Ideas Appreciated

Hi!

Hope you all are staying cool....I think I'm melting here in Menifee. This is our 2nd summer here, and I'm really missing our cooler San Diego temps that I'm use to. This 100+ heat every day, and every day in the future forecast is just nuts! lol. My poor Coneflowers that were a pretty purple are now faded and grey, and my Goldfinger Banana is just about kaput.....the other little banana I have now looks like a dried up tobacco.

Yet I soldier on! lol

In our back yard we have a really looooong berm (big cinder block wall, the a little dirt hill, then a retaining wall) that runs the length of our property. I'm going to lay out the center area of it (Probably 12' x 4'? dunno I need to measure), which would be the part right above our patio to be for just flowers and pretty things. (We live on a cul-de-sac so our lot is shaped funny). Anyway, my question is....

I'm looking for flowers, grasses, etc. that would work here...We get crazy high winds in the afternoon - I mean strong! Plus we have high temps in the summer, and it gets pretty cold in the winter. I thought we were a zone 8, but I see other Menifee folks here have themselves as a 9, so I switched to that :). I'm mainly worried about the heat and the wind....Everything other than our daylilies, cactus, succulents, and palm trees are really taking a beating.

Thanks :)
Hugs,
Erin

I think that I would be thinking about planting trees and shrubs to create microclimates and slow down, re-direct the winds. Then I would take a look at the High Country Gardens website to see which plants are xeric, what zones they are good for, etc. Their catalogs are mailed to me and are really informative about many things...I like that they list with each entry whether or not it's 'rabbit resistant', deer resistant,etc. Make a list of which plants fit your needs then take it with you when you nursery shop.....their plants are mostly tough and sturdy.
http://www.highcountrygardens.com/?gclid=CO7dkpzs5ZsCFSgYagodsSbd6A

Thank you so much for the info and the link. I'll be sure to check it out!

Hugs,
Erin

I agree with Sherry, try to moderate that wind. We have a similar thing here, but at least most of our wind comes from the ocean. With high heat like we have now, though, it dessicates everything pronto. There are some evergreen natives that are good for screening, too - say, a large Ceanothus or Manzanita. We're doing that with C. Tassajara blue, which grows tall and wide. Try looking at www.laspilitas.com or http://www.californianativeplants.com/ - both web sites have ideas for using natives in place of other landscaping plants. The benefit is they need little to no water once established. You can mix in other plants for diversity. Ecrane is good at this - perhaps she will pop in here, too.

Any chance of putting up shade sails to provide a little relief from the heat? I think it's Imapigeon who has them and says they are helpful.

Kathleen

I agree with all the nurseries suggested so far--natives are always a great idea and High Country Gardens specializes in things that do well in hot dry climates (although not necessarily CA natives) so you can definitely get some ideas there. My next favorite type of plants after California natives are Australian natives--many of them come from hot dry climates as well so I've found many of them do really well for me. Grevilleas are my favorites, but I've also got some Melaleuca, Chamelaucium, Hakea, Callistemon among others. I've got wind here too and most of my Aussie plants stand up pretty well, not nearly as many of them leaning sideways from the wind as some of my other plants. We don't usually have heat and wind at the same time though--if the wind is blowing it's cool, but then when the wind goes away we get heat, so if you've got hot wind then that'll be more stressful for plants, plus I think your summers are probably hotter than mine on average.

Thanks so much everyone. I'm going to sit down and pour over the links that you sent. I really appreciate it! The last week we have had 100+ temps - I swear I'd do anything for a 90 degree day! lol.

When we bought this house last July there was no backyard ever put in (the house is a few years old, it was a foreclosure, you know the typical story), so we're starting from scratch. It's a newer neighborhood so no one around here has any trees to help block anything as every home except 2 on my street are either foreclosures or are in foreclosure right now. Eek!

I'd check into some shade options. We started with an acre of dirt, too, and as soon as we put the structure for our screened room (hand built) with the shade cloth on top, the temperature in the house dropped tremendously (no a/c then, and it does get hot here). No time for trees to grow! We also put up a ramada on the terrace, so we'd have some place to work and take a break in the shade. The style of your home and your desires will dictate what type, but some shade will give you time to plan your garden and get things growing.

What fun you have in store!

