Drought-tolerant perennials for Zone 7

So, here in the South, we’ve had a few rough years the last few years. This year has been better, however. But, I’m still a little leary of planting plants that require excessive watering as we never know what Mother Nature has in store for us! So, I keep my eyes out for drought-tolerant plants. And, what I’ve found is that many of the drought-tolerant plants are actually plants that were found in cottage gardens back in the day. This actually makes sense when you think about it; settlers didn’t want to spend their time, manpower, and water on flower gardens when it was more productive for the family to grow food (flower gardens were not popular till the 1800s and started as cutting flower gardens).

Lavender (lavandula)
This is a great smelling (very fragrant) plant. There are many varieties including English, French, Munstead, etc. Lavender also comes in more colors than simply purple as one might expect; you can find it in blue, lavender/purple, and even white. I just planted some this year that I bought from a local nursery and bought Lavender Munstead seeds for next spring to have more lavender in my upcoming cottage garden.

Yarrow (full sun perennial, but not the prettiest in my book) – grows to 4ft. This isn’t a plant I have in my garden, but perhaps in the future.

Agastache (full sun perennial; grows up to 4ft)

Sages (eg Russian Sage, Meadow Sage, Mojave Sage) – Some have silvery foliage (e.g. Russian Sage, and the foliage color reminds me of my favorite plant – dusty miller). Depending on the variety, size will vary. Some are shorter (Meadow and Mojave) reaching just shy of 3ft, while others are larger (Russian; up to 6ft).

Salvia (Full sun; up to 3ft) – this is a great plant available in a variety of colors though commonly found in reds and pinks.

Lamb’s Ear (up to 18” tall). Depending on the variety you get different size leaves. The common variety that was found here in the area had smaller leaves (we have lots of this in our yard including the border of our cottage garden). Lamb’s ear may have blooms in white, magenta, purple and potentially other colors in hybrids. At Park Seed’s Flower Day , I saw their Stachy’s Lamb’s Ear which has beautiful fuzzy large leaves that truly feel like a small lamb’s ear. It was a much more elegant variety than the common one, and I may one day have to add it to our yard as well once I graduate and have more income!

Penstemon (up to 18” tall; grows in full sun). This is a good choice if you’re interested in attracting butterflies or hummingbirds.

Blanket Flower (from the Gaillardia family). This is a tough plant that was also found in cottage gardens. I just bought some seed that I’m freezing to plant next spring so that I can add this to my little cottage garden.

Coneflowers – yay for Echinacea! I also got some of this from Park’s Flower Day as well. Coneflowers were also popular in cottage gardens … and I’m very excited to be adding this to my garden. Coneflowers remind me of droopy purple daisies (and daisies are one of my favorite plants … so it stands to reason that I’d enjoy cone flowers, too!)

Sedum (relatively small perennial; less than 3ft depending on the variety). Sedum is tough & drought resistant …. Very good if you’re still working on developing a green thumb :) Or, for those of you like me who are always on the go (and doing a PhD, one is Always doing something!) and sometimes neglect their plants because they’re busy running experiments.

So one thing you will notice with many of these plants is that they don’t have big showy leaves like those of the hydrangea. This helps them be more drought resistant as they have less surface area to loose water through. Also, you’ll find that the petals on drought resistant plants tend to be smaller for the same reason. I love my hydrangeas, but I can definitely tell you that they are by no means drought-resistant. Some summer evenings when I get home from work, I’ll drive up to a droopy front of the house with the 4 hydrangeas with all of their leaves drooping to the ground. They are fine the next morning once they’ve been watered, but wouldn’t last long-term without frequent watering! So, depending on which garden one talks about (especially if you’re afraid you might forget to water it!), these drought-resistant plants might be highly advantageous!

