Social Distance IV

Social Distance in Gardening, Part IV

In this column, we continue emphasis on maintaining social distance while developing specific actions within three priorities for gardening during these difficult times.

We should commit ourselves to the eventual reduction of the coronavirus threat. This surely will happen in time, according to expert analyses, as long as everyone continues the mitigation measures that are being described by the media,

We can sustain and build our optimism by observing the ongoing natural development of our gardens. Our plants follow their seasonal growth patterns, and we can be assured that nature still functions despite this temporary disruption.

Our gardens illustrate this reality in many ways. One pleasing example is the emergence of apple blossoms, which signal the annual development of fruit.

A close up of a flower garden

Description automatically generated
The blossoms of the Gala apple tree (Malus ‘Gala’) are much like other apple blossoms.

1. Care for Your Garden

Part of caring for your garden is reviewing and improving your home’s preparations for wild-fire season.

The patterns of recent history have included limited rainfall and dry plants during the period from May through December, and the occurrence of wildfire sin June, July and August. We are not predicting similar patterns for this year, but we will experience fire dangers depends in part on the dryness of the environment.

We are not predicting fire dangers, but we are recommending readiness. This could require time and effort, so now is a good time to begin the process.

If your home is within or close to a forested area, you are probably already quite aware of fire dangers. If your home is in a more urban area, but surrounded by trees and shrubs, you should be complacent. Vegetation around your home could become dry and flammable, and airborne burning embers could  travel a mile or more from a wildfire site.

In either situation, consider developing your landscaping to establish an adequate defensible space around your home and to include fire-resistant plants.

The good news is that a fire-resistant landscape can increase your property value and conserve water while beautifying your home. The following priority section includes online sources of information to support these developments.

2. Advance Your Gardening Knowledge

CalFire’s website offers detailed online information for developing a fire-resistant landscape.

Important steps toward this goal include choosing fire-resistant plants and landscaping materials. Many plants are fire-resistant while none are completely fire-proof. Good choices include succulents, which have high moisture content, and hardwood trees, which have low sap or resin content.

A group of universities in Oregon has compiled information on plant selection in a free online publication. Browse to www.firefree.org and click on “fire resistant plants”

Additional recommendations for fire-resistant plant selection is provided by Pacific Horticulture magazine.

3. Enrich Your Gardening Days

While you are sheltering in place, visit virtually other places of interest to gardeners. Here are three botanical gardens in California that share their horticultural riches on the Internet, while inviting personal visits when that will again be possible.

  • The University of California Botanical Garden at Berkeley. “The 34-acre UC Botanical Garden is one of the most diverse landscapes in the world, with over 10,000 types of plants including many rare and endangered species. Organized geographically, the Garden features 9 regions of naturalistic plantings from Italy to South Africa, along with a major collection of California native plants.”
  • The Huntington Botanical Gardens. Schedule enough time to absorb all of the impressive displays of this garden. “Explore living collections of orchids and camellias, a botanical conservatory, fragrant rose garden, children’s garden and more, in 16 themed gardens spread over 120 acres.”
  • The University of California Santa Cruz Arboretum and Botanical Garden. I must include the Monterey Bay area’s fine botanical garden, which “ maintains collections of rare and threatened plants of unusual scientific interest. Particular specialties are world conifers, primitive angiosperms, and bulb-forming plant families. Large assemblages of plants from California natives, Australia, South Africa, and New Zealand are displayed on the grounds.”

There are more excellent public gardens in the United States, and several lists of the top choices. Conduct your own list by searching the Internet for “Best botanical gardens in the US.” We’ll plan virtual tours of the world’s best gardens another time.

Enjoy your gardens and gardening and stay healthy.

Developing a Chilean Garden

Gardening can be made interesting by implementing a thematic plan for part or all of the site. There are many possible themes to choose from: a favorite color or color combination; a plant genus (e.g., roses, irises, dahlias, etc.); a design style (e.g., desert, tropical, etc.); or whatever interests you.

My garden has beds dedicated to each of the five summer-dry climate regions: Mediterranean Basin, South Africa, Australia, California, and Chile.

