I hope 2021 has been fair to you so far! My thoughts as most gardeners tend to trend towards cautious optimism towards my landscape plans for the current year. Experienced gardeners know that there are far to many variables and limited time to achieve our goals. So I thought I would share 3 high impact but easy to achieve landscape themes.
- MOON LIGHT GARDENING
- MINI BUTTERFLY GARDEN
- X RATED GARDENING ( XERISCAPE )
MOON LIGHT GARDENING
It’s the end of a busy day and you’re ready to unwind. But you don’t need to crawl into bed to drift off into this dreamland. In the soft glow of moonlight, a garden is truly magical. If an evening stroll through the garden is your way to unwind, here’s a design that shines by the light of the silvery moon.
An all-white moon garden
In the dim light of night, light shades are what you see first; that’s why this garden is primarily white. Pastel colors also show up well at night, but white is the most vivid. To make a monochromatic evening garden come alive, use shapes and colors that are easily spotted: If you love to star gaze, the star-shaped oriental lilies are always shining bright, whether cloudy or not. As you rest on the bench and look out, peppy round puffs of the bunny’s tail grass and small blossoms of the night phlox scattered across the ground mimic the shimmering night sky above.
- Moon Garden Accessories
- White lanterns
- Comfy outdoor loveseat
- Lightweight garden boulder
- White garden stone
- Landscape gravel
- Fountain with light
Plants that appeal to the senses
Since you can’t see everything, try pleasing a different sense. Sweet fragrance completes the experience, and night phlox, oriental lilies and tuberose are some of the many gorgeous plants that become most fragrant at night.
Choosing white flowers in a mix of shapes is only part of the formula for a garden that lights up the dark. Planting in the right conditions is another important step. For this garden, plant in full sun and well-drained soil.
Planting this moon garden
Once this garden is established, the cedar, oriental lilies and the hollyhock won’t need to be replanted. Even as a short-lived perennial, the hollyhock reseeds for new plants each year.
The night phlox, bunny’s tail grass, tuberose and dahlia will need to be planted every year. If you don’t find an established plant at a nearby garden center or online, it’s easy to start them yourself. If you live in a climate colder than zone 7, start the night phlox and bunny’s tail grass from seed. Plant tuberose bulbs in a container indoors 6 to 8 weeks before the frost, along with the dahlia tubers. In warmer climates, sow seeds, bulbs and tubers outdoors after danger of frost has passed.
A few of my favorite moon lit landscape plants are. Moon flower, Rosemary, Lavender, Blue Fescue, Korean Spice Viburnum, Fire and Ice Hosta and Allysum. The Moon flower when planted in a whiskey barrel and combined with Morning Glory’s will give you 6 months of fun and add a vertical accent to your design by simply making a tripod of 3 x 4′ green bamboo stakes for support. Blooms all day and all night!
MINI BUTTERFLY GARDEN
This is very easy to achieve in 5 hours or less. It really is this simple. You will need a 5′ x 7′ area at the very most for this project. Plant one aprox. 18”-24” wide container with Dill, Fennel, Pentas, Marigold, Phlox and Verbena. Now you have some host plants and nectar. Now, Butterfly’s get thirsty just like us. Find a container, 3”-4” deep, 16” wide or more. Put this in the ground with one inch above soil level. Fill with rinsed gravel of any sort one inch below the top of the container. Now put some pretty palm sized cobbles on top of the gravel. Fill with water to top of the gravel. Now you have a puddling water source plus sunning area.
If you would like to make this a permanent part of your landscape. You will need 9 perennials. Choose from the following, Butterfly Weed, Yarrow, Bee Balm, Phlox, Sedum, Black eye Susan’s, Coreopsis and Cardinal flower. Design these plants around your puddling area according to height. Mulch heavily to conserve moisture and control weeds. Water your plants in, top off your puddling area and monitor your container for it’s water needs and sit back and enjoy!
