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.
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.
The gazania flowers close at night and only open during the day when the sun shines directly on them, a behavior called nyctinasty.
They come in a variety of colors, each distinct and pretty. We have a host of orange, yellow, and pink blooms.
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.
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.
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)
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.”)
by Brooklyn Botanic Garden (a must-read book for family gardeners, full of gardening activities introducing nature’s cycles and earth’s ecology)
(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!)