Category: garden landscapes

Light and shine for your holiday garden

luminaria

Even if you decide not to deck out your home with strings of lights and other festive decorations this year, consider using luminaria on your porch, in windows or along a walkway during the holidays. To my eyes, homes with luminarias are so much more attractive than ones with dancing elves and soaring Santas. (Although children love the elf-and-santa version of decorations!)

Many garden stores now have ceramic or metal luminarias but they are easy to make at home:

1) fold down the tops of brown paper lunch bags you can buy at the grocery store as if making a cuff and
2) fill in the bottom of the now-shorter bag with a handful of sand or garden soil to anchor it, then
3) set a tea-light in the bottom center of your handmade luminaria and
4) light the tea-light. Voila–you’re done!

Garden Gifts

If you have a gardening friend and are looking around for a holiday gift idea, consider giving them a garden ornament. These three are definitely for the friend who has everything. The two glass ornaments are in the garden behind the Sonoran Glass School in Tucson and are available for sale. The desert tortoise is not for sale and permanently at home in the Arlington Garden in Pasadena.

turtle garden ornament

But these three can be inspiration. If you like the idea of glass in the garden but would like something more affordable, consider buying a tempered glass wind chime at your local holiday faire. And almost every good garden shop has animal ornaments for reasonable prices.

Winter Flower Blooms Again

amaryllis bloom

Looking ahead: when the amaryllis blooming in your home during the holiday season fades, plant the bulb outside in a very sheltered place and in about 14-16 months, the amaryllis will bloom again…and every year after that. I had one in my Mojave garden that bloomed and produced offset bulbs for over a decade! The offset bulbs, which I separated from the original bulb and replanted, in turn bloomed in Springtime, too. It was definitely a gift that kept on giving! Happy holidays to you!

Read our 8 most popular newsletters

  1. Hot Days, White Nights, How Design a Moon Garden
  2. Australian Plants for a Desert Garden
  3. Cover up that naked wall
  4. Best and beautiful native shrubs for extreme heat
  5. Five fragrant plants for your garden
  6. Where to get free or cheap trees for your garden
  7. Four desert trees good for soil, 4 toxic ones
  8. Plants that bloom even in mid-summer scorching heat

Look to South Africa for unusual off-season flowers

Our mild Autumn weather is almost a second Springtime, especially for gardeners who live at lower elevations in the desert with warm winters.  Plant pretty annuals like carpets in empty flower beds to replace any perennials that have died back. Take care not to disturb the roots of the perennials because they will be back next year.

Or fill pots on your patio to overflowing. At higher, cold-winter elevations it may be too late as the first winter storms have blanketed mountains with snow.

Should you dig up the flower bulbs?

While some people, particularly in the U.K. and New England, dig up their bulbs in Fall, in most of the U.S. southwest it is not necessary. But if you want to add flowers from bulbs, rhizomes and corms to your garden, now is the time to plant to assure yourself of Springtime flowers.

purple and white iris

Freesia and Iris are two of our favorites. Both require little water and no attention. The exception, however, are those re-blooming iris that flower in spring and fall which need heavy watering.

The incredibly fragrant Freesia dies back to the ground after blooming; the Iris keeps its leaves and provides an upright structural element in a garden border.

If you already have Iris, split and replant the rhizomes now for double the flowers next year. Do not plant them deep. Simply place them in a shallow trench and cover lightly–deep enough to protect from a freeze if you live in an area with occasional light freezes in winter.

About tulips: yes, you can plant the bulbs, but they really love a damper, milder climate — like the Netherlands or Seattle.

Flowers from South Africa

Gladiolus dalenii

You may be much better off planting bulbs native to South Africa, such as the freesia-like Tritonia or the Watsonia borbonica, which looks like a miniature gladiolus. The low-growing Babiana is a Sub-Sahara native also worth considering as an edging plant. It looks somewhat like a crocus and does well in a desert garden.

The Gladiolus (Gladiolus dalenii), above, a South African native, is a delicate variation on the large, sturdy upright “glads” of late summer. These bloom in Spring.

