Hummingbirds flock to this shrub's tubular orange flowers, which bloom during the hottest times of the summer. Flame acanthus can be slow to leaf out in the spring, so it generally is not bothered by late winter freezes. It has a strong vertical structure with dark green leaves. This shrub does well in reflected heat and is cold hardy to -5 degrees F. It provides lots of color on a small water budget, and rain will trigger a rush of blooms.
A lot goes into designing a landscape, hence there’s an entire profession called landscape architecture devoted to designing outdoor spaces. We won’t be able to make you a landscape architect today, but we’re sharing a unique landscape plan designed by landscape architects to get you inspired with ideas for designing your own yard. We’ll be sharing five more landscape plans in future issues of the 505Outside.
This Coolscape Landscape Plan is designed to provide an attractive streetside landscape as well as a comfortable, private area that is usable even in the winter. The privacy is achieved with a low wall (which should match or complement the house) and a grove of small trees, such as New Mexico olives or chaste trees. The placement of the trees effectively adds to the privacy and provides a backdrop along the edge of the brick patio. All the trees create lots of shade, adding to the coolness of the yard.
The courtyard patio was placed to provide some sun even on an east exposure. Beneath the trees, a groundcover of ornamental oregano grows in the sunnier spots and Kinnikinnick, in those most shady. For the best use of rainwater, the brick patio should be slanted to drain away from the house and into the surrounding planting beds. The edge of the patio on the north side of the yard ends in a bed of fine crushed gravel to create a path to the rear yard. Plants that do best on the cold north exposure of homes, such as Karl Forester ornamental grass and Indian hawthorn, are used to cope with the lack of sun, which in turn makes them more drought tolerant. Likewise, Arizona rosewood is used along the south exposure to capture as much warmth and sun as possible. Lastly, an ornamental clump buffalo grass in combination with a smaller specimen of the red yucca called Brake Light is planted along the front easternmost portion of the yard where it will be the most drought tolerant.
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Author: George Radnovich, FASLA Owner of Sites Southwest orchestrates an elegant, simple mixture of ornamental plants and features for north-facing xeriscapes. Have a question about the article? AskAnExpert@abcwua.org
One of the questions the Water Authority xeriscape inspector gets asked most often is how to inexpensively build a trellis for vines. You can make a DIY trellis from materials that are easy to find at your local hardware store. Off-the-shelf trellises can be expensive, and more than likely they are too small. Most homeowners are looking for a trellis to go next to a house or concrete block wall or to divide spaces. Below are two trellis options that will suit those needs.
Freestanding Trellis
Materials
4”x4” post (height according to specific project need)
42”x84” steel wire remesh sheet or welded wire mesh
12 fence staples
Asphalt emulsion waterproofing paint or spray paint
Concrete
Tools
Shovel or post hole digger
Hammer
Paint brush
Measuring tape
Level
Step by Step
Step 1: Dig holes for post.
Step 2: Apply waterproofing paint to the section of the posts that will be buried.
Step 3: Set post in hole. Measure and level post. Once leveled, fill the hole with concrete. If not using concrete, backfill with existing dirt, making sure dirt is compacted every four inches.
Step 4: Attach steel mesh to wood posts by hammering in fence staples.
Making sure post is the correct height and level. Concrete footing for post. Fence Staple
Trellis Attached to Concrete Block Wall
Materials
42”x84” steel wire remesh sheet or welded wire mesh
6 ¼” fender washers, 2” circumference
6 ¼” x 4” Blue Hex Head Tapcon® concrete screws
6 1” silicon or steel spacers
Tools
Drill with 3/16” concrete bit
Hammer drill
Measuring tape
Level
Step by Step
Step 1: Measure, level and mark locations to attach fasteners to the wall using wire mesh as a guide.
Step 2: Drill holes for the screws.
Step 3: Attach steel mesh to the concrete wall using suggested screws, washers and fasteners as shown in the diagram.
