Building a Cottage Garden in Drought Conditions - that's the story of my life, I'm afraid... So the answer to your question would be: most of what I have in my garden. Over the years I have experimented with plants to find which ones can survive my zone 10, dry Mediterranean type of garden, and the results have varied. Some things do extremely well, other simply fade.

I have learned to garden a lot more with flowering shrubs and a lot less with annuals and herbaceous perennials, as these seem far less adapted to my climate conditions. I will include a link to some photos of my garden taken May last year for you to have an idea. The garden peeks in May, with the roses blooming, and then again October/November with the berried shrubs and the ones chosen for Fall interest. Please feel free to ask any questions you have on the photos.

Specifically in terms of perennials, I have experimented with some over the years, most of them from seed (due to our seed swap). So far I have had success with rudbeckia, coreopsis, Joe Pye Weed and gaillardia, but the bloom time for all of them is very short in my climate, so I wouldn't want to rely on them for either structure or year round color. More like a pretty accent and an added bonus when they actually come into flower.

There are other people here at the forum who are also going the drought tolerant way, so I'm sure more will chime in and add their expertise.

Eduarda

Here is a link that might be useful: My garden in May

I have added a link to my garden album of April last year as well, since you may wish to use some of the plants I have peeking there too.

Eduarda

Here is a link that might be useful: My garden in April

Also, have a look at the following thread reposted from the Antique Roses forum here at gardenweb. It features a breathtaking garden in Sardinia, a place where dry Mediterranean gets its definition.

Eduarda

Here is a link that might be useful: A garden in Sardinia from the Antique Roses forum

Welcome to the Cottage Garden forum, Sharidiane! You may want to look at the website for High Country Gardens to get some ideas. They sell plants that are very good for xeriscaping. They will work where it's very hot and dry. Your county extension office will have a list of plants that are indigenous to your area ie, wildflowers. Often from this sort of list you will find plants that are often considered "cottagey" and that will thrive in your conditions.

MeMo

Iris is one that has done well for me. I wish their bloom time was longer though.

Dear Sharianne,

Check out the book "The Undaunted Gardener" by Lauren Springer. She gardens in Northern Colorado where the rainfall is very minimal and the garden is subject to extremes in temperatue both hot and cold.

She has list after list plus thousands of pictures and plant descriptions of plants that work successfully in these conditions.

I managed to find my copy at my local library. Although, it's such a good book that I'm not looking forward to returning it.

When I lived in dry, hot climate - We always had Shasta Daisies. They grew good in the heat, and there are so many different varieties now! I have them on a nice, dry sunny slope where they get a lot of sun and not much water. The ones I planted are Leucanthemum "Becky, and Crazy Daisy" I love them, they are gorgeous! Good Luck!

these are all wonderful suggestions. And eduarda, those pictures are a breath taking inspiration!

Key for establishing a cottage garden in dry conditions is good soil that holds moisture, and mulch mulch mulch mulch......and more mulch! We replaced the top level of adobe clay with 6-8" of good compost, but the clay makes a good base for many trees, shrubs and roses; it encourages their roots to go deep for water.

I find soaker hoses much more effective than drip irrigation, too, and attach quick-connect couplers for ease as I pull the hose from place to place. BTW, I get the slightly more expensive "auto shutoff" types, because otherwise I find sowbugs and other pests like to crawl inside the soaker hoses from the open end, since it's dark and moist. I take the shutoff part off and connect the hose, then re-connect the shutoff when I'm done with that bed.

Our water is expensive because we're on a hill (pumping charge) and CA has had a number of droughts since I've lived here, when water charges go up (funny how they never come down again, LOL). Note that our temps are much more moderate than yours, seldom going over 85 degrees even in summer.

I seldom need to water in the winter, maybe just once or twice if we go more than 2 months w/o rain. In summer I water as little as possible -- once a week if it's a rare hot spell, usually 2-3 weeks between deep soakings. Because I only water in the summer, I can track our garden usage very easily; it runs about $15/month.

Most people think of a cottage garden in terms of flowers. I find that is insufficient, particularly in good design terms. I suggest you think in terms of contrasting/blending overall shapes and colors - and color includes foliage color, a vastly overlooked element in amateur gardens. You want a good transition of "layers"; e.g., heights graduated from short to medium to tall, to give the eye something to focus on as it moves across a specific garden bed.

