RE: Shrub ideas?
- Subject: RE: Shrub ideas?
- From: "Reid Family" p*@comcast.net
- Date: Wed, 30 Aug 2006 06:01:08 -0700
- Importance: Normal
We used to grow a nice plant in New Mexico in conditions not unlike
yours. It's called 'Kinnick-kinnick' by the Indians, which is such a
lovely name, but is Arctostaphylos uva-ursi. You might try Lauren
Springer's "Undaunted Garden" for suggestions as well.
Karrie Reid
Folsom Foothill Gardener
Zone
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-medit-plants@ucdavis.edu
[o*@ucdavis.edu] On Behalf Of Doobieous
Sent: Tuesday, August 29, 2006 2:33 AM
To: Medit-plants@ucdavis.edu
Subject: Shrub ideas?
Hello,
I am looking for some ideas as to low growing, spreading, and fairly
fast growing shrubs to use as interesting fillers for bare areas in the
back garden.
A little bit about the site:
The back garden is big, it is about 70 feet long by 60 feet wide. The
native soil is almost pure sand, but it is not entirely poor. We get
lots of cold winds off of the ocean, as we are only 2 miles from the
sea. Frost is something of a problem (we sit in a sort of frost bowl,
due to surrounding hills), but it only really hits tender leaved plants
like brugs and bananas hard.
I have planned out an area for lawn, but that still leaves very wide
planting beds of nearly 15 feet wide (or more specifically, imagine the
area outside of a circle set within a square, and you've got the idea).
I've got a few backbone shrubs and some trees like Corymbia ficifolia,
Fremontodendron, Ceanothus, Paraserianthes, Echium candicans,
Arctostaphylos, Echium, Cordyline australis,Butia capitata, Lemon,
Protea cynaroides, Leucospermum patersonii, Prunus ilicifolia, Opuntia,
Aloe plicatilis, Cleistocactus strausii, Myrtillocactus geometrizans,
Anigozanthos, Romneya, Metrosideros (both the kermadecensis and
Metrosideros collina 'Springfire'), and even Ficus elastica and Lotus
scoparius (which seems to end up colonizing any disturbed land, which
makes it something of a pretty, but weedy-ish native).
Suffice it to say, the garden is quite a mix (it actually doesn't look
odd.... well, to me). So, again, what I am looking for are:
- Low growing
- interesting in either leaf, flower, or both.
- good, neat looks
- spreading
- drought tolerant.
- leaf color can be anything from gray to green
- fairly common, meaning no need to hunt high and low for specialist
nurseries, but not necessarily something ONLY commonly sold in "typical"
home improvement/DIY store nurseries (we've got a couple down in Carmel
Valley that sell things like Proteas , Lagunaria, and caudiciforms like
Bursera) so I can probably find easily found but more unusual plants.
Also, they can be short lived (as in lasting a few years, rather than
one year), until I can think of much longer lived plants.
Most of the water thirsty plants are close to the deck (and even then,
I've gotten them to root deeply so I'm not watering every day), and
pretty much most of the garden is drought tolerant plants. I plan to add
in other interesting plants, but I've got LOTS of space and don't know
what to do with it all!
So, any ideas?
