DryStoneGarden

For a while now I’ve been meaning to post about converting lawns to low-water plants. We do it 2 or 3 times a year and Anita has taught a few classes on the process. We do it by sheet-mulching: smothering the lawn with a layer of newspaper and then covering that with compost and then mulch. It’s really easy and it works well, one of the few things in life where the easiest way to do something is also the most effective.

Yesterday after the rain eased I did an irrigation checkup at a lawn we converted to plants two years ago. It was looking pretty good. There’s some bermuda grass in one area and some other weeds in a few places, but the lawn is long gone. Here are some photos of that project:

We covered the lawn with newspaper (cardboard also works) and a layer of compost or planting mix. We cut away the sod at the edges next to the sidewalk and put those pieces of sod in a couple of piles covered with compost. Lawns tend to be flat and geometric, so we like to form a low mound or two for visual interest. The mound does not have be high, even 4 or 6 inches is enough, and it really helps banish the ghost of the flat lawn underneath.

We put out the plants and planted them through the soil and newspaper.

Another way to do it is to put a layer of compost on the lawn, plant, put out the layer of newspaper, and then cover it with mulch. The newspaper is more likely to show if it’s on top of the compost, but you don’t have to deal with the newspaper while you are planting. We usually do the newspaper about 12 sheets thick and we try to make sure it overlaps by several inches. We soak the newspaper in a bucket of water before we lay it down so that it sticks together, like paper-mache for your yard. Compost or mulch needs to go on top of it as soon as possible to hold it down and keep it from blowing away.

These two photos are from soon after planting.

EBMUD has a rebate program that gives $.50 for every square foot of lawn taken out and replaced with low-water plants and drip irrigation. It makes perfect sense to me. People don’t normally think of plants as infrastructure, but lawn conversions make a lot more sense than building reservoirs. All of our projects this spring have involved the rebate program to some extent.

The next photo is from last year, when the planting was a year old.

Between the compost, the decaying lawn, and the remnant fertilizers from the lawn, the plants usually grow really fast. The Luma apiculata (Chilean Myrtle) planted as a 1 gallon is already more than 8 feet tall. I took this last photo today. The Luma is just starting to bud.

HealingMagicHands has a photos of converting lawn to plants using cardboard. Her post is listed with other posts about groundcovers, lawns, and mulches at the Gardening Gone Wild Design Workshop for May.

Here’s another view of the woodland strawberry planting I showed on bloom day. The strawberries have been rather mealy this year. Two years ago they were good, last year they were okay, but this year they aren’t much good at all. I’m guessing that might be because of all these April and May rains. Also, the leaves are looking somewhat chlorotic up close, so they might need to be thinned out to refresh them. We originally put these in as a cheap, low-water groundcover, but after a big harvest of berries the second year we started to think of them as an edible deserving of more attention and respect. If anyone has a suggestion for getting fruit production back up, please let me know.

This planting started with three 2″ stubbies and had full coverage within two years. Normally, I’d be afraid of a groundcover that can spread this fast, but it’s pretty easy to control because it does all its running above ground. California Native Plants for the Garden uses a photo of it to illustrate the potential ‘weediness’ of some natives, but personally I like the look of the strawberry with the irises and alliums rising out of it. Any drought-tolerant, evergreen, native groundcover that produces berries is okay with me.

Allium, Fragaria, and Iris

Sidalcea bloom, Sisyrinchium and Fragaria foliage, in February

The sidalceas disappeared into the strawberry patch a couple of years ago, with only their flowers showing unless you hunt for the leaves. I like its ‘What plant are those flowers coming from?’ effect.

Blue Eyed Grass, Sisyrinchium bellum, last month

Mostly Fragaria vesca

We put in a single Beach Strawberry, too, which is now the dominant plant in its own corner of the planting. It has sent out runners through the rest of the planting that send leaves up for a bit of textual contrast. Before growing the two strawberries, I used to get them confused, but side by side it’s not hard to tell the difference. The beach strawberry has a harder, darker, thicker, glossier leaf. Flowers are bigger and often set deeper within the foliage. I’ve never seen a berry on it. Woodland strawberry unsurprisingly prefers part shade, while beach strawberry is happiest, again unsurprisingly, in coastal full sun, but both plants have worked in pretty much every situation we’ve tried them.

Fragaria chiloensis and Fragaria vesca

Fragaria chiloensis, on the left, Fragaria vesca, on the right

We have a fair bit going on for bloom day. The woodland strawberry bed has campanula and Allium unifolium and the last of the bearded irises.

