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Arizona Gardening

perennial groundcover ideas?

13 years ago

I have 1.5 acre landscape garden which I've filled with trees, shrubs & plants that can succeed without additional water in the summer, when we travel. I'm looking for a perennial groundcover that has the following attributes:

no additional summer watering needed to survive (if not thrive);

stays 1"-6" high;

flowers or has colourful foliage;

will spread (but not invasive);

RABBIT resistant (the little beggars nibble even some aloes).

When I was a 1st yr. Horticulture student at university, I was given mesembryanthemum to grow and fell in love. Unfortunately in Phoenix they need summer water and the rabbits gulp them down. This is the kind of look I'm seeking, though I'd be happy with a critter resistant hens & chicks type thing too.

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Comments (5)

mangledmind
13 years ago
hello sunburntcanuck (funny moniker by the way) :)

You may find this document useful:

Ground Covers for Arizona Landscapes
from The University of Arizona College of Agriculture

http://ag.arizona.edu/pubs/garden/az1110.pdf

Here is a link that might be useful: Ground Covers for Arizona Landscapes
MaryMcP Zone 8b - Phx AZ
13 years ago
Good link - Thanks!
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User
13 years ago
sunburnt,
I've got quite a bit of experience dealing with the adorable little voracious beasts around here and here's what I can offer:
* I put chicken wire cages (dug into the groud several inches) around EVERYthing until it's either a)big enough to withstand some nibbling or b)clearly not to the rabbit's liking.
* you are probably being sieged by little ground squirrels, packrats and/or several other desert denizens, some are small enough to crawl thru/over any cage so expect a little attrition from them
* in my experience, rabbits don't eat aloe, juniper, desert marigold, trailing indigo dalea, or weeds (!) HOWEVER, that being said, they will "taste" anything or dig down to the roots to cool off. THAT being said, don't take anyone's word for rabbits not eating something: I asked two very knowledgeable nursery workers if rabbits would eat my new Mexican Morning Glory plants and at the same time one said "YES!" and the other said "No!" They both had MMGs in their gardens, both lived around the same area. . .
I also had a beautiful Euphorbia triticallis (SP??) I was trying to propagate and, despite the toxic sap, etc, some little rat b*stard came by, climbed up a table, somehow got into a 12" tall smooth-sided plastic pot and chomped off three stalks, leaving one for me to try and replant but taking off with the rest. You should have heard the profanity when I discovered that!

I'm attaching another Coop Ext link to a rabbit resistant pamphlet, it's very helpful but, again, they'll nibble at anything just to experiment so unfortunately I recommend buying bulk rolls of chicken wire!

It's like "Night of the Lepus" around here when I'm planting stuff. I know they're out there, watching, waiting. . .

Here is a link that might be useful: rabbit resistant plants
sunburntcanuck
Original Author
13 years ago
Thanks for all the info and links and to zzini: Yeah the thing about rabbits is we're next to the Tonto Nat'l Forest so when things get tough out there, the creatures move to greener pastures...my garden. I have always used chicken wire around things until established but what I found last summer during our drought was, the old established plants where I'd removed the wire, got hit by the rabbits, bark was removed on some trees, and the javelina moved in and either chomped down my huge prickly pears or dug around (as peccaries will do) and unearthed all my Old Man cacti. Most things that were nibbled have recovered and I've replaced many chicken wire cages. Aloes had never been touched but I got 3 new kinds and one morning I looked out my window to see baby rabbits muching them down. (Hope they got a belly-ache from them) Anyway, thanks everyone...I may try to old sprinkle of cayenne pepper trick on anything I think is tempting to a rabbit.
mangledmind
13 years ago
sunburntcanuck,

try this link:

http://www.garden.org/plantfinder/

Here is a link that might be useful: Plant Finder

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