compact shrubs, low maintenance gardening

November Gardening tips

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We all want to in the garden. Who wants a high maintenance landscape that takes up all our resources? If you grow edibles you already know they take a bit of care so it’s even more important to have the rest of the yard more sustainable.

As much as we would like, there’s no such thing as a no maintenance garden. Perennials and grasses, for instance, need a haircut in the spring  before they reward us with beautiful flowers and foliage that shimmers in the breeze. Your garden can be truly low maintenance, however, if you follow a few guidelines.

Shrubs, planted in exactly the right place needs little pruning or maintenance. There they can be allowed to happily grow to their full potential and beauty.  A garden needs foliage color, texture and form for interest year round.  An evergreen shrub that meets all of these requirements and then some is Coprosma. Valued for ease of maintenance in difficult situations and able to get by on little water when necessary, the foliage is a show stopper.

During the growing season the variegated foliage of Evening Glow is pink and gold and in the winter it turns orange-red.  The variety, Rainbow Surprise, is pink and cream for most of the year but the leaves are washed with red In the fall and winter. These tidy shrubs stay low and compact and look beautiful as foundation plants, in borders, short hedges and containers. Not bothered by pest or diseases you can plant it and forget it.

If you already have a tree, shrub or perennial that is suffering from insufficient space or the wrong light conditions, now’s the time to move it. Water the plant first and allow the moisture to be taken up into the plant. Then prepare the new hole. Be sure to fill the hole with water if it’s dry. Dig up as much of the root ball as is practical to move, keeping it intact. Lift or lever the plant onto a tarp and pull or carry it to its new location. Replant at the same depth and keep watered but not soggy. Next year you won’t be troubled by extra pruning or diseases as you’ll have the right plant in the right spot.

An easy task to do while you’re out enjoying the garden is to comb out the off-color blades of evergreen grasses such as blue oat or blue fescue. Striking in the winter garden, these grasses will look fresh if you don some of those rubber coated gloves and run your fingers through the grass. The brown blades will come right out while leaving the healthy steel blue leaves intact. Try it. It’s worth a few minutes of your time.

fall foliage, flowering shrubs

Fall Blooming Plants

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Just because the sun goes down early now, don’t put your garden to sleep yet. Make sure you have as well as fiery foliage to perk up the view outside your windows.

Some of my favorite shrubs for the fall garden have orange flowers. If you have a spot at the back of the garden for a showy 4-6 ft shrub that requires little or no water, add a Lion’s Tail and enjoy whorls of tubular, 2" deep orange flowers that bloom from summer right through fall.

For a shorter orange-flowering shrub, consider a dwarf pomegranate. This ornamental reached 3 ft high and 6 ft wide. Blooming when only a foot tall or less, their showy orange-red single flowers are followed by small, dry red fruit that is also decorative. You can use this little shrub in borders, edging or even containers. When established in the ground they require only moderate watering.

The vibrant orange flowers of these shrubs absolutely glow when planted near purple flowers. Blooming now are Purple Pastel salvia greggii. Also called Autumn Sage, this evergreen shrub typically grows 3-4 ft high and as wide. Remember to shorten and shape plants before new growth begins in spring o keep tidy. Hummingbirds love salvias as do bees so planting them near the vegetable garden can help increase your harvest.

A groundcover for sun or partial shade that is striking in early to late autumn is dwarf plumbago. At this time of year the intense, dark blue flower clusters contrast with its red fall foliage. This 6-12" high groundcover tolerates inconsistent watering and is good for growing under oak trees.

Another drought tolerant groundcover blooming now is Huntington Carpet rosemary. Unlike some of the older varieties of creeping rosemary, this one spreads quickly yet maintains a dense center. Growing to 18" high it’s covered with pale blue flowers through the winter and into next spring. Good drainage is essential for rosemary. Lighten dense soil with plenty of organic matter. Heavy feeding and too much water result in leggy growth.  Rosemary responds to frequent pinching.  Prune older plants frequently but lightly. Don’t cut into bare wood.

This last fall blooming show stopping combination is not orange but red, purple and white. You may have Mexican bush sage, Hot Lips salvia greggii and Santa Barbara daisy in your garden already. They are popular, easy-to-grow, low water use plants. Combine them and step back.  You’ll love the way the white of the daisy brings out the intense red and purple hues of the other two.  This vignette really pops.

If you garden cries out for more fall flowers consider adding some of these plants to your garden.

garden design, soggy soil

How to Handle Excess Water in the Landscape

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We had enough rain to bring those soggy areas of the garden you’ve been vowing for years to do something about to the top of the to-do list. Whether they’re caused by excess rain on your property, from the neighbor or from poor soil drainage, they can be a challenge or an opportunity when designing the garden.

One way to handle runoff is to intercept the water and drain it way with an open ditch, French drain or underground pispe. Better still- develop an on-site collection system. Dry river beds can be designed to aid in rain water harvesting. Above ground water tanks and submerged collection tanks are becoming common to save excess water flowing off the impervious surfaces of your roof, patio, walkways and driveway. Another method of retaining water on your own property is to channel it into a dry-well, a hole filled with drain rock. From here, the water can disperse slowly into the surrounding soil.

Soggy spots can also . Sometimes the same property can have a complex pattern of soils that vary sharply from one area to another. Or soil can become compacted from heavy equipment and need to be broken up with a backhoe, excavator or by hand with a pick.

In some cases, natural topsoil may have been scraped away as is sometimes the case after septic work leaving the hardpan underneath exposed. This can be broken up and lots of compost dug in to keep it loose. New topsoil may need to be added to increase fertility and drainage.

If you still have a naturally wet area, you may choose to live with it and select plants that thrive in damp conditions. A rain garden, one type of on-site collection system, is a depression made in the soil and planted with wet tolerant plants. It can be as small as 100 square feet. To create one, dig a shallow bowl or build a berm to hold the water. Run-off water diverted to a rain garden is slowed so is can seep into the soil. They also filter out pollutants than run off from buildings and driveways.

Choose plants that will thrive in in wet winter and dry summer conditions. Native plants that will do well include trees like alder, sycamore and Calif. fan palm. 

Native shrubs that tolerate these conditions are spicebush, pacific wax myrtle, western mock orange and sambucus.  While native perennials to try are western columbine, wild ginger, carex pansa, deergrass, red fescue and wild grape.

Ornamentals that don’t mind having their feet wet include bee balm, New England aster, ligularia, lobelia cardinalis, hosta, calla lily, lysimachia and Japanese iris. Grasses and grass-like plants that work in this situation are acorus, chondropetalum, fiber optic grass, cyperus and equisetum.

Think of all that rain and moisture as an opportunity in your garden.

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