Incompatible Neighbors

Dear Next Door Neighbor,

If your harsh, chemical spray kills my sedum, Goldenrod and vinca, you may be very sorry. Just because you want to pollute the air by scalping your yard with a lawnmower 3 times a week, doesn't mean we all do. My shrubs and trees are trying hard to compensate for the damage you're doing to our... environment.

Sincerely,
Your Next Door Neighbor

Autumn Joy Sedum

Autumn Joy sedum is one of my favorite plants because it is so easy to grow and propagate. It is also extremely drought tolerant is is a wonderful food source for honey bees.

Autumn Joy sedum flower heads are really made up of hundreds of tiny flowers, tightly clustered together on thick stems.










This photos is from the last snow in February 2008. Left to dry overwinter, the stems and flower heads not only provide architectural elements to the garden, but they keep providing food for insects and early orchard mason bees.

Dog Days of Summer

August is turning into a bear of a month. The drought in the Bluegrass state is well into its 3rd week and everything is starting to show wear and tear. Although I am trying remove much of the lawn on my one acre property, I still have large expansives of grass - it's looking bad. There are places were the ground is cracked into wide fissures running along the ground.

I have been trying to keep the container plants, veggie garden and young trees watered, but even they are starting to show signs of giving up the fight to the drought.

All plans for my fall garden have been put on hold until we can get a good soaking rain to re-saturated the parched soil. I do have some seedlings started, but for now, I'm keeping them in pots until I'm sure they can survive in the garden.




Even with everything scrotched and dying in the garden, there are a few things that are thriving in the heat and drought. The Autumn Joy sedum is just coming into bloom and is showing no signs of stress. I have this lining my driveway and this area gets the full sun and heat from the road and driveway all day long.

The goldenrod and ironweed are also coming into bloom, and although the leaves are showing some wear and tear, the blooms have not been effected. I love the yellow of the goldenrod mixed with the purple ironweed - they make wonderful cut arrangements. The frost asters are also starting to bud, although there are no flowers yet. When the asters bloom, it looks like snow in the backyard, but that's a few more weeks away.

So, all in all, even with the long, dry summer, I have a few things to be happy about in the gardens.

Drought-Tolerant Plants

Now that the dog days of summer are upon us, I'm having to water my gardens more and more. Luckily, this year hasn't been as bad as the past two - the drought nearly wiped some of my gardens out.

Something that I started doing after the Drought of 2006, was only planting / transplanting things that were proven to be drought-tolerant in my gardens. This way I know I'll have plants that will thrive even without weekly watering. Some of these plants include:

Autumn Joy sedum - This plant can practically fend for itself and it always rewards you with thick healthy leaves in the spring and summer, and then lovely pink coloring in the fall.

Goldenrod - This is the official flower of my home state, Kentucky. There are dozens of varieties of Goldenrod and because they are native to my area, they don't require as much care as hybrid plants.

Daylilies - This is a flower that many gardeners have at home and there are hundreds of varieties. Throught experimentation, I have learned that daylilies can go for up to 10 days without watering, and if they are heavily mulched, they can go a little longer.

Mock Orange Shrubs - I have these lining my driveway and they are a profusion of white blooms all spring long. I don't water this area at all and it receives FULL sun all day long, but the Mock Orange just keeps going and going (almost like the Energizer Bunny). I take hardwood cuttings in the fall and softwood cuttings in the spring, so I am able to spread this plant around without much effort.

So, if you are looking for some drought-tolerant plants to add to your landscape, these time-tested plants should do the trick.