Salvia leucantha sage

One plant that is a joy for so many gardeners in California and the Southwest is the Mexican Bush Sage, Salvia leucantha ‘Midnight’ that blooms twice a year. Unlike re-blooming Iris, the Mexican Bush Sage is not a water guzzler. It naturally blooms in Spring and late Fall.  It is a super-tough plant with tall spires of purple or purple and white flowers that stay in bloom through December! One year I even clipped the flower stems and used them to decorate my Christmas tree. Tip: Cut it back to about 8 inches high in January and it will re-grow and bloom again in March.

Happy Thanksgiving to you!

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  1. Hot Days, White Nights, How Design a Moon Garden
  2. Australian Plants for a Desert Garden
  3. Cover up that naked wall
  4. Best and beautiful native shrubs for extreme heat
  5. Five fragrant plants for your garden
  6. Where to get free or cheap trees for your garden
  7. Four desert trees good for soil, 4 toxic ones
  8. Plants that bloom even in mid-summer scorching heat

Plant white this fall for nighttime viewing next summer

Fall is the best time to plant in hot dry gardens. The soil has now cooled enough that the roots of new, young plants won’t die from being enveloped by hot summer dirt. And summer dirt can be really hot: up to 140 degrees F (60 degrees celsius!) in direct sunlight. At that temperature the roots “cook” and if the roots get cooked, the plant dies. So do your planting now. Over winter, the roots will have plenty of time to toughen up and spread deep into the earth before the heat comes back next year.

Now I have a few suggestions for what to plant this Fall for a White Garden for nighttime enjoyment next summer.

A famous garden reinvented for the Southwest

First a little background: the White Garden was “invented” by author Vita-Sackville West when she designed a garden room at Sissinghurst Castle in the U.K. with plants that only produced white flowers. It was a radical idea for that time, the mid-20th Century. In fact, the White Garden vaulted her into fame as a garden designer and horticultural columnist for the London Observer. (She was already famous–maybe infamous–for her personal scandals and novels!)

So borrowing her idea–although not the plants she used in cool, damp Kent in southern England–here is a slide show with a few plants to use in a White Garden in the American Southwest.

  • White roses
  • White crape myrtle
  • White yarrow
  • Japanese Privet
  • Pittosporum- very fragrant

In addition to these white flowering plants you could also include dwarf White Oleander, White Jasmine Vine, white Iris, or Texas Wild Olive. Be careful with the Texas Wild Olive, Cordia Broissiere, because the seeds are slightly toxic to humans. Birds, however, love them. Also take care with the Oleander, all parts of it are poisonous.

Plants with variegated or silver leaves can also add luminousness and be reflective in a nighttime garden.

  • Variegated Turf Lily
  • Artemesia Powis Castle

Even if you are not interested in a white garden room, adding white blooming plants to an otherwise color-filled or all-green garden brings a spark of interest and contrast to the other plants.

Full Disclosure: I have visited Sissinghurst Castle to see Vita Sackville-West’s garden rooms. The book she wrote about her gardening ideas, “Sissinghurst” is available on Amazon. Someone, not VSW who passed away in 1962, is posting on Twitter using the handle @thegardenvsw. Also posting on BlueSky. The tweets, taken from her writings and accompanied by photos, are always very interesting.

A reminder for Fall: be sure to add organic mulch around plants in your garden and, if possible, dig it in without disturbing the roots. Also avoid using mulch that has peat in it. From what I read from U.K. gardeners peat retains carbon which helps slow climate change. Better for all of us for the peat to remain buried in bogs rather than scattered around our gardens.

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Read our 8 most popular newsletters

  1. Hot Days, White Nights, How Design a Moon Garden
  2. Australian Plants for a Desert Garden
  3. Cover up that naked wall
  4. Best and beautiful native shrubs for extreme heat
  5. Five fragrant plants for your garden
  6. Where to get free or cheap trees for your garden
  7. Four desert trees good for soil, 4 toxic ones
  8. Plants that bloom even in mid-summer scorching heat

The bee-friendly Tucson Botanical Garden

The Tucson Botanical Garden has become very bee friendly. Yes, of course there are still displays of cacti and other desert plants as well as their famous ramadas and winding shady paths. Their efforts to support bees, however, are non-traditional for a Botanical Garden and should be applauded. And, in my opinion, should be emulated by other public gardens!

