At Reagan Nursery

[hrj]

Ideas for drought tolerant plants for redesigning the front lawnish thing. (My idea is to organize plantings around a small stone bench.)

Lavender - several varieties; esp Provence, Hidcote, Dutch Mill, not so much the Stoechas varieties

Thyme - I never could make it work in the knot garden where it got too little sun

Already have plenty of rosemary, although an upright might fit in

Dwarf manzanita? Does of stay dwarf?

No Salvia! No ceanothus!

Buddleua? Maybe, but everyone's doing it these days

Lavatera looks interesting, nice height and color without much width

Barberry? Only if I can get a fruiting variety. Hmm, some descriptions mention thorns. Reconsider.

Myrtle? Look into habits

Rockrose? Good color, check habits.

Some traffic-hardy ground cover would be good.

Comments

Barberry

[dame-cordelia.livejournal.com]

I have a few bushes in my front yard if you want to look at them. They are indeed thorny, but have a wonderful profusion of yellow flowers in the spring, followed by bluish-black fruits that are mostly seeds. They need hard pruning because they grow at "interesting" angles and would be very good for a barrier hedge.

I tried to buy the official barberry, because I wanted to be able to use the fruits in cooking. But it's not available - at least in California because it supposedly hosts a disease that attacks other plants.

Re: Barberry

[hrj.livejournal.com]

Hmm, those are both minuses. I already have things that need aggressive pruning and it would need something special to balance that. I've found that it's generally hard to get Old World variants of culinary berries. You can find all manner of things with the same name, but not the Real Thing.

[joycebre.livejournal.com]

rockroses are very pretty, and don't spread much.

[hrj.livejournal.com]

Ok, they get a plus on the list. This is all just the gathering information stage. My front lawn is a disaster because it has excellent drainage, full sun, rocky/clay soil, and doesn't get watered during the summer. So I've been thinking of pulling out all the grass (which will be a recurring project, of course) and planting stuff that's naturally adapted to the conditions.

This is as opposed to my back yard which is pretty much always half-to-full shade, damp, rich-but-somewhat-gravelly soil, and gets watered because otherwise the berries and fruit trees are unhappy.

[gunnora.livejournal.com]

I read last week that a remontant lavender had been developed. I haven't been able to relocate the article but that would be very interesting if true.

[hrj.livejournal.com]

Had to look up "remontant". Around here, the lavender may well have only a single blooming period, but since that period is "from March through November" it's kind of hard to complain. At one point I was collecting up as many lavender variants as I could find, but I'd put most of them in the back yard, which was gradually becoming more and more shady and most of them failed eventually. They'll be happier in the front.

[gunnora.livejournal.com]

(laughs) It's because I collect antique roses, most of which are NOT remontant, at least until China varieties with the trait began being crossed into European rose lines. And irises. Both of which tend to use the term more often.

The Antique Rose Emporium is just down the road, and they are a terrible temptation!

[hyperparasitoid.livejournal.com]

California poppy is low maintenance, drought tolerant, and grows easily from seed.
Artemesia, aka sagebrush, is drought tolerant and smells wonderful.
I think manzanita would be a good fit. They seem to stay under control.
Strawberry-tree, Arbutus unedo, grows similarly and has edible fruit.
Elderberry grows into a very slender, open 6-foot tree, and I think its berries are the Real Thing.
I also like native bunchgrasses and Columbine for small perennials. And you can never have enough blackberries.

[hrj.livejournal.com]

Poppies for fillers, perhaps, once I have the main plantings planned out. Artemisia ... I'd have to OK it with the downstairs tenant who would be closer to it than me and has some idiosyncratic plant odor issues. (I've OKed the lavender.) I thought about elderberry, but my experience with it in Davis is that it gets larger than I'd want in that space. I'm willing to do a certain amount of pruning, but I'd rather start with things that want to be the size I have in mind. There's already a certain amount of Columbine in the beds next to the house (or at least, there has been in the past).

I will assume the comment about blackberries was tongue-in-cheek.