Shade Happy Plants

As I've been looking for plants to fill my shade gardens, which are numerous due to the 10 fully mature pecan trees in our yard, I've collected this list. Hopefully it will help you out if you have the same issues that I have with finding plants to fill the shady spots :)
• Astillbe (Red, white, lavender, pink)
• Coral Bells (Heuchera)
• Ferns
• Lilly-of-the-valley
• Hardy PerennialLillis
• Forget-Me-Nots (6-8” tall w/ small blue flowers)
• Liriope (Be sure to put this in a sunk container or get a non-invasive
variety)
• Helleborus (Lenten Rose)
• English PrimRose
• Hydrangea (can be planted in full sun to full shade)
• Caldiums (annuals unless dug up and brought in for the winter)
• Hardy Cyclamen

Park Seed’s Flower Day

So, yesterday Mom & I went to Flower Day at Park Seed in Hodges, SC (near Greenwood). I was very excited when I found out that Mom & I were going to go together. My mom, who gardened with us when we were children, is a great gardener and great mother. Further, she is a SC Master Gardener and she teaches Jr Master Gardener classes as well as 4-H events. Mom & I went down and explored the experimental gardens and got to see new plants such as SunPatiens (think Impatiens that like sun, but with different numbers of petals); they were very pretty and available in a variety of colors. Mom & I spent 5hrs at Park Seed exploring and looking at plants. I got to visit some of their shade gardens to get ideas for our property since we do have 10 fully mature pecan trees on our property … hence Lots of shade! I loved the lamb's ear that they had growing in the shade gardens; it had lush large soft leaves. We also bought a Vibe-full of plants to bring home and add to our own gardens. I’ve been reading a lot about cottage gardens lately and planning some for our house since it is an older house (built in the 30’s) and I find the cottage gardens particularly attractive! For the cottage garden, I got coneflowers, coneflower seed, lavender seed, blanket flower seed, salvia, and astilbe. I also got some butterfly weeds to attract butterflies for pollination as well as a new rose (I Finally got a Peace rose … I’m super excited!) For the shade gardens, I got some blue mouse ears hostas (yes, those of you who know me know I LOVE hostas) and ‘brownies’ heuchera (coral bells) to add some more color to the shade gardens. I also got a few more plants, but I won’t bore you with all the details! But, needless to say, Mom & I had such fun that we’re planning on going again next year and hopefully we’ll be able to go to the Master Gardener preview day since I’ll hopefully have my Master Gardener’s license by then.

Happy Berry Farm Date

So ... it's official ... it's Summer!! Yesterday morning we went and had a 'date morning' and picked 5lbs of blueberries at the Happy Berry Farm. It was a lot of fun, we got some exercise, and best of all ....we have 5lbs of blueberries to eat and share. It's father's day today and we had both Burl's and my fathers over for lunch today ... and we had ice cream with fresh diced peaches and/or blueberries for dessert. So, not only was our trip productive, but yummy as well ... and we got to send a pound of blueberries home with Burl's parents, my parents, and my grandmother as well. It's nice to be able to have fresh blueberries And be able to share them with family. :)

Bunnies bothering your garden?

I still haven't figured out what was eating my garden last year (the groundhog living under the shed, random bunnies, or wild turkey), but it hasn't been the problem this year (yet... crosses fingers!) that it was last year. I lost all of my cucumbers (both veggies and plants) as well as later in the season all the watermelons & pumpkins (both veggies & plants again). So this year, we moved the garden up next to the house, but I'd been reading about plants that were good for keeping bunnies at bay. So, if you have bunny problems, you might think about planting some of these plants (Thanks Better Homes & Gardens for the list!):
Full Sun Plants:
--Allium (6" to 6' pending variety, perennial)
--Anise Hyssop (2'-4', perennial)
--Baptisia (5', perennial)
--Bee Balm (1'-3', perennial)
--Cat Mint (1'-2', perennial)
--Daffodils (1', perennial)
--Daylillies (2'-6', perennial)
--Foxglove (2'-6', perennial; can also be planted in part shade)

And for Shade or Part Shade, you have Astilbe (1'-3', perennial) as well as daffodils will also grow in the shade.

