Last Sunday, I opted to watch a crap movie instead of tackling my Fall list of Things To Do around the house; so this Sunday, I'm trying to make up for lost time. After replacing the fill tank in the toilet and the chipped faucet handle in the shower, I went over to Armstrong's Garden center in Pasadena to pick up some plants for the front yard...
Fall Project: Front Porch Flowerbed
As you can see from the first photo, the only thing that survived this summer's late heat wave were some vincas--the petunias got fried, and even my gardenia shriveled to a sad, sad thing. Luckily, the gardenia got rescued in time before it totally died (it spent the good part of August inside the back house and even managed to bloom). I admit that I'm a bit of an impulsive shopper when it comes to gardening--basically anything that looks colorful and reasonably priced, I'll buy it. Unfortunately, this often comes back to bite me as most of my flower selections in the past have only lasted one season instead of year-round. This, coupled with my terrible lack of vigilance, has certainly led to a few weeks (or months) of having a bare flowerbed or three. So this fall, I decided to take a more vested interest in what goes in the ground. Thanks to the helpful people at Armstrongs, I opted to go for green and purple plants instead of my usual selection of flowers.
Since my porch is in sun/part shade, I went with hardier plants: The bright yellow-green plants are Marguerite sweet potato vines that are trailers, and I hope when they really start growing, they'll spill over the top of the brick border. As for the purple plants, I really wanted the purple leaf oxalis, but it required full shade. So I went with the purple variety of the sweet potato vine, and then took a few clippings of the white vincas to give it a similar look.
To combat the loose, sprawling quality of the sweet potato vines, I wanted something a bit more angular to keep things interesting. The daniella plants were my last picks--the striped leaves of green and white with a touch of pink seem to go with the other plants, but I love the shape of these plants. Most importantly, all of these plants are pretty hardy and drought-tolerant, so even if I do slip back into my bad habit of forgetting to water, my flowerbed won't die out too quickly!
Are you planting a garden or flowerbed this fall? Share it with us in the comments!
Comments (10)
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Very nice! Wahoo-WA!
view JLEbean's profile
The chartreuse hue of that sweet potato vine always makes me smile. With your purple one (purple? want!) the contrast will be heavenly. Great choices! If you also add some compost, your bedding plants will love the nutrients and grow more drought-tolerant.
At home, I just potted a bright purple Belgian mum above a trailing-habit chartreuse-leaved Sedum, and I'm loving the combination of colors.
view Splomo's profile
Why don't you just buy succulents? Some of them come in very cool colors and really interesting shapes. They are much more forgiving when you forget to water them and last for many years.
view lbc's profile
The colors are lovely, but this is not going to look good in a year. I live in your area, and these selections are not particularly well suited to us. Also, I hate to break it to you, but these are not drought tolerant.
The plants are too crowded. With our long growing season, they will quickly become overgrown and will look a mess. Also, when planting a border, think MASSING. Grouping 3 or more like plants together creates a much more pleasing look than intermittent or every-other placement.
Finally, forget Armstrong's and head over to the Theodore Payne Foundation for some native plants! They are holding their Fall Festival sale next weekend, as October is the best time of year to plant natives and most drought tolerant plants in SoCal. They also hold classes and have large grounds where you can walk and view mature plants.
http://www.theodorepayne.org/
FYI: If you get full sun, succulents are not the best option (though I do love them). They need filtered shade in our hot inland area. They will literally "sunburn" in intense sun in our area.
view arroyo's profile
Shouldn't the planting bed be much higher so that more of the plants are exposed and visible from behind that brick wall?
view bepsf's profile
Agree with another comment here. Those plants are way too close together and will not have too much room. It's so tempting to plant them so crowded when they are wee ones but just wait until they grow. Maybe next year you can do lavender instead. Looks nice, suited for Mediterranean climates, and will last you for years if you take care of it. But maybe you just wanted something small for that area?
view graciela's profile
It is true that succulents need to be in a more shaded area. I lost a beautiful group of them to the sun when I first started using them, but I salvaged the rest and put them in the shady area in my front yard and they are thriving well (I never water myself, I let the natural rain do the work and as MIA had a rainy summer they will do well this winter).
Unfortunately, these plants will have to be replaced in a few months :(
view cliokitty's profile
We just moved to a new rental house. The house is wonderful, the neighbors are awesome and the area is walkable--in a nutshell, we love it. The one major complaint we have is that the landlord sprayed herbicide over the entire front and back yards, covered them in landscaping fabric and dumped mulch over everything.
Ideally, I'd like to have native plants and succulents out front and an herb garden in back, but I'm a bit stuck. I am resigned to having my herbs in pots, but the front yard is a major problem. At the very least I'd love to remove the mulch because it just gets everywhere and we're constantly having to sweep it off the sidewalks. Unfortunately, one of our neighbors is highly sensitive to the herbicide in our yard (and reminds us on occasion) so removing the fabric covering the poison doesn't seem to be an option and I don't want to leave it uncovered--it's just so ugly!
Has anyone else had to deal with this kind of problem? How long before the poisons wear off and you can start growing things again?
view harlie's profile
In California, a field must be pesticide- and herbicide-free for three years until it can grow certified-organic food. If you aren't growing edibles, I bet you could plant in it after 12-18 months or so. For the herbs, I think you have to build raised beds or grow them in large pots or halved wine barrels. Good luck, and bummer about your chemical-loving landlord.
view HCVMama's profile
sorry to say, those plants are not drought tolerant. there are many beautiful perennials and succulents that would do great in your conditions and really lower the maintenance factor (and the cost of replanting over and over again).
bewaterwise.com is a great resource. also check the spacing for plants in a western garden book.
view everythinggardens's profile