The world’s summer-dry regions occur within two bands: between 30°and 45° north, and between 30°and 45° south. Chile is a very narrow, very long country, extending from a latitude of 17° south to Cape Horn at 56°. The country extends well beyond the summer-dry region,

The county’s flora have been described in terms of three zones, the desert provinces of the north, central Chile, and the humid regions of the south. Central Chile’s summer-dry region extends from about 30°to about 36° south, making that region comparable in size to that of California, which extends from about 32°to about 42° north.

With only a little searching, a gardener can find good plants from the first four of these regions; finding Chilean plants can be challenging. That search can be motivated by the potential of discovering unusual botanical treasures. 

A few Chilean plants are readily available in garden centers. The most familiar example, perhaps, is the so-called Peruvian Lily (Alstromeria sp.). There are some 122 species within this South American genus, and only four are native to Peru, while at least thirty-three are native to central Chile, which is the center of distribution for this genus. We’re told that Chileans take offense at having their plant called Peruvian Lily!

Other Chilean plants that are not hard to find include (in no particular order): Chilean Jasmine (Mandevilla laxa), Chilean Guava (Ugni molinae), Chilean Puya (Puya chilensis), Shining Pink Rock Purslane (Calendrina spectabilis), Maiden’s Wreath (Francoa sonchifolia), Hummingbird Fuchsia (Fuchsia magellanica), Purpletop Vervain (Verbena bonariensis), Chilean Potato Vine (Solanum Crispum), and others.

Interested gardeners can find descriptions of these plants by searching the Internet for their botanical names.

A less common Chilean plant that is particularly attractive in early spring, is the Sacred Flower of the Andes (Cantua buxifolia). This is an upright shrub that produces “a profusion of orange to magenta-pink flowers that have a long tube with a flaring mouth held on thin pedicels so the flowers dangle beneath” (quoting San Marcos Growers). The blossoms are “outrageous,” but the plant sprawls in a way that calls for staking. The older stems can be pruned to improve the plant’s overall form, but because blossoms are produced on the previous season’s growth, pruning should be done only after flowering.

Chilean blossoms
Blossom of Cantua buxifolia (Sacred Flower of the Incas)
Chilean shrub
An unruly shrub: Cantua buxifolia

My continuing quest for interesting these plants focuses currently on the Chilean Bellflower (Lapageria rosea), a beautiful flowering vine that is Chile’s national flower. A few nurseries list this plant on their websites, but it’s generally out of stock.

Persistence should produce results!

Adopting a theme of your choice could provide an alternative to the usual spontaneous approach to gardening in favor of the satisfaction of design coherence and the appeal of an ongoing hunt for botanical treasures.

The Bold Dry Garden

Book Cover

It’s not often that we see a new book about a garden that’s both famous and near enough for a one-day visit. We now have The Bold Dry Garden: Lessons from the Ruth Bancroft Garden (Timber Press, 2016), written by Johanna Silver, with historic photographs and excellent new photographs,

This is a three-acre garden in a residential neighborhood, packed with over 2,000 cacti, succulents, trees and shrubs. Visiting is not a sprawling and overwhelming experience, with too much to take in without camping out, or an extended visit. Instead, it offers a relatively compact display of a wide variety of succulent plants.

The book begins with the garden’s history. Ruth Bancroft developed this garden at her home in Walnut Creek, beginning in the 1950s. Like all personal gardens, it began tentatively, with the purchase of few small plants, and grew slowly as the owner’s interest deepened and her vision broadened.

By the early 1970’s, Ruth was ready to map out her future garden. She brought in garden designer Lester Hawkins, to draw the setting for a dry garden, and to recommend plants to add to her growing collection. The initial planting was accomplished formally in 1972, although Ruth had already collected a significant number of plants.

The plants grew in number and size, and the collection grew in sophistication and beauty. It deeply impressed, Frank Cabot, a nationally prominent gardener from the Quebec area, who became concerned about preserving the garden into the future. In 1989, he founded the Garden Conservancy with the goal to preserve exceptional private gardens, with preservation of the Ruth Bancroft Garden as its first objective. By 1994, the Garden’s site was officially transferred to a non-profit corporation, Ruth Bancroft Garden, Inc., dedicated to maintaining and improving the garden, and to make it available to the public.

Today, Ruth Bancroft is recognized as a dry gardening pioneer and innovator. She has reached the age of 107 and she maintains her love of her collection.