It is lots of fun, but hard as hubby and I are so busy with our artist bears that it's hard to get extra time to garden and to yard stuff. We're also ripping out carpet to redo the floors and the walls were all white, so we're working on painting too. Phew!

We are in a HOA neighborhood, so we're limited as far as structures go in the back yard, but we'll figure something out. Hopefully after we do the floors we'll get a Pergola or something in the back, so that should help quite a bit. We have 5 large queen palms that we got from Fallbrook in May, and they provide a little shade, but not enough.

Hubby is going to take pics of my horrid banana - the new leaves are literally burnt off or something....It's quite a sight! or I should say fright! lol

You need to mulch. That is a hot zone gardener angel. I use Garden Bloom Organic Compost clay buster. I think your banana is having such a horrible time because it's roots are hot. It needs to be deep watered and surrounded with at least three inches of mulch to keep the soil moist and cool. I also use Miracle Gro garden soil to mix with our wonderful "top soil" when I plant anything. We have been in home for 8 years and started with bare dirt front and back. Many hits and many misses. I am friendly, retired and free. Just d-mail me and pick my brain. I have i stalled last year the easy flo fertilizer system. It is connected to the irrigation systm. I have 12 different stations on my irrigation system. That is because each area has it's own requirements.

I had access to a friend that had large boulders on his property. I just had to have them moved to my property. Some are very large and more than half of the boulder is buried. They were used to build raised areas over the front and back landscape. I also do a large amount of container planting. I discovered it is very difficult to get much of anything to grow at ground level. I can get anything to grow if it is raised and mulched. In Florida, they call them hurricanes. In Las Vegas, they call them high winds. We are more protected now because our neighbor planted pines that are now over 25 feet tall all along our south wall and we are on the green belt surrounded by trees in the park. You are not that far from Vegas. With the cheap air fares you could fly over for the day. My husband and I could pick you up. We are both retired. We were both Mortgage Bankers with JP Morgan Chase. I have lived in Las Vegas since 1960. I am on the board, in charge of the landscaping for our HOA and work directly with the landscape company and tree service. There are trees that grow very fast and are beautiful. Do you have any fencing? We have stuccoed cinder block fences on both side yards. I had raised beds made out of cinder blocks for my herb and vegetable garden. Let me help you because I have already made all the mistakes you will make.

See why it's usually the more the better around here? We all come at things from different directions. Should have asked, have you done a perc test to see how your water is absorbed? We have to do a lot of digging and breaking up of soil (lots of natives will die in amended soil), otherwise we end up with a plant in a clay pot in the ground, it's so hard - just depends on the location. So SK's tips would be very good from that viewpoint.

DH would love your approach to rocks, SK. He always wants to bury rocks part way so they look more natural. Sitting atop the ground is just not on! :-) We've managed to get some to use for raised beds, etc. through Craig's list - the big ones we had to buy (ouch!).

Some of ours are so big they were brought in on a flat top and placed by a crane. When I say big, I mean big. Could not afford it now. Retired with lots of money like half the world. At least Bernie Madoff didn't steal it. Now a lot is gone but still OK. We laid off our housekeeper and are now donating the monthly amount of the housekeeper to Las Vegas Rescue Mission and Salvation Army. We have so many homeless children here in Las Vegas I came up with the idea I could clean my own home. Well it is OK, but call ahead at least a week before you visit. Gardening and housekeeping are a full time job. Guess what comes first....My DH think all is well and he really is not concerned if the wood floors are dirty. Cannot see it anyway because the floors are Hickory. Just cannot think of children being homeless. Especially in our heat...

Sorry it took me a few days to respond....We've been remodeling our laundry room. I read this thread the other day - thanks so much for all the suggestions! DH moved the bark back further from the plants and trees...It was wet and cool underneath, but he put it back further. He's been deep watering since we planted everything. Everything but my banana and the coneflowers seem to like whatever he's doing.

He mulched around everything again the other day. Keep your fingers crossed! The banana pup that has 4 leaves is doing great, but the bigger one looks like death warmed over!

SK thanks so much for your offer. We love to visit Vegas, and we try to do a roadtrip a few times a year, but with the new house, pets, and our busy business it hasn't been possible lately. However the next time we make it that way I'll be sure to let you now so we can meet!

Hugs,
Erin