Drought-Tolerant, Low-Maintenance Flowers

We’re transforming our front flower garden into a drought-tolerant oasis.

My actions may sound eco-groovy (and, in part, they are), but I’m not going to lie and say it’s completely altruistic. Watering the garden several times a week takes a long time and, frankly, I would rather focus on other things.

Like this blog, for example.

So those water-loving plants have got to go.

Gazania drought-tolerant flowers

I love these particular flowers, called gazanias and native to Southern Africa, because they’re drought-tolerant and contain the most simple, beautiful flowers that exhibit an interesting behavior.

Gazania drought-tolerant flowers

The gazania flowers close at night and only open during the day when the sun shines directly on them, a behavior called nyctinasty.

Gazania drought-tolerant flowers

They come in a variety of colors, each distinct and pretty. We have a host of orange, yellow, and pink blooms.

Gazania drought-tolerant flowers

While typically considered annuals, here in our mild climate they act as perennials. If left alone, the blooms do go to seed and spread. There’s no shortage of gazanias on our street.

Gazania drought-tolerant flowers

All of our gazanias came from volunteers from our neighbor’s garden. Look at that line of gazanias from her yard (on the left) up to ours… Just beautiful.

Pop over to your neighborhood garden center and pick up some today.

Strawberries (Literally!) Jumping the Planter Box

Strawberries in (and out) of our garden planter box

Our strawberry plants are flourishing in our planter box. Growing strong, producing heavily, and evidently trying to take over the rest of the garden.

Strawberries in (and out) of our garden planter box

The strawberry plants keep sending runners to jump out of our raised bed!

Strawberries in (and out) of our garden planter box

Not that I’m complaining. In fact, I’m thrilled. And I’m not the only one: something has been nibbling on my strawberry plants!

Strawberries in (and out) of our garden planter box

See, we’re all strawberry lovers here at our house.

Here are some strawberry recipes from around the net that I’m excited to try:
Arugula Salad with Strawberries
Making Dried Strawberries
Strawberry Salad with Strawberry Poppy Seed Dressing
Strawberry Hearts (tutorial to cut strawberries into heart shapes)
Nom nom nom!

Mother’s Day Bouquet

Mother's Day plants for the garden

Every year for Mother’s Day we visit our local nursery and I get to pick out flowers for the garden.

By doing this…

Mother's Day plants for the garden

we get more bang for our buck — sixteen plants for the price of one bouquet,

Mother's Day plants from last year in the garden

we support local, organic farmers, plus our independently owned garden center,

Mother's Day plants from last year in the garden

I receive a gift that I enjoy year after year as each plant continues to grow, spread, and bloom in our garden,

Honeybee landing on lavender plant in our garden

we share this gift with the creatures living in our yard and our neighbors in our community,

Toddler helping mama garden on Mother's Day

and we enjoy a family activity that I look forward to each year.

Our Spring Garden

We’ve been gardening! And by gardening I mean we’ve been weeding, weeding and weeding some more… yes, I know, we’ll be weeding ALL SUMMER LONG. It’s one of those perpetual cycles, like laundry or dishes, that can really bring you down. The good news is that 1) I get to work outside and the weather truly is gorgeous here in Sonoma County, and 2) I have a wonderful little helper to keep me company.

If only I could get her to clean up her garden tools. Ahem.

The Little Miss and I have started planning out and planting our front yard victory garden. Almost all of our perennial plants have resurfaced, so we’re focusing on cleaning up those beds and making room for our vegetables.

Last year we planted potatoes, chard, carrots and lettuce in the front yard:


This year we’re shaking things up, rotating the location of our crops, and planting peas, (keeping the same) chard, and tomatoes:

Last year the raised bed contained tomatoes, zucchini, herbs and strawberries:

This year we’re devoting the bed to strawberries, with a few leftover pea plants (that we couldn’t find another spot for) and some (yet to be planted) herbs:

Tonight the temperature is supposed to drop to freezing, so I’ve laid out our frost blanket. We’ll see if the crops survive! We’re all about the garden drama here in the wilds of Northern California.

Reading Up For the Spring Season

We have two weeks until April when the spring gardening really begins here in Northern California.

Time to say goodbye to the winter garden:

And get ready to plant for spring.

In that vein, we’ve started reading a number of fantastic gardening books. Here’s a glimpse of some of our favorites from this week:





Shown above:
+ Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert (vibrant illustrations and a simple story depicting the process of planning, planting, and picking flowers in a garden that children can easily relate to)
+ My Garden by Kevin Henkes (an imaginative tale about what a little girl would have in her very own garden, such as morning glories that stayed open all night, jellybean trees, flowers that grew back as soon as you picked them (above), and all carrots would be invisible because “I don’t like carrots.”)
+ Gardening with Children by Brooklyn Botanic Garden (a must-read book for family gardeners, full of gardening activities introducing nature’s cycles and earth’s ecology)
+ Eating the Alphabet: Fruits & Vegetables from A to Z (not directly about gardening per se but a beautifully illustrated alphabet book about fruits and vegetables; great inspiration for deciding what to plant in the garden!)