The longest chapter of The Bold Dry Garden, “Signature Plants of the Dry Garden,” describes and pictures garden’s diversity, organized in sections: The Smallest Players, Aeonium, Crassula, Echeveria, Haworthia, Sedum, Sempervivum, the Importance of Rock, Architectural Elements, Agave, Cactus, Yucca and Other Swords, Flowers and Foliage, Aloe, Euphorbia, Gasteria, Protea, Terrestrial Bromeliads, The Softer Side, California Natives, and Trees. Whew!

Reading this fine book can be a pleasant introduction to the world of succulent plants. Visiting this extraordinary garden is an opportunity to see many different forms of these plants, and to become inspired to develop your own collection…and to come again to the garden.

For more about this garden, and everything you need to prepare for a tour, visit the garden’s website.

The Garden Conservancy is both a preserver of private gardens and guide to seeing them through its Open Days program. Browse to the Conservancy’s website for more information.

The long-time curator of the Ruth Bancroft Garden, Brian Kimble, is scheduled to speak at the Monterey Bay Area Cactus & Succulent Society on Sunday, March 19th. See the Society’s website for details.

The Bold Dry Garden is a good read for any gardener, excellent preparation for a visit to the Ruth Bancroft Garden, and a fine addition to any library of garden books.

Future Uncertainty

As the inauguration of Donald Trump approaches, we enter a historically extraordinary period in which a single political party controls the House, the Senate and the White House.

“Control” should be taken with a grain of salt, because little is absolute in our nation’s capital.

While absolute control doesn’t happen in Washington, the political arena does have constants. During the past several years, a great constant has been the confrontation between opposing perspectives.

Under the new administration, that confrontation focuses on the struggle over the separation of power written into the U.S. Constitution. The incoming political majorities seem determined to reduce the power of the executive branch of government, meaning to constrain the president’s ability to use executive orders and the authority of administrative offices to write and enforce regulations based on legislation.

The lobbyists are out in great numbers, speaking on behalf of either public or private interests.

There are many issues on the table. A recent report in the New York Times observed, “The most powerful and ambitious Republican-led Congress in 20 years…plans to leave its mark on virtually every facet of American life…”

With that in mind, we examined the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s December 2016 report, Free to Prosper: A Pro-Growth Agenda for the 115th Congress. This 193–page report addresses many aspects of American life, and consistently calls for the reduction of federal regulation with the intention to “unleash America’s entrepreneurial, wealth-creating potential.”

In this column, we focus on issues related to gardening, a topic that easily includes food, so we will comment on only this report’s section, “Food Drugs, and Consumer Freedom.”

Due to space limits, we can only list the report’s food-related objectives:

  • Ensure consumer access to genetically engineered (GE) foods
  • Streamline (“fast-track”) regulation of (GE) plants and foods
  • Repeal the national standards for labeling GE foods
  • Oppose overregulation of food additives (particularly trans fats)
  • Oppose recommended limitation of sodium (salt) content of foods

This section also contains objectives to reduce or roll back federal regulation of (a) drugs, medical devices, and treatments, especially the new and experimental, (b) tobacco substitutes, (c) soft and pliable plastics (phthalates), (d) flame retardants (organohalogens), (e) online gambling, and (f) sports gambling.

Finally, this section recommends federal defunding of “activist research,” such as research on the safety hazards of BPA (bisphenol a) lining of metal food containers.

These are industry-sponsored objectives, not actual legislation. Their basic message is expressed in the report’s title, which translates to Make Money.

At the same time, consumer groups are vigorously organizing their defense of regulations that are intended to protect public health and safety. In California, the governor and attorney general are prepared to resist federal actions that would obstruct the state’s progress on several important issues.

The debate over the appropriate balance between public and private interests will continue during the coming four years, with an opportunity at the mid-point of this period to review the actions of some of our elected representatives.

Meanwhile, the political environment must be regarded as unsettled at best.

Planting for Fall Color

Experienced gardeners know that the early fall is a very good time to install new plants. This timing anticipates our Mediterranean climate’s rainy season, during which Nature provides the moisture that new plants require, and the winter months allow time for them to establish their roots in preparation for above-ground growth in the spring.

