Let's Heat Things Up!

You have got to be kidding!  This year has been a wake up call for me in regard to plants that can withstand the intense heat we have had for most of the summer.  Granted, each and every summer is different and not like this one, but we must think in terms of planting what will hold up in our gardens if we have this type of weather.

Pennisetum Hamlin

Believe it or not, but the plants that are surviving this heat are impatiens, followed quickly by coneflowers, zinnias, succulents, sedums, agastache, centranthus, nepetas, verbenas, fibrous begonias, lantana, coleus and of course daylilies.  The phlox has suffered browning leaves and the petunias bought in pre-planted containers have dried up.  The petunias that I planted in my own containers have done much better.  The geraniums have ceased to bloom in this heat, however, the ones that I mossed the top of the containers are reviving and setting buds

Grasses usually love this weather, even the carex on the north side of my home is flourishing.  Hydrangeas are into the wilts and will require extra water as well as the ferns, astilbes and hostas.  The rose bushes look good and do not go into the wilt mode easily.  However, they are continually attacked by insects during this type of weather.

Miscanthus Udine

I will definitely become more aware of plants that will withstand the heat, repel insects and still add color to the garden.  Here are a few:  Grasses, Agastache, Gailladaria, Verbenas, Lantana, Sedums, Nepetas, Coneflowers, Penstemons, Agaves, Daylilies, Dianthus (Firewitch) and many more.  Check out http://www.highcountrygardens.com/ for more ideas.  I am seriously thinking of making the south side of my home into a completely succulent garden.  Xeric plants are not plentiful in my area because intense, prolonged hot weather is not typical.  However, in the past years I have put more and more of these waterwise plants into my garden.

Coleus with Bronze Sweet Potato Vine

Lemon Twist Coleus

I will never again plant a dahlia!  I know this sounds drastic, but I have more bad looking dahlias this year than any other plant I can remember.  Although, maybe it depends on the variety because the large ones that I have in the ground look good (except the insects love them).  We do not seem to have the climate for this plant.  I remember my friend from Scotland whose husband was a dahlia expert, crossing them and growing them each year he was in the United States.  I now appreciate his expertise to make it work.

Coleus Inky Fingers

Even my Dianthus Firewitch has had a problem here this year, but not in Wisconsin.  Mine on the south side of my home is in it's first  year and maybe could not take the heat.

Gaillardia Arizona Sun

Gaillardia Mesa

Lantana

Phlox Eva Cullum

Fibrous Begonia

Agave

Impatiens with Coleus

Border with Impatiens

Petunias in Hayracks on North Side

Verbena Great Expectations (purple) blooms all summer with deadheading.

Sedum Autumn Joy almost prettier than when it turns red

Nicotiana Alba

Coneflower Magnus

A Chance To Show Off As A Xeric Garden

Well, this has been the year for my alley garden to step up and perform in the intense heat we have had the past weeks.  It has been fortunate that rain has also been in the picture along with the heat and I haven't had to drag the hose out to the back to water.  However, last year I think I only watered a few times all summer in the alley garden.

The Alley Garden

It has really grown this year and, of course, I am always concerned about the garbage trucks wheeling over the  plantings.  So far, this has not been a problem, and my neighbor in back of me has planted grasses in her alley space.  This could be catching and if it is, this alley could be a great place to take a stroll or a garden walk.

Centranthus Alba

Panicum Northwind

The Panicum Northwind looks great, along with the sedums and nepeta Walker's Low.  I am not sure yet about the Gaillardia Mesa, but it is the first year.  This is not an eye-popping color garden, but is very wispy and muted as far as colors.  That's okay with me as it looks sort of meadow like and is certainly carefree.

Gaillardia Mesa

The Agastaches have a licorice smell when you brush by them or bend down to take a sniff.  All of these plantings are waterwise, meaning they require less watering than most other perennials.  I do not use mulch around these plants but have them surrounded by river rock so that the soil does not wash down the alley in a rainstorm. 

Agastache Blue Fortune

Agastache Rosita

I will revist the Alley Garden when the sedums begin to bloom.

http://www.highcountrygardens.com/

The Alley Connection

I began living on an alley as a child growing up in Chicago.  I probably walked the alley as much as I used the sidewalk outside my front door - it was a shortcut to the next block, it contained treasures you would never see out in front like soda bottles that I could  trade in for cash.  When you have an alley, the garage and driveway is usually in the back leaving the front to be total garden.