Granted, if we're talking about near your plant & veggie garden, most plants will be full sun as the best place for your garden is full sun. Granted, the first two summers, we planted our garden in part sun as I didn't want to put it in the front yard; we found a good compromise by placing it along the side of our house though which is mostly full sun and at worst part sun, but still not directly where passing cars will view it. So, we found the best of both worlds!

One note of caution, however. Be careful with foxglove (digitalis) if you have small children or curious dogs as it can be highly toxic. Digitalis is used for making digitoxin (Digitalin), a heart medication but ingesting the plant may cause unwanted effects in a small child or pet, sometimes leading to death. Once our puppy grows up a bit, we may plant foxglove as it has beautiful flowers, but for now, I think its best to not be in our yard as our pup has chewed on most of the flowers (except the roses) in our yard in the 2wks we've had her! Also, if you do grow foxglove, you may want to leave the seed heads in the fall to attract birds (the seeds aren't poisonous to the birds and it makes a great autumn treat for them!)

It's going to be a beautiful weekend here in upstate SC this weekend and I'm hoping to get some of the plants that are still potted into the ground in one of my newer beds. This requires re-tilling the ground (which hopefully it will dry out today so I can do that as well as preparing a few places where there were trees when we moved in a couple of years ago (which getting tree roots out of this area has been challenging ... we even tried using the truck to pull them out after we'd dug and used the ax on them 2 yrs ago). So, we'll be trying again soon and hopefully with better luck!

Happy gardening to all, and don't forget to call your dad (or have them over for a cookout as we're doing) this Sunday for Father's day!

Fragrant Plants for Zone 7

So, I've been working on expanding some of my gardens this year. These are some Zone 7 recommended plants:
--Dianthus (perennial)
--Sweet Pea (1'-3' dwarf or 4'-6'; some are perennial)
--Lavender (perennial)
--Sweet Alyssum (annual)
--Garden Phlox (3'-4'; perennial)
--Roses (perennial)
--Lilac (grows up to 20' tall; perennial)

Most of the perennials I have in a garden at the house. I love perennials & bulbs; they may not be as showy as annuals, but they come back year after year so you can depend on them. I have a rose garden, which is one of my favorite spots in the yard ... it has 5 roses around the border and is filled with dahlias. This spring, I planted an orange phlox variety (bare root) this spring ... I haven't seen it grow yet, but I'm not willing to give up on it after the peonies all sprung up this year even though I only saw two of them have any leaves last year and they were planted bare root as well!) So, my bare roots are teaching me patience. This is the first year I've planted sweet peas. I was actually surprised to see them come up after the seeds got 'misplaced' when my greenhouse toppled this spring ... but I found 6 small sweet pea plants chilling out in a couple of my gladiolus pots; So, I've relocated them to their own pots, and we'll see how they grow! :) From the list of perennials, I don't have dianthus or lilac yet. I plan on planting dianthus from seed next spring and the lilac I don't have a place large enough for so it will just have to wait! As for sweet alyssum, it's not my favorite of the annuals so it probably won't find a place in my garden, but that's simply personal preference ... maybe it can find a place in yours?

Off to read more about heirloom gardens tonight ... I'm sure I'll blog about those at some point...

Slugs ... Ewww!!!

So for those who don't know, I have a dog named Saber who I lovingly refer to as "a pet rock". He's quite lazy, which isn't really surprising since he was bred to be a lap dog (He's a Havanese). Anyway, when he came in one evening with a slug crawling up the back of his leg (giving affirmation to his longstanding nickname!), I decided that it might be time to find a better way to control the slugs in our yard. I had been picking them off and salting them, which kills them. But as most of you know, the slugs you see are only a small portion of the problem! Neither my husband or I drink beer so I started looking for another alternative. Reading in a book my in-laws sent my husband and I, I found out that an alternative to beer for slug baiting is Coca-cola! Now while they mention Coke by name, I'm sure that the off brands will work just as well as they say it is the acid in the soda that kills the slugs and that they're attracted to the sweet soda smell. So, I'm going to try this. One way they recommend doing this is by cleaning yogurt cups, cutting 1"x2" holes in the sides and placing the cup in a hole such that the holes are 1/8" above the ground. They recommend placing a terra cotta saucer over top to give some shade to the area as slugs prefer shade. So, I'm going to try this and I'll let you know how it works. And if it doesn't work, I might have to find some beer & more salt to use :-O Happy Slug Hunting!

