Xeriscape cottage garden?
girlgroupgirl
16 years ago
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Steveningen
16 years agoangelcub
16 years agoRelated Discussions
Ideas for Xeriscape garden for a business
Comments (5)It will make a difference what the planter boxes are supposed to achieve and why they're there, so it would be helpful to either see a picture or get a better description of them and their purpose. Are the boxes paralleling the building or perpendicular to it? Are they serving as a location for what's commonly called "foundation planting" or are they flanking the entry walk. What's the layout like? Working with the commercial scale and keeping it low maintenance generally means keeping the design simple and bold. I don't know fernbush other than to know it's "western", but other plants you mention seem likely candidates except purple fountain grass. It can survive some dry conditions but in my experience does not look happy about it. Other grasses may perform better....See MoreXeriscape garden plan - better substitutes for the pink plants
Comments (8)Hello Becca, When I sit down to do design with someone we always discuss their needs first before we ever make it to the garden.Like the shows people watch, I always suggest to people watch their pets and children in the yard, see where they routinely walk, play and go potty(important dog sizes as well as male or female).I also suggest to the homeowners that they themselves pay attention to where they walk around,prefer to sit,amount of outside use,where they do maintenance(including water sytems, doggy doo disposal, composting,etc.Lets not forget lighting,wether your going to want some potted veges etc,,As well as sound,do you need something close to the deck to blend in noise, such as a fountain or small water feature. Then we discuss views, as in look out your windows,remember this is what your going to look at year round, so be sure to think either hardscape or interesting winter plantings.I explain we also need to look at what spaces need creative camoflauge, wether its the far end of the yard where you compost or an air conditioning unit, etc. From here we do a basic yard plan.Figureing in where your pet does all their business.If this is a male dog I would suggest you are careful about stone and container placement as well as small evergreens.Larger dogs such as labs will customize many veges in planters,Cats are also known for digging plants out of containers and using them for a potty. Okay so you sit down and draw out your yard,front back and house placement on the lot.Now look at the areas you have defined as pet space,window views,walkways,edgeing,camoflauging areas,Where your water and power hook-ups are etc, Sketch these in and see if the plan you picked will still work around them.This is important since its your preplanning space, its where you should be figureing out future elements you will be adding and hardscaping.By this I am suggesting you preplan spaces for things such as a storage sheds or whatever you may move into the backyard.You do not want to plant a shrub or tree and have to dig or cut it off 5 or 10 years from now to move a shed in.These type of things are easy to plan for now.You also need to look for the easist routes for your drip or sprinkler systems, even if you do not put them in now, you can preplan the mainlines,this also includes running around to the front of your home if you landscape it.Same goes for laying out hoses if you will be using them for watering,less work dragging and smashing plants.Figure out where you can afford to put in small amounts of hardscaping,wether its a pathway or edging,as well as stone placements,These are the elements which really tie your garden in.They are there in good and bad weather,they add demension to the area. Next you should check out your lighting times as well as which parts may get more wind, where the snow melts first,where the frosts hit first,etc.Sometimes these areas can be used to push seasons or protectless hardy plants. Then of course there is soil,whats under the sod? Xeriscape gardens do take soil prepping,if you want plants to do well.At times you may even need to add gravel pockets for particular plants who need better drainage. I would suggest all these things ,before you commit to a plan.The one you are looking out uses the rocks to allow for some lower growing plants which would be quickly covered up by larger plants,by doing this they are able to add demension with ups and downs.The rocks also offer up height for fall and winter.The pink colored flowers picked in this plan appear to be there for color blending.To give a cooler relaxed effect.Where as when you toss in bright yellows and oranges you tend to make a brighter warm garden.Whites usually stay in the neutral, fading into the grey blue tones or popping out of the red,yellows and oranges. LOl, guess this got long, anyhow my whole point is what I tell my clients, research, and preplan.Yes its the boring stuff and I know it changes as one goes, but in the long run it can save a heck of alot of money and time. If you have the actual garden plan figured out and its really about plants and money, I always suggest, hardscape, soils trees and shrubs first.Fill in with annuals,herbs and veges, buying the perennials(clearance sales are great), seed starting etc, as you go.These are you back bones that will rarely change, so getting them in and growing healthy is important. Our main gardens lean to xeriscape,using much less water then people think,even though they are extremely lush and full.Our rooftop however is extremely xeriscape,all plants growing in 4inches of soil or less. Hope this gives you some other pointers to look at as your jumping in. M...See MoreFamily garden debate show us the way to go
