Climate-Resilient Landscapes

[ad_1]

This summer has been hot—really hot. Gardeners across the globe have recently experienced the four hottest days ever observed, and by all accounts, this is the new normal. Late last year the U.S.D.A. released their new Plant Hardiness Zone Map, which shifted zones for many locations, including the Midwest and Northeast, into the next warmer half zone. So, what’s a gardener to do? We reached out to a group of garden pros who have experience in gardening in extreme heat to ask them how we can plant and maintain our gardens to better weather hot summers.

Read on for their advice for picking plants, watering plantings, protecting trees, and more.

N.B.: Featured photograph above courtesy of Refugia, from Garden Visit: Refugia’s Quiet Revolution in Philadelphia’s Suburbs.

1. Stop planting.

After a particularly dry, hot summer in 2022, Claire Davis, an ecological garden designer in the Hudson Valley vowed: No more summer planting. “I decided that I wanted a cut-off date for plantings,” she says. “That super-dry, hot summer felt brutal for newly planted areas, and it was pretty miserable as a gardener trying to take care of them.” As a bonus, Davis says that pushing pause on planting has given her much welcome breathing space in her garden maintenance calendar. Instead of giving into the impulse to add annuals for “a little color” in midsummer, make detailed notes about when and where you lacked blooms, so you can make a plan to fill the gaps come fall.

2. Favor native perennials.

Above: The Bosque Garden at NYC’s The Battery, designed by Piet Oudolf, features native perennials. Photograph courtesy of The Battery Conservancy, from An Interview with Warrie Price, President and Founder of The Battery Conservancy.

When you do add plants in the fall (or next spring), all the experts we spoke to placed an emphasis on using perennial plants native to your region because they are naturally adapted to the climate there. “For the most resilience in the heat, use mostly perennial native plants instead of seasonal annuals, because their root systems are more extensive,” says Ginny Stibolt, the author of Climate-Wise Landscaping, who gardens in Florida. She notes that forgoing annuals will also result in less disturbance of the soil, which helps build up humus, so that the soil stays moist even when it’s hot.

[ad_2]

Source link

August 6, 2024
Garden Visit: Piet Oudolf in Quiet Menorca – Gardenista

[ad_1]

Just across the Balearic Sea from Barcelona, the small island of Menorca is perpetually confused with Mallorca. No one’s complaining; unlike Mallorca and Ibiza, Menorca is not high-profile, but it makes a good living from tourism. With a port that is the second deepest in the world, the island has attracted invaders and visitors for thousands of years but has somehow stayed more or less the same, aided by its UNESCO biosphere status. It should have come as no surprise when international gallerists Hauser & Wirth set their sights on Mahón harbor, promising a garden by Dutch superstar Piet Oudolf, a restaurant, and a world-class art gallery. But would these estrangers understand what makes Menorca special?

Photography by Kendra Wilson and Jim Powell.

Above: You cannot go wrong with butterfly chairs, and their introduction here is an asset to Menorca’s leisure pursuits.

First off, the restoration of the buildings, part of a larger site on a harbor island used as a British naval hospital in the 18th century, is wonderful. Menorca is blessed with luminous marés limestone, used on older buildings in the matter-of-fact manner of cinder blocks. The intention of architect Luis Laplace was to make some clarity in his restoration of the buildings, retaining the scars of what went before.

Above: New concrete and old limestone make a happy combination.

A little bit of glamor in Menorca goes a long way; it is not naturally receptive. But the restaurant at Hauser & Wirth Menorca, called Cantina, has a celebratory quality. Set outdoors in a remnant bosco of slim olive trees, the combination of showmanship and food to write home about is a great success.

Above: Much is made of Melianthus major and its lovely leaves in the grid of planted beds garden between poured concrete paths. Agapanthus is also a key plant earlier in the season; both are South African natives.

Luis Laplace worked with Hauser & Wirth on their British gallery in Somerset, and his work here is part of a wider creative reprise that includes Piet Oudolf. H&W caused a sensation when they hired Piet Oudolf to design the gallery garden in what was once a quiet English county. There has been a tendency in the last decade to jet-wash whatever it was that was appealing to start with, but Oudolf Field is in a league of its own, a showcase of prairie planting with a global renown that arguably outshines the gallery.