X RATED GARDENING
Stock your yard with xeriscaping plants to create a landscape that blends beauty with low water use. Many homeowners mistakenly associate xeriscaping plants with a desert-style garden, featuring cacti, yucca and agave. The fact is that xeriscaping plants run the gamut, from classic drought-tolerant succulents, to prairie plants, to ornamental grasses. Even cottage garden-type plants can sparkle in a xeriscape design.
Many xeriscaping plants feature adaptations to a drought-prone environment. Leaves or stems may be thicker to enable water storage. Plants with this characteristic are referred to collectively as succulents and include sedums (Sedum spp.), hens-and-chicks (Sempervivum tectorum), hardy ice plant (Delosperma cooperi) and the self-sowing annual moss rose (Portulaca grandiflora).
Another common xeriscaping plant feature is small leaves that may or may not be thick and fleshy. These diminutive leaves possess less surface area through which plants can lose water. Thyme (Thymus spp.) is a classic example of a small-leafed xeriscaping plant.
Other small-leafed, drought-tolerant plants include Corsican stonecrop (Sedum dasyphyllum), candytuft (Iberis sempervirens), moss phlox (Phlox subulata) and mossy saxifrage (Saxifraga x arendsii). As a few of the names suggest, many of these small-leafed beauties have moss-like features, which is a tell-tale clue that they make excellent ground cover plants.
Silver or gray-green leaves also hint that you’re facing a xeriscaping plant. Why silver leaves? They reflect the sun, shrugging at heat instead of wilting under it. This trait makes them stand-out xeriscaping plants. Silver leaves are typical of many Mediterranean plants—lavender (Lavandula spp.),
Russian sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia), lavender cotton (Santolina chamaecyparissus), wormwood (Artemisia spp.) and lyme grass (Elymus arenarius ‘Blue Dune’).
Another branch of water miserly flora is the hairy-leafed plants. The hairs are actually a botanical adaptation that helps reduce water loss from leaves. Lamb’s ears (Stachys byzantina), snow-in-summer (Cerastium tomentosum), pussytoes (Antennaria plantaginifolia) and woolly yarrow (Achillea tomentosum) unfurl fuzzy leaves in shades of silver making them ideal xeriscaping plants.
Also consider prairie natives as you select xeriscaping plants. With deep root systems, prairie plants easily survive on rainfall once established. Many of these natives thrive on heat and bring movement and wonderful texture to a xeriscape garden design. Prairie natives that are also xeriscaping plants include blue wild indigo (Baptisia australis), compass plant (Silphium laciniatum), Husker Red penstemon (Penstemon digitalis ‘Husker Red’) and joe-pye weed (Eupatorium maculatum).
Also look to ornamental grasses to blend artful texture with low water use. Some prairie grasses you might want to consider are little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium), prairie dropseed (Sporobolus heterolepis), purple love grass (Eragrostis spectabilis) and blue grama (Bouteloua gracilis).
As you research xeriscaping plants, always select ones that are winter hardy in your zone. Many of these water-wise plants demand well-drained soil. Take time to amend soil in planting beds with compost or grit, which includes things like gravel, pulverized granite, terra-cotta pot pieces or builder’s sand.
Most xeriscaping plants boast drought-tolerance, but that low-thirst personality develops with age. Keep plants well-watered while they’re establishing in your landscape. The goal is to get plants root-established, where they’re actively sinking new roots into surrounding soil, before reducing irrigation. Many xeriscaping plants also require minimal care once established, which means your xeriscape design is not only eco-savvy, but low-maintenance as well. If I had to suggest a theme for a X Rated Garden, I would use, Baptisa, Little Blue Stem Grass, Brake Lights Red Yucca, many types of Sedums, some types of Butterfly Weed, Pokomoke Crape Myrtle and Black Eye Susans. This is a fine design using contrast, long bloom period plus several are natives and all attract Hummingbirds and Butterfly’s. If you need design help please contact me using the below links.
Happy Gardening!
Dave D.
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