Comments (11)Okay let's clear up a couple of misconceptions about native plants. And maybe xeriscape while we are at it. Because there are so many in one post - I'll quote it here. 1. Native plants help people have less impact on the environment. People that are truly into natives tend to create microclimates to allow them to have greater diversity. Creating those microclimates can be just a big an impact as the poor trying-to-cottage-garden-in-CO gardener. Plus if you buy seeds from non-local sources, you risk screwing with the gene pool of native plants. 2. They tend to use less water and be just beautiful in thier native environment. Native does NOT equal xeric! These are two very, very different concepts. Columbines and Aspens are two of Colorado's more notable native plants. Neither use less water. In fact, both prefer moist environments. Native equals native. Xeric equals xeric. There are many wonderful xeric plants from areas all over the world that use less water. 3. Introduced plants tend to(but not always)fight to look 1/2 decent. Introduced is a very broad term. Usually it means a plant that has escaped cultivation. For example, chicory is introduced and naturalized. It's a plant that does well on very little water and in all conditions. Many xeric plants look twice as good as wet-adapted native plants in Colorado drought. 4. Herbacides,pestacides,amending the soil,and insecticides are usually the result of plants that can't take the climate they are bieng introduced to. Native plants have just as many problems with bugs as non-native plants do. Look at the pine beetle. You can't tell me that pines aren't native to Colorado. I will agree that many non-native plants need something better than Colorado clay. However, I don't think that adding organic compost to the soil and mulching my plants well as being detrimental to the environment. 5. HUGE bucks there.My mother likes non-native and non-xeriscape plants. her water bill is 4x's mine. (She's rethinking xeriscaping). Xericscaping is a great way to reduce the water bill. And it will allow your mom to keep her very favorite non-native/non-xeriscape plants in little plots of high water/high maintenance plants. Xericscape might mean dry landscaping but the best practioners find that it is 1. putting together plants with similar likes, and 2. putting low water plants around the border to stop cement watering. 6. Part xeriscape non-native and xeriscape native looks nice too. Agreed. Check out the xeriscape cottage garden at the Denver Botanical Gardens (it's straight ahead after you enter off York). 7. There's a lady on the Texas Gardening forum that saves herself 12,000 a year on water trading from non-native/xeriscape plants to native xeriscape. I assume she went from non-native, non-xeriscaped to native xeriscape. That sounds like a reasonable water gain if that is the case. If she went from xeric with non-natives to xeric with natives, I think something's wrong. Xeric is not no water. It is not gardening with rocks. It is putting the plants that are high water/high maintenance together as islands in your yard. You might even use burms to help them collect the water they need. It's using the next highest level (some water/some maintenance) as surrounding plants. It's using low water/low maintenace plants along all outside edges. Any of these plants may be native or non-native. Hopefully, you don't plant invasive natives or invasive non-natives. If you do buy seed of native plants that are in your area, please buy it from locally collected populations. Don't screw with the genetics. Happy gardening! ~becca...See MoreHow to figure out what plants work in new region
Comments (8)You can get a quick soil test kit at Lowe's or Home Depot...although I've personally never trusted the results. I'd much rather send in a sample to people who have the equipment to do the tests much better; people who have current testing supplies and whose equipment is calibrated. Do a search for Texas soil test and it should give you some names of labs that do the testing. I know Texas A&M/Texas Agricultural Extension Service does several types of testing. Perhaps a bit pricey, but then you typically don't do it every year. Hope this helps. Sandy...See Morelzygrdner
16 years ago
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