Re: Going dryer, or Garden is a verb

Hello,


I am french, living in France and how proud am I when I read this. It is very surprising for me, because when I want to see a nice garden I go to England. Well, nevertheless, it is true that we have nice and lush gardens in the area around Paris.
It is much more challenging to find beautiful gardens in the south.
We have so many different climates, as in US anyway. Where I live, in Montpellier, 8 kms from the mediterranean sea, the summers are dry and hot and the winters are cold, sometimes very cold (this winter : 20°F and a lot of rain).
So, in my garden, I have different beds, some are not watered at all (except for the new plants), some are watered everyday in summer, and some once a week in summer as my 2 mediterranean beds and my "lawn". This lawn is Matricaria tchihatchewii. I did not want lawn for waterwise reason mainly and for maintenance. Just cut once a year to trim the faded flowers.
Filippi nursery is offering a wide range of replacements for lawn and it depends on your needs. For instance, as I have my grand-children visiting me sometimes,  I did not want bee-attracting plants and I needed something which stands walking on. His website is : www.jardin-sec.com He gives too a digit code to classify the dry resistant plants from 1 to 6, 6 beeing the most dry-resistant plant.
In your garden, I would replace the lawn first, asking your children of course, and begin by a small space to see what it is, I don't know about your nurseries, but ask them about lawn replacements. There are a lot of plants matching with this.
The only problem I meet with, is weeding my "lawn". I must do it very often as I have couch grass and bindweed.
Next time I will change for another design and plants many differrent thymes in rays from the olive tree which is in the middle.
I personally can't go without my roses and lavenders in my patio.
But if you want to change for more waterwise plants , you must accept to have a green garden (and sometimes it can be wonderful because of the different hues from the grey-green to the glaucous green) in summer. 
Here in the south, we have gorgeous gardens in spring time and autumn because of the rains and dormant gardens in summer (as humans, after all, we are supposed to have a nap after lunch in our area).

If you want to have a look on my garden go and see the MGS web site and look at the 'city garden in Montpellier' :
Because of our cold, wet and long  winter, I lost the Lagunaria patersonii (it is resprouting from the base now)and the bulbine frutescens.









Le 16 mai 10 à 16:07, Ben Wiswall a écrit :

Hi All,
Walking out in our back yard yesterday, I was impressed by how well everything was doing.  The "English " border along the garden wall is adrift in white Iceberg Roses punctuated with purple Sea Statice, Lavenders, and dark red Leptospermums.  These glowing white roses are balanced by towers of climbing Icebergs on the pergola opposite.
The garden, for what it is, is a success.  It looks like something you might see in France.

But now, I wonder if I should lose the roses, and go for a drier, more sage look, something in keeping with the now already beige surrounding hills.  After all, I'm not in France, and the garden looks like an island in the countryside around it.

I've already decided to replace some of the back lawn with an herb garden and small ornamental trees later this year (if I can squeeze it in!).  
Now, I'm thinking of removing the roses next winter, and putting in something like Texas Ranger in the border, and some rare vine like Mascagnia lilacina on the pergola columns.

Does anyone have any experience doing this, really altering (but not completely replacing) an existing garden like this?  Is it wise?  After all, the roses look good most of the year, and the drier garden may not look so good, even if it harmonizes with the champagne beige of the hills.

Here are a couple photos of the space, two years old, but the look hasn't changed, except now they're a little bigger and more lush.


and:


Thanks for any advice!
-Ben Armentrout-Wiswall
Simi Valley, inland Ventura County,
Southern California

Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index