It is quite natural in this season for gardeners to plant with spring flowers in mind, with their greatest interest focused on spring bulbs. There’s nothing wrong with that approach, especially when gardeners explore the lesser-known geophytes, as well as the always popular spring- and summer-blooming bulbs.

Still, this season is the ideal time to plan for next year’s fall season. This planning begins with a critical look at your own garden. Is it visually exciting and beautiful during the next few weeks, or does it appear tired and eager to enter dormancy? If it could be more pleasing to the eye, plant now to ensure a better look a year in the future.

An easy and reliable way to find plants to add fall color to your next-year garden is to take a walk through your neighborhood to spot attractive plants that look healthy and vigorous. By scanning gardens with growing conditions like yours, this approach automatically directs your attention to plants that are likely to do well in your garden.

Another productive strategy is to ask at your favorite garden center about plants for fall color. A trustworthy garden center will be ready to point out such plants and recommend winners for your garden setting.

Research also can identify good candidates. The Sunset Western Garden Book lists several trees, shrubs, and vines for fall color, and provides details for each in its Western Plant Encyclopedia.

Here are a few popular selections.

Trees

Pacific Dogwood (Cornus nattallii) A spectacular tree that can grow to 50 feet tall. It flowers white or pink in the spring and again in the summer> In the fall it displays yellow, red and pink leaves and clusters of decorative red fruit.

Maidenhair Tree (Ginkgo biloba ‘Autumn Gold’) An ancient, actually prehistoric genus that can reach 30 feet tall. It produces gold-colored leaves that drop quickly in the fall to produce a golden carpet.

Flowering Crabapple (Malus hybrids) Small trees (usually 20 feet tall) that flower in the spring then hold their attractive fruit through the fall. Many varieties are listed in the Western Garden Book.

Shrubs, Perennials

Cotoneaster varieties (e.g., C. lacteus, C. franchetii) This shrub, native to China, comes in various sizes from groundcover to twenty feet tall and wide. Produces bright red berries in the late summer followed by fall.

Windflower (Anemone x bybrida) The popular Japanese Anemone (A. japonica) produces white, pink, or rose flowers on arching stems up to four feet high, followed by unusual cottony seed heads.

cotoneaster-anemone

Cotoneaster & Anemone

Aster (Aster x Frikartii ‘Monch; Symphyotrichum spp.). Only the European and Asiatic species are still called Aster officially; North American species have that long new name. Hundreds of varieties are available to produce an abundance of flowers from white to pale blues and pinks to deep scarlet and purple.

Vines

Chinese Wisteria (W. sinensis). This vine, the most common wisteria in the west, produces clusters of violet-blue, slightly fragrant flowers that open all at once in the fall.

Roger’s California Grape (Vitis californica cultivar ‘Roger’s Red’) A central California native often grown as an ornamental plant grows so vigorously that gardeners can boast of their green thumbs. Many American and European varieties are available for table grapes.

There are many more plants that can beautify your garden environment in the fall with colorful flowers, foliage or fruits. Plan and plant now, as we enter the planting season, to set the stage for attractive seasonal displays in future years.

Continue reading

Architectural Plants in the Garden

A current project in my garden involves relocating a specimen plant to a more prominent site, to take advantage of its current and anticipated appearance.

The plant is Giant Cabuya, a member of the Agave family (Agavaceae). In English, Cabuya means Agave, but it might also mean fibre. The plant’s botanical name is Furcraea foetida ‘Mediopicta’.

Native to the Caribbean area and northern South America, this succulent plant is widely grown as its variegated leaves can create a five-foot wide display and a spectacular presence in the landscape.

Brazilian Plant

Furcraea foetida ‘Mediopicta’

It will produce a 25 feet tall flower stalk on an apparently unpredictable basis. The inflorescence is unremarkable in appearance but reportedly strongly fragrant. The specific epithet, foetida, means “stinking.”

Once the presents its great flower stalk it will die. Like other monocarpic plants, e.g., the Century Plant (Agave Americana), it will propagate itself by generating adventitious shoots, or “pups.”

The plant’s strongest points are its colorful leaves, which first attracted my eye. Because it was labeled as native to Brazil, I brought it into my garden as a plant familiar to a Brazilian graduate student who was staying in my home. (He recognized it, but was more interested in his studies of microbiology.)