This vine native to riparian areas in the Jemez Mountains is great for covering pergolas and trellis for screening. It is fast growing as long as water is available to keep it moist. Afternoon shade reduces its water use. It does best planted on the north and east sides of a fence. Butterflies flock to the beautiful white fragrant blooms that appear in summer. Once blooms have dropped, the seedheads create a showy appearance known as old man’s beard. Don’t trim this vine until it begins to wake up in early spring so wildlife can enjoy its seeds and protection during the winter.
It’s been a rough few months in the 505. We’re having a challenging gardening season, to say the least. Dry. Hot. Intense. The unraveling of our climate has been on full display.
Whether you’re choosing more adaptive plants and creating habitat or beginning your gardening journey, no doubt you’ve lost plants this summer — or worried about it. I’ve been calling it the Summer of Feeling Like a Not So Great Gardener.
Just to put this in perspective, I’ve been gardening for over 30 years and I’ve struggled and learned a lot this summer. Learning to steward land in a way that’s in alignment with our changing climate is not easy. But it’s crucial.
In the midst of these challenges, you might be experiencing more emotions than you’re used to — anxiety, for example? Frustration, perhaps. Confusion about where to start. Sadness at all the loss and devastation. Feeling alone. Lack of confidence. Overwhelm. Anger. Dread.
So, what’s a gardener to do? It’s easy to think our emotions are totally separate from the scorching heat. We’re used to compartmentalizing — experiencing emotions and deep spiritual questions in one part of our life and tackling complex external issues, like choosing climate-ready trees to plant, in another part of our life. No matter how well we’re dealing with these emotions, they’re bound to creep into our external gardening. What if, instead of shutting ourselves down in order to accomplish the daunting task of adapting our urban forest to the changes before us, we actually bring our emotional and spiritual selves into the garden? This is precisely the zone where deep and meaningful climate resilience awaits us — in the cultivation of our Home Gardens with our Inner Gardens. We grow an ability to weather storms, to adapt as things unravel — in both our inner and outer landscapes.
For example, let’s look at overwhelm, which is so common these days and to which we gardeners are not immune. We might be asking, “Am I doing enough? Am I making the right changes and adaptations? Which do I do first — spread mulch or create ways to passively harvest the rain?” We might be worrying about how much water we’re using or that we’re not using enough. There are so many decisions to make, and it’s easy to feel overwhelmed.
Here’s what I recommend for dealing with overwhelm:
Notice: Take a deep breath and recognize, “Ahh, this is overwhelm. That’s all it is. It’s happening in my inner garden, inside my heart.” That’s the first step. Pause. Notice it. Take a breath with it. The inner garden is what is happening in our consciousness — which primarily lives at the level of our heart (not our brain). There’s a lot of fertile ground to work with in there.
Just be: Next, take 15 minutes and just go outside and sit in the garden. Find a place to just be. Don’t plan or make any lists, just sit and breathe. Don’t skip this step, it’s the most important one. Listen to the sounds, feel the soil, notice the smells. What insights come through?
Create: Then, find a special place in the garden and create something to help remind you of what insights came up. It can be very simple, just something that speaks to you — a gathering of stones, an arrangement of leaves, a circle of flower petals. When we take the time to tend what’s growing within our inner garden, we have more inner space to effectively handle what’s happening in our outer garden. This is resilience.
Reconnect: The next time you’re doing a garden task — like weeding — briefly pause and reconnect with your inner garden in your heart. Set a simple intention to help shift the pattern of overwhelm, such as “This garden belongs to all who live here, human and non-human. May my activities today bring benefit to all the beings here.” And then carry on weeding, but with this intention.
An intention like this can shift our state of mind away from overwhelm and into a place of gratitude and caring. From this place, we’ll make better gardening decisions. We might notice that the birds need more water and fill an old Frisbee with water and put a rock in it. We might start giving ourselves the space to be imperfect in our gardening. We might begin to see ourselves more as a caretaker of the space and less as the “owner” — ”our” garden becomes “the” garden.
The inner garden and the home garden have a profound and interdependent relationship. As we tend both of them together, we cultivate a deeper resilience in both gardens. This adaptation and flexibility then ripple from our own hearts out into the world, so in need of our tending and care.
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