Above: The handsome 18th century naval hospital (in the background) is fascinating in its own right, although Piet Oudolf’s contribution does not extend to that part of Isla del Rey.

Menorca is an island of lizards and tortoises, and at Hauser & Wirth Menorca the lizards of Isla del Rey are provided with Helicodiceros muscivorus for food. It’s not the most attractive plant and is tucked away from the more showy staging of this garden. Likewise Phlomis italica, also known as Balearic Island sage, is less in evidence, if it is planted at all, than the non-native yellow Phlomis fruticosa shown here.

Above: Achillea millefolium, with a wide native range, and Echinacea purpurea, from the grasslands of the United States.

Oudolf worked with Menorcan landscape designer Alvaro de la Rosa Maura, who sourced plants with the help of local nursery Horticola Balear. Oudolf’s work is truly international, but as with garden consultants who fly around the world or travel between states, one can’t help wondering if there was a lack of local talent. Fernando Caruncho, for one, has made heart-stoppingly beautiful private gardens on these islands, which are recognizably of this place.

Above: Gaura lindheimeri (American, drought-tolerant), Greek horehound, yarrow, and sedum outside the restaurant and shop.

If the garden, which mainly fringes H&W’s nucleus of buildings, had been more about this specific Balearic island and less of a living art installation, there would be many more pine trees and figs (although a fig tree is beautifully framed by the gallery’s concrete walls), as well as thorny maquis, the default shrubby profile that is seen everywhere — and which is happy to be manipulated for garden purposes. In the end, it is the work of more visitors, and Menorquíns, it is safe to say, will carry on regardless. In the words of an old friend who has known the island well for six decades: “Menorca refuses to be impressed by money.”

See also:

(Visited 1 times, 1 visits today)

[ad_2]

Source link

August 1, 2024
Lavender: Everything You Need to Know About Growing the Plant

[ad_1]

3. But go with French lavenders for a longer bloom.

If you are trying to chose between English and French, know that while English varieties are more fragrant, French varieties have a longer bloom time.

4. Choose carefully if you’re using lavender as an herb.

Above: Spanish lavender-flavored soda. Photograph by Marla Aufmuth for Gardenista, from DIY: Lavender Soda.

French lavender is not the choice for scented, herbal, or culinary uses because of its low oil content. “I like ‘Provence’, as it’s a favorite savory culinary herb used worldwide, especially in the Mediterranean and Middle East,” says Terry. She also likes ‘Royal Velvet’ for any lavender confectionery or mixology recipes.

5. Lavender can be loved to death.

No need to pamper this drought-tolerant plant; it actually prefers to be ignored. Excess fertilizer, water, and rich soil will eventually kill it. That said, lavender does need irrigation during its early months of root establishment, but once established, it requires only minor supplemental water later during the driest periods.

6. Bathing with lavender is an ancient practice.

Above: Photograph by Aya Brackett, from Flower Delivery: Lavender Bundles for Valentine’s Day.

The fact that the name lavender is derived from the Latin verb lavare—to wash, says it all. The Romans were said to have used this herb to scent their public baths. Also, in Medieval and Renaissance Europe, women who washed clothes were known as “lavenders” because of how they dried the laundry by laying the wet clothes over lavender bushes, which scented the clothes. Royalty, most notably Louis XIV, enjoyed bathing in lavender-scented water.

7. Lavender hates wet feet.

These Mediterranean plants enjoy the hot, dry, rocky slopes of southern France, eastern Spain, and western Italy. What they don’t like is soggy, poorly draining soil. “One thing our customers are surprised to learn is how important it is NOT to use high quality soils and water-retaining compost when planting lavender. Lavender hates to have its roots kept wet,” shares Terry.

8. Lavender isn’t a fan of mulch.

Above: English lavender growing in gravel. Photograph by Mimi Giboin for Gardenista, from Landscape Architect Visit: Vineyard Views in Healdsburg’s Dry Creek Valley.