Here are some of the efforts they are making:

solitary bee homes Tucson Botanical Garden

Above, what appear to be tall, whimsical garden ornaments are actually homes for solitary bees–the kind of bees that do not live in hives and do not produce honey–but pollinate flowers and fruits and vegetables nonetheless. These bees are non-aggressive because they do not have hives or honey to protect.

As you can see these homes are holes drilled into the wood. It is something so simple almost any gardener could do it. Or you can purchase an economical bee home online and easily hang it up on any branch in your garden.

What to do about honey bees

Bee trap in tree Tucson Botanical Garden

Working in conjunction with a local Tucson beekeeper, this box up in the tree is a bee trap — not a bee house. When a swarm of honey bees has entered the box, the beekeeper comes and removes it to transfer the bees to his apiary because honey bees can become aggressive. The bee trap in the tree is then replaced with an empty one.

flowers to attract bees at Tucson Botanical Garden

The Tucson Botanical Garden is noted for its shade-producing ramadas in several designs. Beside this one is a bed of flowers to help provide food for bees. Not to mention the flowers are visually appealing.

Mediterranean herb garden Tucson Botsnical Garden

One of my favorite places in the garden is the Mediterranean herb garden under its blue pergola. It was one of the first gardens created in 1964 by the plant collector Harrison Yocum who founded the Tucson Botanical Garden at his home. Since then the garden has been expanded with purchases of neighboring properties.

And here are some other photos of the garden, including the docent who gave me a private tour. Thank you, Carolyn.

colorful ramadas at Tucson Botanical garden

As I was leaving I discovered this amazing decorative wall by a local Tucson artist. No bees that I could spy but there are hummingbirds, red peppers, butterflies and magical angels. If anyone knows the name of the artist, please let me know.

Decorative wall Tucaon Botanical Garden

Just a reminder. Until the daily high temperature falls below 90 F (32 Celsius) the only thing your garden plants need is regular watering. It’s inadvisable to fertilize or transplant during hot summer months.

Where to get a free or cheap tree for your home.

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  1. Hot Days, White Nights, How Design a Moon Garden
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  3. Cover up that naked wall
  4. Best and beautiful native shrubs for extreme heat
  5. Five fragrant plants for your garden
  6. Where to get free or cheap trees for your garden
  7. Four desert trees good for soil, 4 toxic ones
  8. Plants that bloom even in mid-summer scorching heat

Gardens walled in by color in historic old Tucson

By midsummer most of the plants in hot, dry gardens–with the exceptions of Lantana and Mexican Bird of Paradise–are muted desert green.  Desert style gardens simply look drab and dull  at this time of year. The plants are in survival mode until Fall.

xicn Bird of ParadiseMy first plan for this post was to focus on those two plants which bloom in full force in summer. It turns out that the Mexican Bird of Paradise (Caesalpinia mexicana or C. pulcherrima. ) is also known as the Pride of Barbados and Poinciana. And while it flowers in sunset colors, left, one variety has only yellow blooms. And as for Lantana, a least here in Tucson, these popular plants need some shade during the day or they will rush to bloom and make seeds.

But as I was driving around historic old Tucson neighborhoods looking for good examples of Mexican Bird of Paradise to photograph, I noticed that so many gardens were  filled with color. But not from plants.  Homeowners had taken an adventurous route with painted walls — both on their homes’ exteriors and the garden walls that surround them. The green colors of plants had almost become accents.

Yes, we all know that painting walls and homes can be quite expensive, but the colors can be inspiring. And, once painted, the colors last for decades.  No watering, no fertilizing, no replacing sick or dying plants required.