I put the Giant Cabuya in a large terra cotta pot, where it grew well for more than a year, and spread about three feet wide. I learned that it would reach its maximal spread only when grown in the ground.

I had recently renovated an overgrown cluster of Peruvian Lilies, and reshaped the planting bed into a roughly circular form. The new bed, currently without plants, needed redesigning, with a focal point. A dramatic sculpture would be appropriate but not in the budget, so a large plant with architectural character could serve as the purpose of a focal point.

This was to be the new home for the Giant Cabuya.

The bed was large enough for the plant to grow to five feet wide, and eventually to throw up its malodorous flower stalk.

A short list of plants can be useful as focal points in the landscape. Large succulent plants, particularly those in the Agave family, have good qualities for this purpose. This is a matter of individual preference of course, but long, sturdy leaves can form a roughly symmetrical display that is readily perceived as sculptural.

For an interesting overview of architectural agaves, visit the website of succulent expert Debra Lee Baldwin, navigate to Videos and look for “Six Great Agaves for Your Garden.” In this video recording, renowned agave hybridizer Kelly Griffin casually demonstrates agaves that would work well as focal points in the garden.

In addition to the larger agaves, several other plants have architectural value. If your garden could benefit from an eye-catching, prominently placed plant, look for candidates when you visit your local garden center. A dramatic feature could add interest to your landscape.

Rose Care: Deadhead Repeat-bloomers Now

This has been a really good year for rose blossoms. Gardeners who have roses in their landscapes have enjoyed excellent displays that might have resulted from the combination of drought conditions followed by timely rains. Perhaps botanists and meteorologists will collaborate to track the progression of weather effects and rose blooms.

The notorious “some people” have announced that the challenges of rose cultivation exceed the value of these plants in the garden, but there are still plenty of dedicated fanciers of the rose and public rose gardens to defend the genus. The vigor of the American Rose Society demonstrates the continuing appeal of roses.

Hybrid tea roses are enduring favorites for most rose lovers, but value can come from comparing examples of different species. For example, compare rebloomers, mostly modern roses, with once-bloomers, many of which are ancient roses, e.g., Gallica, Damask, Alba, Centifolia, Moss, China, Portland, Bourbon and Hybrid Perpetual Roses.

Numerous roses bring seasonal color to my garden. Most are hybrid teas, including several David Austin roses.

Rose Graham ThomasMy favorite among these is ‘Graham Thomas’, a yellow classic climbing rose, selected by and named after the English rosarian and author of several books on roses. This vigorous repeat bloomer occupies a prominent spot next to my house.

 

 

 

 

Another favorite is ‘Dortmund’, which is a highly rated climber that produces dark, glossy foliage and clusters of single, white-eyed, red flowers, borne freely from summer to autumn. This plant grows on a gate under a very large pittosporum; the rose does well but surely would do better in full sun.

Rosa MulliganiAmong my once-bloomers is Rosa mulligani, one of the largest climbing/rambling species that was the center of Vita Sackville-West’s iconic white garden at Sissinghurst Castle, in England. This rose, growing on my backyard fence, produces a cloud of white blossoms, with branches reaching up to twenty feet to the left and to the right. Roses, like apples, produce blossoms and fruit best on horizontal branches, so this is fine placement for any climber.

It is now time to deadhead the repeat bloomers, to stimulate the development of a second flush of blooms. This should be done soon after the blossoms fade, to maximize the time for new growth and, incidentally, to deny nesting opportunities for certain insects, e.g., earwigs, sow bugs, thrips.

Rosa Graham Thomas deadheaded

Rosa Graham Thomas deadheaded

Deadheading generally is done just above the first set of five leaves. It could be done lower on the stem, to the second five-leaf set, or even to a seven-leaf set, when the plant needs shaping. After all the blooms are spent, leave the plant to develop rose hips for winter display.

Once-bloomers need not be deadheaded as soon as blooms fade because that won’t produce additional blooms. Deadheading once-bloomers in late June, however, will maximize the time the plant has to produce many new buds for the next season. If you like to see colorful rose hips in the garden, leave the once-bloomers on their own through to late winter.

 

Deadheading your roses now is a timely investment for a rewarding yield in the next season.