“We never mulch or gravel our lavender. Some growers do use gravel, weed cloth, and cover crops, like grass, between rows to help with weed control. But never heavy mulch because lavender likes to breathe!” says Terry.

9. Some lavenders can be grown from seed.

While some lavenders, like lavandin hybrids, can be grown only from cuttings because their seeds are sterile, there are varieties that can be started by seeds. “Some people report great success with seed germination, especially with the Angustifolia varieties. Most commercial farms use plant plugs from rooted plant cuttings.”

10. Lavender can be more than purples and blues.

Above: Different varieties of lavender, including white lavender (Lavandula dentata ‘Blanc Dentelle’). Photograph by Leslie Santarina, from Everything You Need to Know About Lavender (Plus 5 Kinds to Grow).

While the most common and popular varieties sport purplish hues, lavender flowers also come in white and pink. ‘Little Lottie’ is an English lavender known for its creamy white flowers and Lavandula angustifolia ‘Hidcote Pink’ blooms with delicate pink blooms.

See also:

(Visited 6 times, 2 visits today)

[ad_2]

Source link

July 24, 2024
Blue Flax: How to Grow and Care for Linum Lewisii, A Wildflower Native to the Western States
[ad_1]
Blue Flax, Linum lewisii

I can’t get enough of the blue flax in my yard, but it wasn’t always this way. With most other perennials, it’s a binary case of love or hate. With blue flax, though, it was more complicated.

Above: Blue flax’s five-petaled flowers range from a pale blue to a bright cerulean. Photograph by Debbie Ballentine via Flickr.

I’m newish to Central Oregon, where I relocated after a lifetime of living on the East Coast, and unfamiliar with the plants native to this high desert region. Hydrangeas, a landscape leitmotif on the East, are rarely seen in these parts, but Linum lewisii, another plant with vividly blue flowers, peppers the landscape. I see blue flax thriving in the wild on the trails; swaying in the wind next to the the chain-link fence that surrounds the local high school track; and growing in my own front yard, where it was planted by the previous owners.

Above: Once established, one blue flax plant can generate many, many petite flowers. Photograph by Philip Bouchard via Flickr.

While I was immediately smitten with the delicate blue flowers (measuring just 1 to 1.5 inches across) that float over thin stems, I was less than happy to learn that they wither by day’s end. I have always had a bias for durable, long-lasting blooms, and these ephemeral flowers, with an expiration date that measures in hours (not even days), offended my practical sensibility. The thing is, the spent flowers are replaced the next morning with a flush of new blooms. All summer long, this 24-hour cycle of birth, death, and rebirth is repeated.

Above: This flower will die by the end of the day, but new buds are standing in the wings, ready to bloom the next morning. Photograph by tdlucas5000 via Flickr.

I’ve come to admire blue flax. Every morning, like a child waking up to look for fresh snow, I eagerly grab a cup of coffee and peer out our front window searching for the new blooms. Throughout the day, I check on them. And early evening, I do one last inspection to see if, by some miracle, they’re still around, gently swaying in the breeze. They never are. But come morning, I fill up my cup again—and delight in their rebirth.

Cheat Sheet

Above: Its stems can look messy and leggy, so best to plant them en masse or crowd them next to tall grasses and wildflowers. Photograph by George Wesley and Bonita Dannells via Flickr.
- Discovered by Meriwether Lewis (of Lewis and Clark fame) in the Rocky Mountains, Linum lewisii is commonly known as blue flax, wild blue flax, prairie flax, Lewis flax, and Lewis’s flax.
- The drought-tolerant, deer-resistant perennial is native to Western North America, growing wild in prairies and mountain trails.
- Grows to 18 to 30 inches tall, with needle-like blue-green leaves.
- Will readily self seed once established.
- Exhibits a clumping habit; looks best en masse or mingling in a dense planting with tall grasses.
- The cultivar commercially grown for its fibers, seeds, and oil is common flax (Linum usitatissimum), but blue flax’s seeds are edible, too, as long as you cook it first.
- Its bloom period covers a long span, from April to September (though in Central Oregon, where the last frost date was in late spring, mine didn’t start blooming until early June).
Keep It Alive