Here are a few of those colorful walls and homes.

multi color home
Why settle for one or two  when you can paint each wall a different color? Variations on this  shade of green seem to be growing in popularity. The terra cotta wall and beige are more traditonal–but not when used this way!

blue stucco garden wall
Blue garden wall with a pink painted house is a color combination I saw more than once. I wonder if the lights wrapped around the tree trunks are turned on regularly or only during the winter holiday season.

pink garden walls
There is a kind of subtle minimalism about the pale pink walls with just a few plants. The home behind the walls is a slightly darker shade of pink.

golden stucco garden wzll
The palm trees leaning over this golden garden wall are laced with bougainvilla blooms–a very clever idea while the palms are not too tall.

orange color stucco wall
Nothing shy about this chocolate brown painted home with vibrant orange trim and a matching wall. The desert plants in front of the wall seem to be accents now, but the agaves and barrel cactus will grow quite large in time.

green color house Tucson
While green is making a comeback as an exterior color, this all green home is really over the top. Maybe a subtler shade of green? Maybe tempering the green with an accent color? It is certainly non-traditional for a stucco home.

working after retirement ebook and paperback

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  1. Hot Days, White Nights, How Design a Moon Garden
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  3. Cover up that naked wall
  4. Best and beautiful native shrubs for extreme heat
  5. Five fragrant plants for your garden
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  7. Four desert trees good for soil, 4 toxic ones
  8. Plants that bloom even in mid-summer scorching heat

Crepe myrtle, the blooming belle of the South, needs help in a dry climate

On my continuing travels through Louisiana, I have noticed that few homes have anything that resembles a garden with shrubs and flowering plants artfully arranged.  The more common gardening feature is the lawn, a large mowed green area around the home.  Upon taking a closer look, I realized that many “lawns” are simply native grasses and other low growing plants sheared to slightly above ground level.  It is an act of self-defense. Extremely fast-growing native shrubs and trees take over every space that is not regularly cut back in this hot, damp climate.

Crepe myrtle trees Opelousas Louisiana
A garden has been planted around the Oplousas Louisiana courthouse including purple and pink Crepe myrtles.

The exception to this emphasis on lawns, are the Crepe myrtle trees (Lagerstroemia indica) planted by homeowners. They are ubiquitous.

These natives of southern China were introduced into Charleston, South Carolina by plant explorer and botanist to King Louis XVI, André Michaux, in the mid 1700s.  The name is sometimes spelled Crape myrtle, but Crepe myrtle now seems preferred.  Whatever the spelling, they took the South like wildfire.  People loved them.

hot pink crepe myrtle flowers
This hot pink color seems to be the most popular Crepe myrtle. It is a bright contrast to the green of the South and the brown of the southwest.

And Crepe myrtles loved the heat, lots of sunlight and the slightly acidic soil.

Some newer hybrids have been developed to tolerate chillier winter conditions, including frost.  And–surprisingly–they are somewhat drought tolerant.

Correcting alkaline soil conditions

It’s that “acidic soil” part that is an issue in a hot, dry climate. Most of the soils in the desert Southwest are alkaline, but alkaline soils can be corrected to a soil condition that Crepe myrtles love in two ways:

  • Add 4 to 6 inches of organic mulch and dig it in to a depth of one foot. Within a year or two the soil will become more neutral.  Mulch should be added every year.
  • Add sulphur to the soil and dig it in which will also balance the pH.  While this maybe a faster way to rebalance soil, be very careful with this because too much sulphur can be harmful.

And be sure to deep water your Crepe myrtle tree at least once a month in summer. Drought tolerant doesn’t mean “no-water-required.”

Here are some Crepe myrtles I’ve admired in Louisiana:
plant explorer and botanist to King Louis XVI André Michaux ink and hot pink crepe myrtles
Two colors of Crepe myrtles planted together. The neighbor, behind, planted a white one which is now at least 25 feet tall.
row of crape myrtle trees
These Crepe myrtles have been carefully pruned to allow an open area beneath them on the University of Louisiana campus. Their broad growth is a characteristic of the hybrid. Some hybrids grow tall and narrow, some broad, and there are dwarf hybrids that are perfect for hedges.
White crepe myrtle tree Lafayette Louisiana
White Crepe myrtle trees are less common than the various shades of pink and purple. This one was ladened with white flowers. This home actually has a small garden planted around it!