Hardscape is critical. Design it first and the plantings will flow around it properly in an integrated manner.

You can see the installation of our garden, which was done in phases over 3 years, at the link below. Between the container planting (I'm the impatient type, hee hee) and good soil, everything looked good very quickly. But of course, I've been "refining" it ever since -- I've noticed my year-to-year pictures show a lot of plants that aren't there any more!

Here is a link that might be useful: Comcast website of jkom's garden - broadband recommended

I second High Country Gardens. They are a fabulous resource for gardening in drought conditions.

You mentioned some 120 temps in the summer. Can you share where you live with these conditions? There is also a Southwest garden forum you may want to check out, if that's your area.

Also, are you saying that you are interested in plants that will look good in those temps in summer or just survive until the temps cool off again? That will make a big difference in what you might choose to grow.

HTH!
Diana

Thank you so much to everyone for all of the advice and tips! I have reserved the Undaunted Gardener at my library's website, and I am checking out all of the other fabulous websites listed here.

The pictures were amazing eduarda! It's encouraging to know that you can have that "Old English" look even when you don't live in an "English" climate!

I live in Southern California, in the San Fernando Valley. July and August typically runs in the low 100's, but there were a few days last summer where it was 110-120. Yikes. Everything in my garden died, which was a blessing in disguise, let me tell you. I truly disliked my landscaping and now I have this beautiful blank canvas.

I guess my biggest problem as a new gardener is that I feel overwhelmed, as though there is too much information to soak up and I feel as though I'm just going to make a ton of mistakes. Also, I have a HUGE yard, at least in terms of what I feel I am able to manage. I think it is more than I can keep up, so I am just doing a little area at a time. I won't have the grand satisfaction that I am looking for right away, and for me that is tough!!!

Thanks again everyone for your ideas and support. I plan on being a regular visitor here!!!!

Sharidiane ~ Don't get discouraged, gardens take time to mature, and even then, they are never done as we are always adding or taking away from them. Just have fun and start small like you are planning on doing. Do keep us posted and take pictures before, during and after. They are always great to see.

jkom51 ~ I visited your website and what a wonderful transformation you and your DH did with your property. I'd love to see some pictures of the new beds around your two trees in the very back of your property. I got inspired looking at all you have done. Little gardens here and there overflowing with color, texture, etc.

FlowerLady

We are on water rstrictions. We can water one day a week. No sprinkler watering 10:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. on that one day. We can water any day if we hand hold the hose.

I grow larkspur in the early spring. It reseeds so much that I am pulling some out so I can walk on the stepping stones. Daylilys and bearded iris do well. My best proforming drought plant is indago spires salvia.

This is right now.
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May 2006
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August 2006 Friktarii asters. These were small transplants from another area in the spring of 2005.
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Here is a link that might be useful: Texas gardens

1996. Loads and loads of caliche were brought in "so the cement trucks would not get stuck".
I was furious. This part of TX is limestone hills with thin soil. They had to use dynamite in order to install the ceptic tank. My DH had the beginning of Alzheimer's so he believed them.
A couple of the pictures I posted before were grass lawn February of 2005. I thought I was going to have to sell the house to pay for DH's nursing care, so I had grass sodded. Of course now I am sorry for all the danged grass.

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Ooooh! NatvTxn!

I love those Friktari Asters!
Do they grow from seed?
Where can I get some of those beauties?

I would suggest to ShariDiane that you plant a lot of plants native to arid climates, like Yuccas, Agaves, Cacti, Succulents, Moss Rose, Sages/Salvias, and etc. You might be surprised to know that these were /are grown in traditional English Cottage Gardens, too. In England they are considered "Exotics" and lusted after as much as we desire to have their lush garden plants and bowers filled with roses.

Ornamental grasses add colour and texture. Make sure that you get the kind that are not moisture loving varieties.

Mulleins grow very well in hot, dry climates and look spectacular with their tall spires of buttery yellow flows that sway in the wind (and birds love the seed in summer and fall).
Verbascums too love hot dry places and come in many varieties and color combos. Tall spikes covered in delicate looking flowers in vivid color combos. I have Verbascum nigrum. Yellow flowers with purple throats. The flower buds are purple. Beautiful grown with Mallows. Beautiful planted in with Purple Coneflowers and spikey purple Liatris (two ohers that do well in drought conditions and high temps).

ry California poppies and Baby Blue Eyes for Spring colour (and sometimes they bloom again in Fall). They reseed like crazy and you will love it!