Above: Blue flax happily mingling with coast sunflower, California fuchsia, Sulphur buckwheat, California sun cup, and ‘Margarita BOP’ penstemon. Photograph by Debbie Ballentine via Flickr.
- Hardy from USDA zones 5 – 8.
- Extremely easy to grow, the wildflower is both cold-hardy and heat-tolerant.
- Fairly shade-tolerant but happiest in full sun.
- Drought-tolerant, it has low to medium water needs.
- Best planted in well-draining soil; preference for rocky or sandy conditions, dislike of clay soil or wet conditions.
- To prevent self seeding, prune almost down to the ground at the end of the growing season; if not a concern, leave them standing for birds to snack on during the winter and cut back in early spring.
See also:

(Visited 3 times, 3 visits today)
[ad_2]

Source link
June 26, 2024
Garden Visit: Mindful Neglect in Lindsey Taylor’s Rambunctious Cinderblock Garden – Gardenista

[ad_1]

“You have to be a tough to be allowed in.” Lindsey Taylor is explaining how she decides which plants to grow in her cinderblock garden, which is located in an old mechanic’s lot that she’s transformed into a thriving urban garden in Newburgh, NY. “I don’t have a lot of time to care for it, so it’s a bit of a survival of the bullies,” she continues. “Drought-tolerant is important—no heavy drinkers. And I have a thing for tall plants and umbels. If you’re an umbel, you get a free pass!”

Ornamental grasses and deep-rooted prairie plants like rattlesnake master make appearances, as do seasonal blooms: bulbs in early spring, poppies and valerian and lots of self-sowers like Ammi majus, Orlaya, Nigella, Scabiosa, Clary sage, Verbascums, and Asters for the fall. They’re all contained (barely) in raised cinderblock beds, a nod to the squat cinderblock garage on the property. On the other side of the garden is a a three-story brick factory that’s now home to Atlas Studios, a compound for creative professionals co-owned by Lindsey’s husband. (See Industrial Revival: Atlas Repurposes a 1920s Abandoned Factory into a Creative Hub.)

“Aesthetically it made sense to use the cinderblocks to create raised beds, and the cost was right. We already had a lot of cinderblocks in the yard,” she notes. ” And the raised beds are very functional as they help to keep dogs out of the planted areas.”

The beds keep the rowdy plantings in check, too. “I like a bit of madcap-ness in my garden. Plants are allowed to mingle but the clean edges of the cinderblocks and the groomed gravel paths (I try to keep them tidy) help hold it all together, like a wonderful huge crazy wild arrangement.”

Photography by Dana Gallagher, courtesy of Lindsey Taylor.

Above: The cinderblock garden abuts the parking lot for Atlas Studios. Lindsey purposely chose higher-than-normal raised beds and tall plants so that the garden can be admired from inside the building.

Above: Lindsey working in the garden. In these beds are Valerian, Russian sage, Mexican feather grass, Guara, Verbascum, and plum poppies. “I weed selectively—after a rain is easiest. I let certain plants like Orlaya, bronze fennel, and Nigella stay, but I consider how much I leave. You don’t want to leave it all or you’d just have a mess.”

[ad_2]

Source link

May 31, 2024
Best Australian Flowers to Plant in the US: Here Are Our Favorites to Try

[ad_1]

While I have never visited Australia (yet), I use plants from there so often in my garden designs in the Bay Area that I almost feel like I have. But of course, my knowledge is only so deep, given I’ve never stepped a foot inside the country, so for this story, I reached out to […]

[ad_2]

Source link

May 29, 2024
Visionary by Clare Takacs and Giacomo Guzzon: A Review

[ad_1]

In the introduction to her epic new book, Visionary; Gardens and Landscapes for our Future, photographer Clare Takacs admits that in 2021 she set out to shoot only 30 to 40 gardens across the Mediterranean for the book. Instead the project, co-created with landscape architect Giacomo Guzzon, turned into an odyssey of sorts, with almost 80 gardens shot from Carmel Valley, California, to The Dandenongs in Australia, close to where she grew up.