Berry Season!

So as strawberry season starts to wind down (you can still get fresh farm-picked strawberries or pick them yourselves for about 2-3 more weeks), it means the beginning of blackberry & blueberry seasons! Blackberry picking season opens today at one my favorite picking venues The Happy Berry Farm in Six Mile, SC. And even better than blackberries are blueberries, whose season is predicted to open in two weeks on June 18th!!

Now, you can grow your own blueberries, but it will take a few years till your plants get big enough to have enough for two people, let alone a family. We have 9blueberry plants in our yard, which are growing but we will still visit Happy Berry this summer for more blueberries. We have 4 different cultivars of blueberries including Sunshine Blue, Tif Blue, and Tophat (can't remember off the top of my head the 4th). Blueberries are relatively easy to grow in full sun in zones 3/4-7/8, depending on the variety. There are some dwarf/semi-dwarf varieties (eg Sunshine Blue and Dwarf Northland) that only grow to be 3-4ft and can be container plants as well as full size ones. Full size blueberry plants grow to be 6-8ft tall at maturity.

A great summertime treat is fresh blueberries sitting on the front porch in the summer time with some sweet tea or lemonade is a great evening treat! Also, a great summer date is going out to a local berry farm with your significant other and picking berries together ... its a fun, cheap date that's not dinner & a movie. Can't wait to get picking! :)

What are some Zone 7 shade loving plants?

This is a question that I've gotten several times over the last few months ... so I thought I'd post my response here. Our shade garden has 3 azaleas, 2 heuchera (coral bells) and two different varieties of hosta. It also has lilly-of-the-valley, which is lovely, white, and dainty in the spring as well as a hydrangea.

Enjoy!

Shade Loving Plants (filtered light (e.g. under a tree) or against a northern or eastern wall)

• Ajuga
• Astilbe (Red, white, lavender, pink)
• Aucuba (Evergreen shrub; appx. 4ft x 4ft)
• Azaleas (full shade to full sun)
• Beareded Irises (Full shade to full sun)
• Begonias
• Bleeding Heart
• Brazillian Fireworks (Porphyrocoma; Annual)
• Brunnera (most varieties will grow in zone 7)
• Camellia (large shrub growing up to 12 ft tall, but ½ as wide)
• Coleus
• Caladiums (annuals unless dug up and brought in for the winter)
• Coral Bells (Heuchera; Shade/Part Shade))
• English Primrose
• Ferns
• Forget-Me-Nots (6-8” tall w/ small blue flowers)
• Hardy Cyclamen
• Hardy PerennialLillis
• Helleborus (Lenten Rose; blooms late winter)
• Heuchera (Coral Bells)
• Hosta
• Hydrangea (can be planted in full sun to full shade in SC)
• Impatiens (annuals)
• Holly (multiple varieties)
• Hydrangeas (will grow in full shade to full sun)
• Ivy (Be sure to put this in a sunk container or get a non-invasive variety)
• Lavender (Delphinium; grows in full shade to part shade; Zone 3-7)
• Lavatera (Annual)
• Lilly-of-the-valley
• Liriope (Be sure to put this in a sunk container or get a non-invasive variety)
• Madagascar Jasmine (Stephanotis; climbing vine w/ white flowers)
• Mountain Laurel (flowering shrub)
• Pachysandra (ground cover; needs boundaries due to underground runners)
• Pittosporum (evergreen shrub or small tree; says zone 8-10, but will grow in SC in shade)
• Polka Dot Plants (hypoeses pyllostachya; annual if left outdoors; perennial if dug up in winter)
• Rhododendron (Deep shade to part sun; flowering shrub)
• Viburnum (large evergreen shrub – grows 6-12ft tall)
• Violets

Periwinkle (Vinca) will also grow in full shade, but due to its invasive nature (you can get vinca that is not as invasive), I left it off the list. If you would like invasive vinca, feel free to visit my yard :) We have lots that was planted before we arrived!