A great Cottage Garden flower is the Garden Phlox. They do really well once establish. Mulch around them to keep their feet cool and help hold moisture. They are great drought indicators too. If those babies wilt, you will know the rest of the garden is in serious of need of a good watering. Mine just bloom right through the hottest times every summer and we get temps comparable to yours. (And we are having a severe drought here in Oklahoma). Phlox make a good background plant, adding colour and heavenly fragrance to any garden and they come if a variety of colours and sizes.

When I lived in the Mojave Desert we planted cannas. They loved the heat. I just ran a soaker hose around them early in the nmorning once a week. Talk about a colour and beauty! They add a tropical look to the Cottage Garden and they come in dozens of sizes and colours too.
Dianthus are very sturdy little perennial plants in hot, dry climates and well as annuals like zinnias & marigolds. 'Clove Pink' is a Cottage Garden must in any climate and they love full sun in dry places. And their fragrance - Mmmmm. I have mine growing amongst rocks in the hottest area of my entire property.

Sunflowers, Strawflowers, Heleniums, Amaranthas do very well for me too.

Sweet Allysums, both annual and perennial love the heat and talk about perfuming the garden air! Planted around rocks or along the garden path edges or stepping stones they thrive and bloom all summer and reseed themselves too.

Snow-in-Summer loves dry, hot rocky places.
Queen Anne's lace does well, both Cottage Garden classics.

Nigella does well in many dry, hot places too. Winter Sow directly in your garden in late summer for best results.

I agree that Irises are a good choice, and don't forget Daylilies. They are tough little plants and come in a 'kazillion' colour combinations with endless entries of fun names to choose from. Both of these are Cottage Garden favourites, too.

There are many more.
Hope these help.

~ Annie
5th Generation Californian now living in Central Oklahoma

My "live through the hundred degree days under watering restriction" plants are:
Katie ruellia, Stella De Oro daylily, Mexican Mint Marigold, yarrow, Blackfoot Daisy, Autumn sage, Hot Lips sage, Salvia Henry Duhlberg, Mexican Bush sage, Russian sage, Salvia Snow Hill (love those salvias !), fennel, cypress vine, purple passionvine, oleander, butterfly bush, vitex tree, Southern Wax myrtle, redbud tree.
All not only survived, but did well with just one watering day, if that, per week.

You've gotten some wonderful suggestions so far. I'll second daylilies and iris- I have some in a very dry part of my garden and they perform quite well.

Also, there is berlandiera lyrata (Chocolate Flower), tithonia (would that be a perennial for you in zone 8? It's not for me in 5/6), mums, gaillardia, and coreopsis.

There are tons of drought-tolerant annuals, so don't forget to add those for punches of color. I've also found asiatic lilies tolerate dry conditions for me (but I don't know about 120 degrees!).

Good luck!

Tracy

I live in an area that gets over 100 in the summers -- and that's when the bugs attack -- I hand water everything, so I water much, much less then. The things that grow well for me are:

Irises

salvia canariensis (this is a *real* toughy -- withstands the heat and snow without batting an eye. and is *covered* in the most gorgeous pinky lilac flowers most of the season)

butterfly bush
correopsis
peonies
euphorbia
crocosmia
smoke bush
daffodils
echinacea
scabiosa
nemesia
diacia
datura
some calla lillies

I started trying to plant plants that had a lot of bloom power but were from parts of the world that were drier -- south african, austrilian, etc.

Anyway, hope this helps (also most of the plants on my list the deer don't want to eat. which is important to me because i want lots of impact, but i don't have a fenced in garden.)

flowerlady6, thank you for the kind words!