The book showcases the way that garden design is attempting to keep pace with climate change and how it can respond to or mitigate the effects of prolonged drought, record-breaking temperatures, flooding, and extreme rainfall on our gardens. It’s a sumptuous survey of resilient garden design right now; the results are inspiring and thought-provoking, and illustrate how nature can thrive even in the most hostile environments.

Below, a peek at just a few of the magnificent gardens featured.

Photography by Clare Takacs, from Visionary; Gardens and Landscapes for our Future.

Above: In the Toledo garden, in Talavera de la Reina, Spain, designer Fernando Martos uses a limited palette and an understated approach to link this garden to the wider landscape. Enclosed by a curving dry stone wall, the garden features large boulders dotted around low-rise buildings and a farmhouse. The planting includes species that can cope with the exceptionally harsh environment including Euphorbia seguieriana, Stachys byzantina, Achillea tomentosa, Phlomis viscosa, and prostrate rosemary, as well as light-catching grasses including Sesleria ‘Greenlee’ and Stipa gigantea.

Above: A guesthouse on an old estate in the north of Ibiza is entirely enclosed in terraced gardens with stone terraces matching the house and gravel walkways, and neat Mediterranean plantings of prostrate rosemary, ballota, achillea, Helichrysum orientale and Santolina chamaecyparissus.

Above: James Basson’s work in the south of France, where his landscape business is based, is well-known for its often trail-blazing response to climate change and reassessment of what garden design can be. His drought-tolerant plantings are more in keeping with the wild landscapes of the region. In this early project there are olive and cypress trees, clipped shrubs including rosemary, bupleurum and teucrium along with the intense blue flowers of pervoskia.

Above: The terraced gardens of The Rooster in Antiparos, Greece, meld into the landscape with native planting, fig and olive trees, along with Juniperus oxycedrus, Bougainvillea spectabilis as well as Sarcopoterium spinosum, a native species reintroduced by local nurseries.

Above: A series of roof gardens designed by Piet Oudolf in collaboration with Tom de Witte, surround a private house south of Amsterdam. Plants including Allium tanguticum ‘Summer Beauty’, Amsonia hubrichtii, Calamintha nepeta, Eryngium bourgatii, Limonium platyphyllum, lavandula, Salvia yangii (syn. Perovskia atriplicifolia), Sesleria autumnalis, sporobolus, echinacea, Teucrium x lucidrys, agastache, Origanum laevigatum, Salvia sclarea, Sedum matrona, Stipa tirsa, Stachys byzantina and Festuca mairei are planted into six inches of free-draining substrate.

[ad_2]

Source link

May 9, 2024
Terremoto’s David Godshall, Dawn Wang, and Diego Lopez Answer Our Burning Questions

[ad_1]

David: Filter or weed fabric is an entire industry that, if I could, I would delete with the push of a button. Weeds go through it, it’s plastic, you always see it (and it’s ugly), and it impairs the ability of insects or worms to move through soil horizons, and that seems incredibly unkind.

Dawn: Impervious surfaces in general! We should really stop pouring concrete.

Old wives’ tale gardening trick that actually works:

Dawn: I talk and sing to my plants at home, and they’re happy.

Diego: Love your plants!

Favorite gardening hack:

Dawn: Sticking my finger in the soil seems to answer a lot of my client’s questions.

David: I love that answer, Dawn! I have a bathtub in my garden and I use it to water my Sycamore Trees (which like a bit of water). Feels like a solid hack to me.

Diego: Hire Carmen Orozco of Barranca Landscape. Everything comes out beautifully.

Every garden needs a…

Diego: A low-tech water fountain for birds and insects.

Dawn: A birdbath!

David: Well, I don’t want to ruin this, so I will also say birdbath, but it’s true—inviting wildlife into your garden is the ultimate baller move.

Favorite hardscaping material:

Dawn: Reclaimed brick! The classics never go out of style.

Diego: Urbanite (broken concrete). We’re increasingly trying to use recycled materials in our projects and urbanite transcends aesthetic worlds in a really cool way. We’re trying to learn how to build mostly native, spiritually Japanese gardens out of trash—that’s one of the present goals of the office.

Go-to gardening outfit:

Above: Terremoto’s Flap Hat is $43 at Plant Material.

Dawn: My old Terremoto shirt.

