|
Hot Gardens Newsletter - September
2003
Cool
It. You may be
eager to start Fall planting, but it is still too hot. Wait
a week or two until the temperature drops for best results.
New plants really struggle when it is over 100 degrees F.
It is not too early, however, to add 2 or 3 inches of organic
mulch to your planting beds. Work
it in gently, being careful not to disturb the roots of plants already
installed. If the mulch has
a high shredded bark content, you may wish to add fertilizer to offset
the nitrogen that the bark will use as it decomposes.
The
Fruit
Bowl
Garden. We have added a page about the
best
fruit and nut trees for our hot desert climate. Peaches,
apricots, pomegranates, plums, as well as almonds, pecans and pistachios
love our hot weather and can produce abundantly with the right care.
Nectarines, in fact, will probably produce more fruit than your
entire neighborhood can eat. As
for apples – buy them in the store.
They do not do particularly well in the desert.
Another benefit of these fruit and nut trees is the shade they
add to a garden. And a row
of pomegranate bushes make a lovely “edible hedge”
with its brilliant yellow blossoms followed by dark red fruit
that looks almost like a Christmas ornament.
Pomegranates can also take the sun all day and thrive in alkaline
soil with very little watering.
The
Strip. If you
have a set-back between your home and your property line that is less
than 10 feet wide, consider stripping out any lawn you have in the
space. You could replace it
with red flagstone stepping stones surrounded by Korean Grass (Zoysia
tenuifolia ‘Emerald’). This
short grass loves the sun, never needs mowing and will stand up to some
foot traffic. From a
distance it looks like soft moss, but is, in fact, slightly prickly.
Another solution
for that narrow strip, if you do not plan to walk in the area at all, is
large, dark, rounded river rocks with a couple of very hardy desert
plants such as the red or yellow Mexican
Bird of Paradise (Poinciana
gilliessii or P. pulcherrima) or a Texas Ranger (Leucophyllum
frutescens). We recently
saw one garden where the river rocks have been coated and they shine as
if just removed from a stream. Very
pretty! A word about the
Texas Ranger --please don’t prune it into a “lollypop”.
It is naturally a beautiful, loose shrub with those gorgeous
purple and lavender flowers in late summer when the humidity gets high.
Hiring a
Pro. If you are
planning to have a professional completely redo your garden because of
the drought, make sure that person starts off by asking you questions
about what you want your garden to look like and what you use your
garden for. If the first
words out of his/her mouth is: “I can do your back yard for $10,000”
– go on to someone else. Your
garden should be beautiful and useful to you, your family and friends
– not just covered with super hot rock mulch and filled up
higgledy-piggledy with whatever is on sale at the nursery.
(And when we say “super hot rock”, be aware that rock mulch
can reach temperatures of over 150 degrees F. when in full sun.)
Go to our Newsletter for
September 2004 or September
2005
|
|
