Q. My quest is to scale back watering, however I like a garden and we have now a medium-sized canine. I see that miniclover has a very good root system, takes about half as a lot water as grass, and resists canine urine. My query is: Does miniclover resist some modest canine exercise akin to chasing a ball? Additionally, some individuals are placing in a really powerful floor cowl that doesn't want mowing. Is there one that you'd suggest? – Glenn Hodding, Lengthy Seaside
A. White clover, together with the miniclover selection, makes an exquisite garden substitute and stands up nicely, or recovers nicely, from average canine site visitors. That is additionally the perfect time of 12 months, now that temperatures are cooling, to plant clover. There isn't a must take away your present garden or any surviving patches of your former garden; you may merely overseed the garden that’s there.
Like clover, kikuyugrass can also be immune to canine urine and much more immune to drought. The place aesthetics are involved, miniclover is extra engaging as a result of its deep inexperienced foliage that’s solely half the scale of normal clover. But kikuyugrass is nearly indestructible. Sure, it'll look finest if watered two and even thrice every week, however it'll develop satisfactorily with a single weekly soaking. And even when you couldn't water it in any respect for a interval of weeks, it will bounce again as soon as it was irrigated once more.Often you see kikuyugrass out there as sod, however you might have to develop it from seed. Seeding must be finished whereas the climate remains to be heat since it's a tropical grass and experiences some dormancy in winter, relying on how chilly it will get.
Alas, what makes kikuyugrass so sturdy can also be its greatest criticism, specifically, its powerful ropey runners which might be well-known for invading adjoining planter beds, so you'll have to be vigilant about retaining it as an alternative. By the way, in case you have a good friend with kikuyugrass or see it rising in an deserted subject or vacant lot, it's possible you'll want to lower items for propagation functions. Fill some containers with atypical soil and plant kikuyugrass runners in them or, alternatively, dig them proper into the bottom the place you need your garden to develop. It's price mentioning that kikuyugrass is quickly changing into a golf course fairway turf of selection as a result of its drought tolerance.
Talking of the powerful floor cowl you search, in case your yard enjoys partial solar, Asian jasmine (Trachelospermum asiaticum) is extremely appropriate. It’s water-thrifty sufficient and immune to canine trampling, rising round a foot tall. This isn't a real jasmine however, like star jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides), its cousin, it handles a certain quantity of shade fairly nicely and performs finest with a half-day’s price of direct solar. Asian jasmine’s leaves are half the scale of star jasmine’s and, though Asian jasmine does have small aromatic flowers, they're often not a lot in proof.
Asian jasmine kinds a really tight mat in order that no water can escape from the soil through which it grows. That is equally true of Vinca minor, which is much more shade tolerant – or maybe I ought to say shade needy – than Asian jasmine and fewer than a foot tall. The good-looking diamond-shaped foliage of those two floor covers is comparable in measurement and look and each would provide an answer to the issue of what to plant in partial solar to shady exposures, whereas requiring minimal irrigation, not more than a few times every week, when absolutely established. Neither is concerned by canine urine and Vinca minor may even settle for some foot site visitors.
To make your planter beds dog-friendly, choose scruffy species the place your canine can really feel at house with out inflicting injury. On this regard, the primary class of vegetation that involves thoughts is decorative grasses. Canine will fortunately forage in them and, within the taller sorts, discover shade. You don't have to sacrifice coloration when deciding on grasses, as many blues, reds and golds, and variegated sorts, along with the greens, can be found. Yow will discover dozens of species and cultivars of decorative grasses at smgrowers.com
Different vegetation that aren't broken by canines and are non-toxic to them embrace: roses, rosemary, thyme, coreopsis, hibiscus, rose of Sharon (Hibiscus syriacus), mahonia, liriope, ice plant, coral bells (Heuchera spp.), and pink scorching poker (Kniphofia spp.)
California native of the week: California white sage (Salvia apiana). This plant is a bee magnet, as its species identify apiana (apis means bee in Latin) makes clear. If I had to make use of one phrase to explain this plant, it will be “astonishing.” Every whorl of opulently tentacled, fragrant, silvery white leaves is not like something seen in nature besides, maybe, in a sea anemone. The size of its flower stems, reaching as much as 5 toes, exceeds the peak of younger vegetation which finally develop as much as 5 toes tall and broad. Its uncommon white flowers advantage shut inspection they usually too are aromatic. The seeds, stems, and leaves have lengthy been included into the weight loss program of Pacific Coast indigenous tribes and the seeds are used medicinally as nicely.