David: I have a flap hat that protects my red neck from getting even redder, and when I put it on and put glasses on, I go into GARDEN BEAST MODE.

On your wishlist:

Dawn: Owning a fucking house someday hopefully.

David: A small cabin in the woods next to a creek. Ideally with no cell reception.

Favorite nursery, plant shop, or seed company:

Above: Plant Material is the retail arm of Terremoto. Photograph by Caitlin Atkinson, courtesy of Terremoto.

David: Absolutely shameless plug alert, but Plant Material! It’s our Los Angeles nursery with three shops and an ecological point of view. And, of course, shout out to Theodore Payne and Artemisia Nursery. It’s a big city and we’re trying to push it in an environmentally positive direction together, which is lovely.

Dawn: N-K Bonsai Tree Nursery.

Diego: Plant Material!

David: Hey, Diego, you’re getting a raise—awesome answer!

Not-to-be-missed public garden/park/botanical garden:

Diego: Casa Azul, Frida Kahlo’s house in Mexico City.

David: California Scenario shreds. The Test Plots in Elysian Park (and everywhere) are a constant source of joy for me.

The REAL reason you garden:

Dawn: Mental health!

David: Yeah, kinda also mental health and well-being.

Diego: Community and bonding, with co-workers and soil.

Thank you, David, Dawn, and Diego! If you want to see what the team is up to, follow them @terremoto_landscape.

See also:

(Visited 1 times, 1 visits today)

[ad_2]

Source link

May 5, 2024
Garden Visit: At Home with Landscape Photographer Caitlin Atkinson – Gardenista

[ad_1]

For years I’ve marveled at (and been envious of) the work of photographer Caitlin Atkinson, who captures gardens, interiors, and still lifes with a serene, dreamy, almost ethereal feel. She is a master of catching the sun as it shines soft and warm, as it creates glowing halos around plants, highlighting and hugging simultaneously.

Caitlin photographed landscapes for the book Under Western Skies: Visionary Gardens from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Coast, written by Jennifer Jewell, that spotlights innovative and inspiring gardens in the West. [N.B.: More recently, she’s been working with Kendra Wilson on Gardenista: The Low-Impact Garden, to be published next spring.] Caitlin’s work, of course, involves almost constant globe-trotting, but when she is able to be at one of her own homes, either in Nevada City or Santa Cruz, you can find her digging and tending her own patches of dirt.

Caitlin Atkinson at Home

Caitlin’s gardens have different styles, as they are in different climates and settings. The Nevada City garden, in the foothills near the Yuba River, is, as Caitlin describes it, “more of a subtle color story.” One area of the garden consists mostly of blues and is situated in a very sunny, dry, and hot spot. She also has a fescue meadow that she continues to seed and plant into. “The drought has more of an impact here, along with the risk of fires.”

The Santa Cruz garden, on the other hand, is a beach cottage with more colorful plantings. And even though the garden gets sun all day, the proximity to the ocean creates a very mild climate. “The hardest things to work with there are the sand for soil, the wind off the ocean, and the salt air,” shares Caitlin.

Join us for a closer look at her two gardens.

Photography by Caitlin Atkinson.

Nevada City Garden

Above: “Everything I plant has to be low-maintenance, very tough, deer-and bunny-resistant, plus like where it lives or it will not make it,” says Caitlin. Both gardens started slowly and continue to evolve that way as well.

Above: Caitlin decorates her porch with pots purchased from Flora Grubb Gardens in San Francisco. Agave ‘porcupine’ fills most of them, while a Clematis armandii vine frames her forest view.

Above: “My work often gets incredibly busy right when you might be the busiest in the garden, so I often do not get to do much in the garden. It can sometimes turn into a real wild scene, but mostly things are left to their own devices with a little maintenance when I can,” says Caitlin.

Above: This simple concrete bird bath attracts mostly acorn woodpeckers. Caitlin adds, “Of course robins, seasonal finches and hummingbirds are in the garden, but they are not so much at the water.”

