RE: OT: Landscapers

>James wrote:
>Perhaps the customers are driving the cart - >people who
>demand low to no maintenance and permanent bloom.

Funny.... I just finished a job with those specs!

I've been working on garden plans that require minimal upkeep since they're 
designed (except for a few centerpiece plants) to evolve much the way a 
natural setting would. The only difference is that I'm using mostly 
non-natives. Conditions and the plants themselves work to keep things under 
control and plants are chosen so that something is always in bloom.

My own low maintenance area is a corner of the lower garden where an arbor 
covered pole bench has been taking shape as I find the time to work on it. 
Growing conditions slope from sandy loam down to almost pure sand and from 
full sun to part shade. Since watering this area is a luxury, mulch is used 
with abandon.

I use a cottage style format, working in hardy perennials, bulbs, self 
seeding annuals and biennials, with as many species of irises as possible. 
Beardeds and SIBs along with a few species things love the sandy loam while 
the Arilbreds and missouriensis prefer the sandy areas. Iris cristata is 
forming colonies in the shade of the rugosa and Persian yellow roses.

So far, the only big mistakes in 6 years were gaillardia and knautia 
macedonica. Both did a bit too well.

Christy Hensler

THE ROCK GARDEN
Newport, WA, USA zone 4b
http://www.povn.com/rock/




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I'm sure this will offend some people, but I think it's funny!
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