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  7. Four desert trees good for soil, 4 toxic ones
  8. Plants that bloom even in mid-summer scorching heat

Be a superhero! Plant flowers and save the world’s food supply

Okay.  Maybe that headline is a bit extreme…but it is not that far off.  Here’s why.

As we all have heard, bees seem to be vanishing all over the planet. And without them to pollinate edible plants–whether tomatoes in Pasadena or romaine in Yuma or pecans in the San Pedro river valley–we humans may be in trouble and face food shortages.

And it turns out that flowers can be part of the solution.

Red and Yellow cherry tomatoes Hot Gardens

At a recent gardening event in Los Angeles a speaker recommended planting annual flowers between tomato plants to encourage more bees to pollinate the tomatoes while they are seeking nectar from the larger, flashier annual flowers. It helps keep the bees well fed and the bee colony thriving. Tomato plants will produce more abundantly, too.

“Wait a minute”, you say. “There are no commercial growers near me and I’m not growing vegetables in my backyard. Why should I encourage bees?”

The answer is that you can become part of a larger effort to sustain genetic diversity all over the planet.  That’s where the Gardener-Superhero role comes in.

As I look at many desert style gardens filled with agaves and other rarely flowering plants I realized that our new water-wise gardens are creating starvation conditions for our friends the bees. Not enough variety, not enough flowers blooming for not a long enough time.  Worse yet, in many desert areas, the native plants that could provide nectar to bees are being removed to make way for houses and roads.

It is, however, not necessary to plant water-guzzling plants to have bee-friendly flowers in a hot, dry garden.  Here are some that will thrive and  produce flowers over a long period without running up your water bill.

Lantana ground cover mixed colors
The low-growing Lantana (Lantana montevidensis) comes in many colors these days.

Low-growing Lantana (Lantana montevidensis)  is one of the best and most readily available flowering plants for hot, dry gardens. Bees and butterflies love it! It blooms for as long as 9 or 10 months out of the year and because it is a perennial, rather than an annual, you will not have to replace it every year. Be aware that the purple and white varieties bloom for a much shorter time than the gold, yellow or varigated Lantanas. Upkeep is easy: in mid-winter cut the low-growing branches back to a foot or so in length.

Instead of the low-growing lantana, however, consider planting Lantana camera.  It grows to 6 feet tall and makes a very colorful, bee-friendly hedge. A light mid-winter trimming is all the maintenance needed.

Next, Rosemary (Rosemarinus officinalis) attracts bees like a magnet and can provide a delicious herb for your table. Plant several about 2 feet apart to create a rosemary hedge or simply put one plant outside near your back door to clip and use the aromatic leaves in bread or for baking chicken.

Lavender (Lavendula) is another tasty and aromatic herb that bees love as much as humans do.  I prefer French lavender to the English or Spanish varieties, but I have to confess that I have not had much success keeping lavender plants alive from year to year. I simply replant annually.

And finally: annual sunflowers.  If you plant the seeds over a period of a couple of weeks, you will have a longer blooming period for the bees to harvest the nectar. Then later, birds will come to harvest the seeds. You can harvest them, too, and then toast the seeds in your oven for a tasty snack.

So get out your garden gloves and think of them as the red superhero cape for gardeners.

Where to get a free or cheap tree for your home.

Read our 8 most popular newsletters

  1. Hot Days, White Nights, How Design a Moon Garden
  2. Australian Plants for a Desert Garden
  3. Cover up that naked wall
  4. Best and beautiful native shrubs for extreme heat
  5. Five fragrant plants for your garden
  6. Where to get free or cheap trees for your garden
  7. Four desert trees good for soil, 4 toxic ones
  8. Plants that bloom even in mid-summer scorching heat

What’s this? A pig topiary? With succulents?

topiary pig with succulents
A moss topiary pig wearing succulents.