When I became an adult, I graduated to a home with a side driveway and no alley.  This was okay, I didn't miss the alley, but soon we moved into the old old house and guess what, I was back on the alley.  My young children loved the alley, it ended with my neighbor's house who didn't have a garage in the back.  So, they played out there endlessly, digging for artifacts under the 100 year old oak tree that was there before the house.  I disliked this alley a lot, not paved, could not navigate during the icy winters, good thing I had a driveway in the front.

My last house did not have a alley, but a long treacherous driveway when it snowed.  I think I would prefer the alley!  The house I am in now has an alley, finally paved and a community in itself.  We not only know the neighbors on each side of our block out in front, but we have that social connection with the neighbors on the block behind us.  We call the comings and goings up and down the alley our "alley people."  The children come to see our dog through the fence, I say hi to my older neighbor walking her dog down the alley, and I finally planted a xeric garden in the alley which this year has really popped.

This is not a city alley but a suburban alley in a very old suburb that used to be a go to destination for Chicagoans to spend their summers.  I always think of one of my favorite movies "Rear Window" when I look up and down my alley and wonder what's going on in that garden?

A Most Unusual Garden

I have talked about my xeric garden which runs along the south side of my house right next to the foundation, but I have not told you about my xeric garden along the back of the fence facing our alley.  My hose barely reaches back there, so I was required to plant only those perennials which needed very little water.

The first thing we did was to have this strip dug out (it was all gravel, clay and asphalt) and filled with good soil which was then topped with a heavy river rock that would not wash into the alley in heavy rains. 

,Along the back I put in Panicum 'Northwind' a tall upright blue-green grass that turns tan in the fall and stays standing until the most heavy snows.  I also used some Sedum 'Autumn Fire' which stays more upright in the winter than Autumn Joy.  Interspersed throughout this thirty foot plus strip is Nepeta 'Walker's Low', Agastache 'Rosita', Agastache ' Blue Fortune', Centhantrus Ruber Alba 'White', and Sedum 'Vera Jameson'. These perennials are all xeric (requiring very little water) http://www.highcountrygardens.com/

It was a challenge planting these among river rock, but mulch would not work in this area because of the water flow, it would wash down the alley.  A few other neighbors have begun to beautify the back of their homes in the same way.  We now get some walkers down our paved alley to look at the garden.  I live in the suburbs but the lot is very citified.

Does Your Home Reside In More Than One Zone?

You can't imagine how excited I was when shoveling my pathway that leads from the back of my house all the way to the front.  There is a raised bed (about twenty-feet long) and on the other side a narrow strip about two feet wide by twenty feet long.  As I pushed the snow along and hoisted it a little at a time to deposit in the raised bed, my eye caught something green coming up in the opposite narrow strip.

I could not believe my eyes, the daffodils were up about four inches and muscari about two inches.  They were green and looked unexpected with the mounds of snow all around.  I threw a little snow on top of them because it almost looked like they had been born too soon!

Let me tell you about this strip, it has been an experiment for six years, and like a detective each year I try to solve the mystery.  It is certainly a zone 6 or above (it is flush with the house), and I think I could grow tropicals here - ha! ha!  My May Night Salvia does great in this area, but it blooms one month before the May Night in the front of my house.  The daylilies displayed burnt foliage, but the clematis and campanula were fine, Veronica not doing well either - burned leaves.  I even have a drip system under this area and also spend each day watering by hose.  Year after year I would plant some of the heat tolerant annuals like zinnias and marigolds, but I really wanted perennials in this area. 

Last fall I pulled out my daylilies, left the Veronica and began to leaf through the High Country Gardens Catalog.  I ordered and planted "Blue Lips" Penstemon, Dianthus "Firewitch" and "Arizona Sun" Gaillardia.  They took to that area like they were home at last, growing by leaps and bounds before the fall frost set in.  I don't know what the result is yet but I have positive vibes.  Could this be a Xeric area in zone 5?  Xeric plants thrive in hot, dry areas requiring only minimal amounts of water.  A great book to read is Lauren Springer's The Undaunted Garden.  It is a little heavy on text but contains lots of important information on water wise plantings.

We probably all know the answer to this, and I know I have learned that as much as I tried, the plants I chose would not fit the area.  http://www.highcountrygardens.com/  Check out their catalog, the plants listed are adaptable to many areas in your garden.