[ad_2]

Source link

May 3, 2024
Buckwheat: All About Growing Eriogonum, a Native California Plant
[ad_1]
Buckwheat, Eriogonum

If you’re trying to plant more responsibly and sustainably, and also want your garden to thrive with less fuss, consider adding some wild buckwheat to your beds. I was introduced to these useful shrubs and sub-shrubs when I brought home a few 4-inch pots of red buckwheat from Annie’s Annuals & Perennials. I planted one in my garden and the rest in my clients’ gardens, and have, along with the pollinators, continued to admire them.

Before we jump in, I need to clarify that the buckwheat I am writing about is not the gluten-free buckwheat that you might bake with (that’s the European cultivated Fagopyrum esculentum), nor is it the wild buckwheat, Fallopia convolvulus, that is commonly called black-bindweed. I’m talking about the California native buckwheat, Eriogonum, that supports over 250 different species and is hardy is USDA Zones 7-10. What draws me to these plants is that they not only have charming blossoms in a range of colors (yellow, creamy white, pink, or red), but they also provide important food sources for bees, birds, butterflies, and other pollinators from spring through fall.

Above: Red buckwheat (Eriogonum grande rubescens). Photograph by JKehoe_Photos via Flickr.

And whether in bloom and out of bloom, these plants can hold their own in a garden setting that receives a good amount of sun, receives minimal amounts of water, and has well draining soil. I like to pair these unthirsty shrubs with plants that have the same temperament—think sage, yarrow, ceanothus, and penstemon.

The key to planting buckwheat—and come to think of it, planting any plant—is to first understand the plant’s origins and then see if your garden replicates those conditions. So for example, red buckwheat is native to the Channel Islands in Southern California, so it appreciates exposed rocky conditions with lean soil. In the beginning of my buckwheat journey, I made the mistake of babying them (I’m a mother, after all) and added too much compost to the planting area. Quickly my little buckwheats suffered from pampering and died. What I quickly learned is that these plants like lean soil and actually thrive on some neglect.

Pro tip: If after several years your plants get too rangy looking, simply replace them with new small starts. The best time to plant/replant (as with most natives) is in the fall, when rainy days will help your plants develop a hardy root system.

Favorite Buckwheats

Above: ‘Ella Nelson’s Yellow’ Buckwheat is $13.95 at Annie’s Annuals & Perennials.

I purchased my first buckwheats at Annie’s Annuals & Perennials, which carries quite a few wild buckwheats, including these three favorites:
- ‘Red buckwheat’, Eriogonum grande rubescens. This magnificent low shrub (1′ x 3′) sports spoon-shaped leaves and bursts with dark pink/crimson red pompom blooms in June and continuing through October if deadheaded. This plant looks lovely massed along a path edge or border. Hardy to 15 degrees F.
- Giant buckwheat, Eriogonum giganteum. This grey-green evergreen shrub is commonly called St. Catherine’s Lace and is considered the grande dame of the species. Give this showy plant plenty of space to reach its full potential (4-8′ tall and almost as wide). Expect extra large sprays of creamy white flowers heads that resemble lacy doilies and that attract bees, butterflies, and other tiny beneficial insects. Added bonus: birds snack on the seeds plus use the large plants for shelter.
- ‘Ella Nelson’s Yellow’, Eriogonum nudum. Growing to 3′ high and 2′ wide, this plant explodes in the spring with the cutest yellow pompom flowers. Makes a unique cut flower.
Cheat Sheet

Above: The combination of white sage and buckwheat is on this list of 11 Favorite Native Plant Combinations.
- Great in dry, native, habitat, or cottage gardens. Also useful massed on hillsides as they are great for erosion control.
- Attracts bees and butterflies by the bunches and provides important late summer food for pollinators.
- Mostly deer-resistant but I have seen the flower tops munched off by desperate deer.
- Prune fresh or dried flowers to hang upside down for later use in flower arrangements.
Keep It Alive

Above: A 4-inch pot of Red Buckwheat is $12.95 at Annie’s Annuals & Perennials.
- Most prefer a sunny spot for full growth and less legginess.
- Once established they need very little water. Pro tip: overwatering will definitely push them over the edge.
- Fast draining soil is important, meaning sandy, rocky, or gravelly. Too much rich compost is disliked.
- A gravel mulch is preferred to avoid stem rot.
- After flowering, the blooms fade to attractive fall-hued colors.
- Prune to shape when they are young.
- Sow seeds in sand or potting mix and keep moist until germination. Next, let seedlings dry out between waterings and then transplant into larger pots before setting out in fall.
See also:

(Visited 1 times, 1 visits today)
[ad_2]

Source link
April 10, 2024
Gravel Gardens: Everything You Need to Know About Dry Gardens

[ad_1]

What happens beneath the gravel is key. Paths need to be built on a strong permeable sub-base of at least four inches. Most firms selling these products have a calculator so you can work out how many tonnes you’ll need. Once your sub-base material is spread out, you will need to use a vibrating plate to firm it up and make a stable surface. Gravel or other stones can then be spread on top of this stable base and around the plants as an additional mulch.

6. You may miss out on spring—unless you plan for it.

Above: Basalt stepping stones through a gravel garden designed by Annie Guilfoyle.

An additional layer of planting using bulbs will ensure that in spring and early summer, before many perennials have hit their stride, you can still have a good display. Choose a range of bulbs that will flower in succession, and will need little maintenance such as narcissi, Iris reticulata, Allium cristophii, and bearded iris, which will love the free-draining, sunny conditions of the dry garden.

7. Gravel gardens can be pollinator heavens.

Above: Richly layered planting around a graveled area at Tattinghall Hall in Cheshire, England. Photograph by Clare Coulson.

One of the most joyful benefits of a gravel garden full of bee-friendly planting is that it will be alive with insects, bees, ladybirds, moths, and butterflies all summer. By carefully combining plants and ensuring a succession of flowering you can boost this further; alongside summer-flowering perennials (such as buddleia, verbena, hebes) and herbs (like marjoram or oregano), add later flowering perennials, too, including sedums, eupatorium, gaura, and monarda to keep pollinators buzzing right through autumn.

[ad_2]

Source link

January 16, 2024
Agave Tequilana: How to Grow Blue Weber Agave

[ad_1]

Blue Weber Agave, Agave tequilana

A daring husband and wife team in Sonoma county—Laurie and Adam Goldberg, co-founders and owners of Stargazer Spirits—is experimenting with large-scale agave farming by planting test blocks on approximately six acres of varying soil types, with blue Weber as one agave variety. They are deep in the learning stage, so I reached out to Laurie for advice and insights into growing blue Weber agave, a historically significant succulent.

Please keep reading to learn more about this drinkable plant and this adventurous couple.

Photography by Adam Goldberg, courtesy of Stargazer Spirits.

Above: A field of blue Weber agave growing bigger and stronger every year.

First, a little backstory about blue Weber agave: The Greek word that agave comes from is Agavos, which translates to illustrious; in Greek mythology, Agave was the goddess of desire. Blue Weber agave is native to Jalisco, Mexico, and was considered sacred by the Aztecs. The first alcoholic agave beverage was pulque (potentially dating back to 1000 B.C), made from the fermentation of the plant’s sap. When Spanish settlers entered the scene, they began experimenting with the distillation process, eventually using the pulque to make tequila and mezcal. Today, Jalisco remains the source of the best and the majority of tequila.

The Goldbergs’ mission is to create top-notch agave spirits in California. (Side note: in order for a drink to be called tequila, it must be made from blue Weber agave in Jalisco or other limited municipalities in Mexico.) They are among the first to grow agave for spirits production outside of Mexico. “We have around 3,000 tequilana (including several heritage varieties) and approximately 6,000 plants total. We’d hoped that Agave tequilana would be a low-water, low-maintenance, set-it-and-forget-it plant for us, but in fact it requires more water than any of our other agaves (though still around 75 percent less than what grapes need on a per-acre basis),” shares Laurie. The Goldbergs continue running a number of soil amendment, mulching, and watering experiments. “The bottom line is that this agave is likely to thrive in warm areas in full sun without winter frost. It requires 70 to 80 gallons of water per plant in the summer months, though water requirements will depend on location and soils. Lastly, it likes loose, sandy soils in which its roots can spread out.”

[ad_2]

Source link

December 13, 2023