On a trip to Southern California last week I wandered into Brita’s Garden Center which is 3 blocks from the ocean in Seal Beach.  And there in the back of the center was a pig topiary about 3 feet long.  Someone had built a framework of chicken wire/hardware wire and added plenty  of moss.  Next, came the succulents in a variety of colors and shapes. I am sure they were drawing the moisture they need from the damp moss.

curly pig tail on topiary pig
This little pig even has a curly black tail.

This is a clever idea for a garden ornament, although in a hot dry garden these tender succulents may shrivel up when the summer heat begins to build!

I also made a trip recently to Phoenix and will be reporting about my observations at the Desert Botanical Garden shortly.

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Read our 8 most popular newsletters

  1. Hot Days, White Nights, How Design a Moon Garden
  2. Australian Plants for a Desert Garden
  3. Cover up that naked wall
  4. Best and beautiful native shrubs for extreme heat
  5. Five fragrant plants for your garden
  6. Where to get free or cheap trees for your garden
  7. Four desert trees good for soil, 4 toxic ones
  8. Plants that bloom even in mid-summer scorching heat

Surprise! Sun-loving Iris are drought tolerant, but daffodils–not so much

White iris Arlington Garden Pasadena

How I love the ruffled beauty of iris and when I discovered, after moving to the desert, that iris are tougher than their delicate flowers look I became an even bigger fan of these spring-bloomers.  They need only a little water and after the flowers have faded the iris leaves create an attractive upright element in a garden border.

Some people make the mistake a cutting the leaves back right after the flowers fade. True Confession: I don’t cut my iris back annually–only when I want to divide and replant them every few years. If you intend to transplant your iris, cut the leaves at an angle and 4 inches high before lifting them from the soil. Let the rhizomes dry out for a few days before replanting.

purple and white iris

The best time to plant iris is now so you will have flowers in spring. Unlike daffodils, lilies, crocus or other plants with bulbs which should be planted deep, iris have rhizomes (thick bulbus roots) which should be planted flat and shallowly in an area that receives at least 6 hours of sun a day. Just put a thin layer of soil over the rhizomes–not a thick layer of mulch.  It is important that the soil drains well; iris rhizomes can rot with too much water.  And using high nitrogen fertilizer is a no-no for iris.

Oh, one other thing: there are iris that bloom both in Spring and Fall.  When I first learned about them I was thrilled with the prospect of iris twice a year. It turns out, however, they’re really not suitable for arid gardens because they require a great deal of watering.

While I mentioned daffodils and lilies, etc. most of them will not survive in an arid garden. One friend is Tucson, however, planted Paperwhite Narcissus in a very sheltered corner of her garden and they have survived and bloomed again and again.

Gladiolus dalenii

Many gardeners in arid climates have success with South African plants that grow from bulbs like this Gladiolus Dalenii. This gladiolus does not have the big, flashy blooms we often associate with “glads”, but it will survive in an arid garden.  For other South African plants suitable for hot, dry gardens, take a look at the Pacific Horticulture Society website.  

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  1. Hot Days, White Nights, How Design a Moon Garden
  2. Australian Plants for a Desert Garden
  3. Cover up that naked wall
  4. Best and beautiful native shrubs for extreme heat
  5. Five fragrant plants for your garden
  6. Where to get free or cheap trees for your garden
  7. Four desert trees good for soil, 4 toxic ones
  8. Plants that bloom even in mid-summer scorching heat

All hail Queen Agave new ruler of the front lawn replacement

Front yards don’t look the way they used to.  For generations, the American standard  from coast to coast has been green grass as a carpet in the front of the house.  Mowed once a week. It was all very orderly and not many decisions were involved.  The homeowner’s “garden personality” was expressed in the choice of shrubs or flowers chosen to line the edges of that green carpet like a fringe.  Lawn replacement didn’t even enter people’s minds.

(NOTE: It is still too hot to plant in most of the Southwest, so I am writing about Lawn Replacement again!  Wait until the temperature drops below 90 degree F before beginning Fall planting.)

