fast-growing drought-tolerant groundcover?
chiaki0730
16 years ago
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pianojuggler
16 years agochiaki0730
16 years agoRelated Discussions
Drought tolerant groundcover suggestions
Comments (3)Dig out a spot in the center, place a fire ring with some nice large rocks encircling it. Place a few benches (or make rugged, natural wood looking ones) and fill remaining "dead area" with a nice pea gravel and/or small river rock and Voila... a personal outdoor fireplace, or campfire pit, or w/e you wanna call it. Put a friendly sign there to accompany it if you want to, LOL! Heck, even plant a couple showy specimen plants arranged behind the benches (like yuccas?). I know it's not "plants" to fill the space, but when thinking of your situation... that's what I'd do, hehe. A little overhead to begin with, but no upkeep for years to come. Good luck!...See Moredrought tolerant groundcover
Comments (3)The following site has a decent picture of allegheny spurge. I didn't realize that it could take full sun though. The info I have on it says light to dense shade. Perhaps the further north you are the more sun it can take? http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/groundcovers/directory/images/images/slide26.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/groundcovers/directory/alleghenyspurge.html&h=291&w=350&sz=37&tbnid=7OID4g5D8UgJ:&tbnh=96&tbnw=116&hl=en&start=6&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dpachysandra%2Bprocumbens%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26sa%3DG...See Moredrought tolerant groundcover
Comments (6)To keep dogs off, you want something fairly substantial. Salal doesn't discourage my dogs, I can tell you that. They love to go crashing through it. Creeping mahonia does to some extent, and that's a local native also. Junipers and cotoneasters are good suggestions, just not the really prostrate ones. Something about knee-high is more likely to keep dogs off. Maybe creeping rosemary, or shrubby potentillas. You could also plant a low-growing hedge as a barrier, and then plant whatever you want for the ground cover....See MoreA Fast-establishing Drought-tolerant lawn-type?
Comments (6)What kind of soil do you have? Some of the choices do better in clay and others do better in sand. You could go with a warm season lawn (blue grama and/or buffalo grass), but those do better in hotter climates and would be green for a short time at your elevation. They probably use the least amount of water, but you'd have a short green season and you could lose some to winter kill (might be what happened to your blue grama). Many of the natives are slow to establish, but maybe you could get faster establishment if you seeded more heavily. You'd want to be careful not to seed too heavily or you might cause problems by overcrowding. Do you get winter snow? I've had the best luck at getting seeds to germinate by seeding just before the first good snow. The seeds then germinated when the soil warmed up in the spring, using the melted snow and any rains for moisture. Of the low-moisture grasses I've used, the two that germinate the fastest are crested wheatgrass and sheep fescue. Most crested wheatgrass varieties are bunch grasses, but some newer versions will spread via rhizomes. I think Ephraim and Roadcrest are varieties that spread (although they spread much more slowly than something like KBG). Sheep fescue is a bunch grass, but if you mow it periodically, it will spread a little bit via tillering (sending up new shoots next to the existing shoots). It has very fine blades and can be anywhere from blue to dark green (Covar is the variety I've planted and it's green and probably the best choice for a lawn). One caveat about sheep fescue is that although it requires very little water (less than 10 inches a year) it doesn't tolerate heat well. It won't die, but it will go dormant in the hottest part of the summer (maybe not at your elevation). Streambank and western wheatgrass are the other grasses in my lawn. Western wheatgrass is more of a blue and streambank wheatgrass is a light green. Streambank wheatgrass establishes much more easily than western wheatgrass (although not as readily as crested wheatgrass and sheep fescue). Western wheatgrass will stay green longer without water, but streambank wheatgrass can deal with prolonged dormancy better. If you've got sandy soil, thickspike wheatgrass would be a better choice for you than streambank wheatgrass. Thickspike, streambank and western wheatgrass are all shizomatous spreading grasses. None of these should be fertilized with very much nitrogen fertilizer. I haven't fertilized in 2 or 3 years now. If you do fertilize, don't use more than about 1/2 to 1 lb of actual N per 1000 sq ft per year (and if you use 1 lb, split it into multiple applications). If you're used to KBG, you may think I'm kidding, since it takes about 3-4 lbs of N per year to be happy. But too much N will cause these grasses to suffer and maybe even die. Maybe a mixture of grasses would do well--some crested wheatgrass and/or sheep fescue for quick establishment and some streambank/thickspike and/or western wheatgrass for better fill-in. That more or less describes my lawn. I've also added some Palestine strawberry clover (part of why I never fertilize, since it adds some N). Dutch White Clover is more drought tolerant than Strawberry clover, but it prefers acidic conditions (definitely not what I have) so I got the most drought tolerant of the Strawberry clovers. Let me know if you want some contact information for suppliers of these seeds and I'll dig up some links....See Moregardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
16 years agogardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
16 years agopianojuggler
16 years agochiaki0730
16 years ago
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