***

IMG_0604You can see a fine collection of eighty old garden roses and shrub roses at the Santa Cruz Baroque Festival’s “Music in the Garden” fundraiser on Sunday, May 22nd. This exceptional event offers opportunities to enjoy a majestic private garden in Soquel and performances by harpist Jesse Autumn (shown) and Anak Swarasanti’s Gamelan orchestra, and to support the ongoing contributions of the Baroque Festival.

For information, visit the website of the Santa Cruz Baroque Festival.

Controlling Weeds, Enjoying Volunteers

Recent sessions of not-really-much rainfall have greened our gardens and, inevitably, inspired weeds to grow.

If you are not already familiar with the “weed bank,” you must recognize that most garden soil has a hidden store of weed seeds waiting for the right conditions to germinate. Those weeds seeds do not demand a lot, just sun and moisture.

The rains provide the moisture, but the seeds must be close to the surface to gain access to sunlight. This condition can be met easily when weeds drop their seeds, winds transport them from faraway places, or birds drop them while fertilizing the Earth.

Some weed seeds are well below the surface, having been buried by soil tilling or erosion. They can survive long periods (the longevity varies with the species) until they are unearthed one way or another.

That’s one justification for “no-till” gardening, by the way.

Evidently, my garden had a shallow weed bank, because the rains brought an abundance of vigorous weeds in every area of the landscape.

When one experiences a seasonal burst of weed growth, the appropriate response is to weed the garden promptly, before the weeds set their seeds. One characteristic of weedy plants is that they reproduce enthusiastically. An old bit of garden wisdom warns, “One year of seeding leads to seven years of weeding.”

Long-term prevention of weed problems always begins with mulch. A layer of three or four inches of organic material serves shields sunlight from promoting the growth of weed seeds.

Another approach is the use of a pre-emergent herbicide based on corn gluten, which is a pelletized byproduct of the corn milling process. As a seed first germinates, it depends on nutrients stored in the seed, but as it grows it must develop roots to draw additional nutrients from the soil. Corn gluten is a natural, non-toxic material that suppresses a plant’s root development. It is most effective at the earliest stages of plant growth and has minimal effect on established plants.

Corn gluten treats all seeds the same, so it should not be applied when planting seeds of plants that you grow purposefully.

The downsides of corn gluten are that it is only about 50% effective when applied correctly. It requires repeat application whenever weeds begin to sprout.

Another downside is that when wet it will smell pretty awful for a while. One gardener friend who used this weed preventer suspected she had a dead body somewhere in the garden.

Also, corn gluten is rather expensive, close to $2.00/pound, perhaps because of low demand.

Finally, because most corn crops use Roundup for weed management, corn gluten almost certainly contains a residue of glyphosate, the active ingredient of this chemical herbicide.

After best efforts with mulching or pre-emergent treatment, and weeds are still growing, the traditional advice has been to pull them out by the roots. That seems gratifyingly thorough, but more recent advice is to cut weeds down, leave their roots to decay in the ground, and use their tops for mulch or compost.

That approach is sound, but only if done before the weeds produce seeds. There are also some weeds. Such as dandelions, that will regenerate from their roots.

One more thought: some plants that appear unexpectedly and in unwanted places in the garden, are garden-worthy plants that could be called “volunteers” or “self-seeders” rather than “weeds.” Examples include Italian lords-and-ladies (Arum italicum), various poppies (Papaver spp.) and the California Poppy (Eschscholzia californica), our state flower.

HieraciumOne attractive, not aggressive volunteer is the Hawkweed (Hieracium sp.), which I actually bought at the San Francisco Botanical Garden. This is a dandelion lookalike, with flowers very similar to the dandelion, but with unusual spotted leaves.

 

 

 

 

For more information:

Old Farmer’s Almanac: Common Garden Weeds

Fine Gardening: Six Tips for Effective Weed Control

Eartheasy: Corn Gluten Fertilizer (commercial product)

 

Landscaping with Succulents

As we await El Niño rains, the Monterey Bay area’s familiar rainy season is already late in starting, and we feel the pull of long-term perspectives on gardening.

Let’s consider landscaping with succulents plants, which are gaining appeal for their interesting foliage forms and colors, ease of cultivation and propagation and of course drought tolerance.