Hostas

So, one of the most abundant plants at our house is hosta. I love hostas. They make such beautiful displays of foliage. They do bloom late in the summer upon tall spikes, but I prefer them without the blooms (I always want to cut off those long spikes!) Now, don't get me wrong, I do love flowers, just not a big fan of the hosta's. When we moved into our house, we had several fully mature hostas. As with most perennials bulbs/tubers/rhizomes, once plants mature, they will need to be divided or split. This is relatively easy to do. Hostas are very hardy plants so they can essentially be divided anytime, but spring (just post emerging of leaves) or in the fall once they're past their peak are the recommended times. When we divide ours, we dig them up, lay them on a hard surface and use either a shovel or a machete (or large kitchen knife) to cut them apart. If the hosta roots have not become highly entangled, you may be able to pull them apart by hand, which is advantageous to the plant. You will need to be careful to water them for the first 2 weeks post-division as they have few roots than they previously did and are more prone to wilting in spring sun. If you have hostas, and you notice in the spring when they start emerging, that they have a doughnut shape (none emerging in the center), you know that it is Definitely time to split them! The reason there are none in the center is that they have died. We had this problem with all of our hostas that were present at our house when we moved in. We are dividing them up (the last one we divided into 8 plants and put into a new shade garden). While not recommended, and one must be Very careful if doing this, some hostas cultivars can be grown in the sun. We have a bank to the west side of our giant bonsai trees and we tilled, fertilized, limed and planted about 80 hostas (undulata) along it. Only about 80% of them survived and we have a few that we stored back as we knew this would happen. The hostas are ok once they have matured in the full sun, but hostas will always prefer part-shade to shade. The hostas in front of our house are full sun, however, they are also 2.5ft in diameter and have been there since several years before we bought our house. Enough ramblings about hostas! If you have questions, please let me know .... We currently have the following hostas in our yard: 'Francee' (green with white edging), 'Undulata' (white stripe down center of green leaves), a blue hosta with wavy crimped edges (unsure of variety), and two reverse variegated hosta (green with wide white centers) that resembles 'loyalist' or 'dancing in the rain', but I'm unsure of the exact variety that are planted on either side of our back door. Slugs enjoy hostas (as do deer). Slugs don't kill them, however, they do like to eat holes in hosta leaves (thick-leafed hostas are more slug resistant than thin-leafed varieties).

Garden start -- Spring 2007

So, I grew up with a garden ... it was how mom kept the three of us occupied after school ... and we learned a lot from it ... a lot that I don't think we ever really realized we'd use, but now both my sister and I have a garden.

So when we bought our house, it had very little curb appeal. The biggest curb appeal came from the 10 fully mature pecan trees that were planted with the house in the early 30s that make two lines down the property, one on each side of the house. There's also a row of cedar bonsai trees. strange, I know; that was my thought the first year that I lived here, but they're growing on me. There are 3 Bradford pear trees in the front of the property (near the road). And, finally, there were hostas in front of the house (not shown in the pictures below since it was March and they hadn't come up yet) ... yep .... that's it! that's all there was. It was a foreclosure property and had lots of work to do on the landscaping.

Our first project was to bring some color to the front porch, and to do this we used the 3 hydrangeas that were bought for our wedding. We put these in concrete planters from the wedding; though since then we've bought a 4th and planted them at the two front corners of the house and on either side of the steps leading to the front porch.

And, while not gardening, though completely necessary, we changed the color (both main and trim) of the house to give a better palate for me to plant against as well as we simply didn't like the old color scheme! (see photos below)