Coastal Cal Poppy with Geranium petal

Aquilegia Black Barlow

There is something about A. ‘Black Barlow’ that’s so black, it’s like how much blacker could it be, and the answer is none. None more black.

Aquilegia chrysantha

Aquilegia chrysantha is my favorite columbine. I even like it better than the native one.

Nicotiana Limelight

3 month old Hellerbore blooms

These flowers were new and purple for February bloom day, invited back into the bloom day mix because they still look pretty good three months later. Gotta like a flower that can age so gracefully.

Beach Primrose, Camissonia cheiranthifolia

I also like how the Beach Primrose flowers age.

Hebe Pattys Purple

We have a spot by the front steps where we rotate in whatever we have blooming in a container, like a display at the nursery. This month is Allium unifolium, in March we had Daffodils, in April Freesias. Next month should be the Lilies which are now budding. I’m not sure what we’ll have after that, but it’s starting to become a thing, to have something blooming in that spot every month if possible.

Allium unifolium blooming

Click over to MayDreamsGardens for the growing collection of links to all of the other bloggers posting for bloom day. My thanks to Carol for hosting.

I’ve been keeping a list of everything in bloom each month for bloom day. I should have the list up soon.

– Update — And now it’s up, below the fold.

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Species Tulip, Tulipa saxatlis

During my first visit to the Bancroft Garden at the end of March, there was a naturalized patch of a species tulip, Tulipa saxatilis, the same one that we have in our garden and which I showed for March bloom day. Pretty nice. I’ve seen them described as looking washed out in the sun, but I like the peachy off-white. I tried it in my mom’s garden, and she gave it the thumbs up, too, so at least one tulip lover accepts it as a reasonable substitute for the hybrids. I’ll be pretty happy if they come back and make a big patch like this in her garden.

Tulipa saxatilis

Quercus garryana or lobata

This is one of the best oak trees I’ve seen, in a Lafayette yard where we did some work a couple of years ago. I was back to check on the pondless waterfall this past week (still no leaks or pump problems, knock on wood), and I was glad to see the oak is just as amazing as I remember. At the time I thought it was a Garry Oak, but apparently the various arborists and oak experts who have looked at it have given several different ID’s, saying it could be a Garry Oak, a Valley Oak, or a hybrid between the two. They also differ on their estimates of its age. Everyone agrees, though, that it’s big and old and beautiful.

Meadowfoam with Blueberry and Iris

Happy tax day to everyone. I took these photos while working on our taxes, but I don’t see any signs of anti-tax fervor. I did first type out ‘Blom Day’ for the title, in true tea party style, but overall the gardens seems quite free of financial angst. Except for spittle bugs on some of the plants, the garden seems quite happy.

The wisteria shower is the highlight of the garden, with probably the meadowfoam (Limnanthes douglasii) the next best. We have four patches of it in our garden, with the sunnier patches in full bloom now and the shadier patches just starting up. I really like it. It does great in any spot where we’ve improved the soil with some compost. Though it has a reputation for liking water, it has never needed any extra, probably a sign that our garden is naturally somewhat damp.

Meadowfoam and Geranium Bill Wallis

The Geranium “Bill Wallis” didn’t work its way into the mass of meadowfoam quite as well as I’d hoped, but some of the flowers are together. This is the third year for this patch in the vegi garden. The meadowfoam seems to finish at just the right time for planting a tomato or zucchini, and then it comes back on its own as the summer crop is ending.

Meadowfoam, Mustard, Miners Lettuce, Garlic

Triteleia ixioides Starlight

The Triteleias have started. It seems clever that they open the flowers down at ground level, before raising them up to where you can see them.

Sacred Flower of the Incas, Cantua buxifolia

The Sacred Flower of the Incas is blooming.

Sacred Flower with Wisteria

A couple of branches made it up into the wisteria. I’m not sure if I would call the Sacred Flower a vine, but I wouldn’t really call it a shrub either.

Bearded Iris

We brought home some bearded iris divisions three years ago and stuck them in the garden without knowing what color they’d be. When we don’t like the color we move them to my mom’s house. We’ll see about his one.

Freesia

We’ve had a few mystery freesias for a couple of years, too. The orange turns out to match the poppies and calendulas in our inner yard, so these can stay.

Purple Needle Grass, Nassella pulchra

And the bunchgrasses are blooming. I sometimes forget to think of them as flowering plants.

Festuca californica

Thanks to Carol at MayDreamsGardens for hosting Bloom Day. Click over to her blog for links to a ton of other bloggers showing what is blooming in their gardens. The full list of what is blooming in my garden and a few more photos are below. (more…)