At first I thought my area is so different (coastal NorCA, hilly, clay soil, shade), that sharidiane couldn't use any of my plants. But maybe she can, so I'll list some:
- Canna (seconding this). And they can be surprisingly drought resistant, although they look better with water.
- Echiums: there are many, and all are interesting and remarkably floriferous
- Erysimums: ditto. I use them as small trailing plants or little groundcovers. The variegated yellow-leaved erysimum, with its spikes of purple flowers, is one of my favorite plants.
- Limonium, aka sea lettuce
- Jade plant, if you have some shade
- Variegated aucuba, also some shade
- Helichrysum
- Santolina
- Hellebore (some shade)
- Tagetes lemonii aka Bush marigold
- Senecio: any of them, but I'm fond of Senecio serpens, aka Blue Chalksticks.
- Nasturtiums: another annual that reseeds nicely, and is a reliable early- to mid-summer bloomer.
- Phormium aka New Zealand flax. Don't get the Tasmanian flax, Dianella; it's a lovely plant but not very drought resistant.
- Oleander, the traditional standby of CA xeric landscaping.

May is the best time in my garden. Here are some photos from last year, for flowerlady6. And for sharidiane, please note that although I plan to water in these two beds for 1 more year, after that they will be reduced to once per month for summer water. They are really far from the back faucet!

Walking down to the lower patio:
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That same path, but reversed - looking up towards the house from the back of the property:
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Standing on the center of the lower patio, looking towards the neighbor's house. This is the bed surrounding the silver oak:
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Still on the patio, but turning around to face the back of the property. This is the bed that surrounds the walnut:
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Walking down off the patio, heading back down the path towards the back of the property:
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Looking towards the property of another neighbor, this is parallel to the back fence you can see in the photo above. Again, this is the walnut tree bed.
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jkom: I know you've posted some photos here in the past because I recall visiting your website and seeing your progress. These latest photos are amazing! What you and your husband have done to your property is outstanding. The transformation is wonderful. I really like how you've used the curved bricks to lay out your beds but softened that with plants cascading over the edges. So many of us struggle to contain our beds in some way but to have that wall echo the cottage theme we strive for. I never thought I'd say it- but those bricks work!

Thanks for sharing these with us.

Tracy

one last thought -- jeruselum sage. some have pretty pink blooms (which are traditional "cottage" colors). And you may also try browsing some grave yards in your area. many of those plants have been growing unattended for decades with no attention at all.

jxa44, graveyards/cemetaries are a brilliant thought. That reminds me the OP might check out any vacant lots as well. My gardener brought me some yellow cestrum that was taken from cuttings from a variety that hadn't been sold professionally in over 40 yrs. It was growing on his own property (he lives close to us) and he was trimming it back when it occurred to him to offer some for cuttings to one of the local nursery owners.

He brought me two of them, and although they're not as floriferous as the newer cestrum varieties, I've noticed they are more pest-resistant and extremely tough, very xeric.

I like vincas, they're extremely common in the garden depts. but I never see them growing in people's yards. One of my favorite annuals is Four O' Clocks. They grow easily from seed, but beware, where you planted one plant this year you'll have 20 growing next year.

I know this thread is a little stale, but since this is a subject that affects so many gardeners, I thought I'd give it renewed life. I third (or is it fourth?) the High Country Gardens recommendation. Even if you can't afford to buy from them, you can get ideas and grow from seed based on their suggestions. It doesn't get as hot here, but I have a south-facing front yard that bakes in the summer. I steadfastly refuse to water it more often than once a week, and I've hard-heartedly decided that any plant that can't survive that doesn't belong here. So far I've had success with Shasta Daisies, Penstemon (mine are 'Red 'Rocks'), Gaillardia, Rudbeckia (I have 'Rustic Colors'), Verbena bonariensis, Lychnis coronaria, Lavender (mine is probably angustifolia), Sedums galore, a Bristlecone pine, Coreopsis (not sure what mine is -- perennial, solid yellow, single flowers), Iris ('Going My Way', 'Creative Stitchery', and 'Blue Lustre'), and Dianthus barbatus (whose roots are shaded by sedum).

I've had success avoidng the first-year-constant-watering-to-establish-plants problem by planting in the Fall instead. I have to water consistantly for a few weeks, then the rains come and I'm off the hook. After that, I just let the plants do their thing until beginning my watering in early June and repeating every week until early September. You might want to try that even if you don't normally have wet winters. Even if you have to water them through the winter, at least the ground won't dry out as quickly in the cooler late fall/early winter temperatures.

As a side note, we Pacific Northwesterners have an additional problem beyond drought summers: generally, any plant that is drought-tolerant enough to survive our summers will usually rot in our wet winters. In other words, it's a balancing act no matter where you are. Try using High Country Garden's plant search feature -- very useful.