I am trying to plan the new plantings for the parking lot at work. The landlord uses a creeping juniper that is sorely stunted and the occasional petunia. We have permission to improve the plantings. My primary intertests are: hardiness, native if possible and of course multiple season attractiveness. One other obstacle---Canadian Geese. This shopping plaza was wetlands 20years ago. Now this part of the city is perfect green lawn and decorative water features that are about 1/5 to 1/4 acre in size. Perfect for the geese. This means that I don't want to contribute the the goose buffet if possible. I am sure that they will choose to next in the newly planted areas and that won't be a problem.
Confused yet--I am. Naturally I would like to build a foundation of perinneals with a few annuals for pop and quick growth. I live in zone 5b. 90% of the areas to be planted are full sun. Thanks for any suggestions.
David
Xeriscaping in Ohio
I would start by searching the internet for links to native plant societies in your area--they would have good suggestions for natives that would work well for you. You might also try posting on the appropriate regional gardening forum (Upper midwest?) Many of the people I've seen post regularly in this forum are from warmer more arid climates than you, so may not have too much experience with things that would grow well for you.
Here's a guide you might use for your problem with the drought-tolerant plants ...
http://www.ohiodnr.com/dnap/prairies/prairiespecies.htm
There is another plant that comes to mind ... the yucca plant. If you give it a chance to grow, it will grow under the asphalt in the parking plant and never die on you!! 8-)
Karin ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I have a xeriscape garden in the same planting zone. I have experimented with many plants but find High Country Gardens web site to have much information on cold hardy xeriscape plants.Also they are a web ordering site.
Their website is also nice because it give info about how much annual rainfall plants can take--some extremely xeric plants won't do well in climates that get more rain, but some will do fine and they have all that info.
Came upon this thread when researching some xeric gardening ideas for us and wondered how your garden turned out?
Please let us know .... thanks. t.