Now as homeowners in the West under the pressures of drought and climate change rush to remove these conventional front lawns no clear single standard for replacement exists.  What many homeowners know is that the grass in front of their house is “bad” and needs to go.  The Water Department said so.  And even offered to pay part of the replacement costs.

Homeowners are facing new lawn decisions
gold lantana
Gold Lantana is one tough ground cover that thrives with very little water and a lot of neglect. Too much fertilizer will make it bloom less. It comes in a variety of colors ranging from white to blue to pink to orange. The white and blue do NOT do well as lawn replacement.

“Agaves? Aloes? Aeoniums? Or maybe a single color field of gold Lantana?  Yeah. That sounds good.  Just one type of plant and one color. Oh–but will that be too much gold? Would pink Lantana be better?  Or maybe native plants?  Or maybe… [pause] Or maybe I’ll just hire someone to do it for me.”

While homeowners may be overwhelmed by these decisions, many of the landscapers installing these new front yards are not.  Agaves seem to be becoming the basic plant around which low water usage gardens are being created.

Now I have nothing against agaves.  Without them we wouldn’t have Margaritas.  And long-nosed bats would simply be another vanishing species if agaves disappeared.

Moreover, these plants are practically indestructible with a lifespan of several decades.  (Yes, I know they are called “century plants”, but they really do not live for a 100 years.) Professional landscapers love plants that they can stick in the ground and then count on to remain alive long after they have left the scene. They do not want to hear complaints about plants dying on previous jobsites.

So agaves it is.

But these plants need visual softening, some other plants to add visual variety.  Even the plant-and-go landscapers recognize that but rarely do ornamental grasses become their first choice as “other plants”.

The lawn by this row of Pampas grass has since been removed. Behind it is a dull gray block wall. In winter cut the Pampas grass back to 18 inches in height.

I wish they would.  From a 15 foot tall Pampas Grass (Cortaderia selloana) to line an unpainted block wall to 6 inch tall Mondo grass or Lilyturf (Liriope muscari) to cover a gentle slope in green, ornamental grasses are interesting and beautiful additions to a drought-tolerant garden.

Agave, deer grass, blue fescue, rocks Hot Gardens

A Large Agave surrounded by grass and rocks
This mix of Blue Fescue (Festuca), Deer Grass (Mulhenbergia rigens) and Agaves along a simulated creek bed filled with rocks is a classic image of lawn replacement using drought tolerant grasses.  It takes an artistic hand to site these plants in a way that looks good.  It also takes money.  Creating artificial streams can be very expensive.

Grasses to line a garden path
Pennisetum setaceum 'Rubrum' Hot Gardens

Far less expensive is Red Fountain grass (Pennisetum setaceum ‘Rubrum’) planted along a sidewalk.  It becomes a colorful addition to a drought-tolerant garden. It is especially attractive in  Autumn when it blooms and dances in the wind. The nearby Agave is good for structure, but not for gracefulness.

Next are a pair of photos showing before and after Mexican Feather grass (Nassella tenuissima) was added to a garden of Agaves and Aeoniums.  Sadly, the “Before” photo with chopped off Feather grass in a distant corner was actually taken in September of 2018.  The “After” was taken in 2016.  Why the homeowner decided to whack off the Feather Grass before he put the house up for sale is beyond me.

Before: A garden of Agave and Aeoniums
Agaves and aeonium garden Hot Gardens
With no Mexican Feather grass this front garden simply becomes a mass of plants with thick leaves in basically the same color.
After: Adding Mexican Feather Grass to the Agave gardenAgaves, Senecios, Mexican feather grass Hot Gardens

For a hilarious take on Agaves, read this very funny article by Frank Smith in The Awl.

Read our 8 most popular newsletters

  1. Hot Days, White Nights, How Design a Moon Garden
  2. Australian Plants for a Desert Garden
  3. Cover up that naked wall
  4. Best and beautiful native shrubs for extreme heat
  5. Five fragrant plants for your garden
  6. Where to get free or cheap trees for your garden
  7. Four desert trees good for soil, 4 toxic ones
  8. Plants that bloom even in mid-summer scorching heat

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