Many succulent plants can hold their own in the garden as specimens or aesthetic statements, but when we group several plants, they relate to one another in various ways and we have a landscape, either by design or by chance.

Tiered Succulent Display

Tiered Display of Succulents in Sidney, Australia

Landscaping by chance is often popular, but with a little planning, gardeners can succeed with more deliberate methods.

Designing with plants involves individual preferences and styles, which we always respect. There are, however, a few broad guidelines to consider.

The first of these is “taller plants in back,” which is about visibility. Take the time to learn the mature height of each plant. Here is information sheet from succulent expert Debra Lee Baldwin, listing popular succulent plants by height: Instant Gardens.

Another organizing guideline is to group plants by their watering needs. This technique, called hydrozoning, works with nature (always a good idea!) and makes garden maintenance easier.

Using this technique requires knowing the watering needs of the succulent plants in your landscape. All succulent plants need some water, particularly during their growth periods. They need much less during dormancy.

The two broad categories of succulent plants are the “winter dormant,” i.e., plants that grow during the spring and summer, and the “summer dormant,” i.e., those that grow mostly during the fall through early spring. Here is a link to winter dormant and summer dormant succulent plants.

The landscape designer also could group plants by county of origin. Such grouping is a step toward creating plant communities, which are combinations of plants that are found in natural settings. Such combinations reflect the plants’ common needs for soil, exposure, climate and other factors. Gardening in this way involves detailed cultivation methods. Grouping plants by country of origin is relatively easy, while respecting nature and developing an interesting landscape. The avid gardener can discover a plant’s country of origin from some books and plant labels, or by entering the plant’s botanical name in wikipedia.org.

Finally, consider combining succulent plants with grasses, which are another category of drought-tolerant plants. Grasses typically respond to severely dry conditions by going dormant, rather than by storing moisture, and grass-succulent combinations are seen in natural settings. The benefit of combining succulents and grasses is primarily in the aesthetic effect of contrasting the succulent’s fleshiness with the grass’s wispiness. To learn more about grasses, see the book, The American Meadow Garden (2009), by John Greenlee and Saxon Holt.

For more comprehensive guidance, Debra Lee Baldwin’s book, Designing with Succulents (2007), provides inspiring ideas for planning your own succulent garden area.

Preparing for long-term water shortages certainly includes defensive strategies, but your preparations can include landscaping with succulents as an absorbing and creative exercise.

Carbon Farming

Climate change has been described as the consequence of the Industrial Revolution, which introduced extensive burning of fossil fuels. This practice disrupts the natural balance of carbon in the soil, the atmosphere and the ocean. Plans to slow or reduce the process of climate often emphasize reducing uses of fossil fuels.

Recently, and all too briefly, we explored the relationship between gardening and climate change. We have learned that common agricultural practices generate about one-third of the surplus CO2 in the atmosphere, making commercial farming a substantial part of the climate change problem.

Prior to the development of modern agriculture, we had organic farming, which is generally compatible with natural processes. The practices we now call “conventional” farming include driving a tractor, tilling the soil, over-grazing, and using fossil fuel-based fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides.

Similarly, farm animals once were raised in pastures, where they grazed on grasses and other plants. Today, cows, pigs and chickens are raised in tight quarters, provided grains and other feed that they work hard to digest, and must be dosed with antibiotics to maintain basic health.

These contemporary, presumably efficient methods are depleting the carbon stores in the soil, and reducing the soil’s natural ability to support plant growth and store moisture.

Soil scientists and environmentalists have been discovering land management strategies that can reduce the rate of loss of soil carbon, and even improve the rate at which agriculture can convert atmospheric CO2 into plant material and soil organic matter. When thoughtfully applied, carbon methods can add significantly to the rate of soil carbon sequestration, and actually reverse the climate change process.

Dozens of specific practices are included in carbon farming; all look like historical organic farming and common sense. The principal methods are composting, grazing by hoofed animals (ungulates), maintaining high percentages of organic matter in the soil (to feed the microbiota), supporting biodiversity, rotating crops and discontinuing uses of synthetic chemicals. The most effective practices orchestrate multiple methods in plans designed for specific circumstances.

Carbon farming, also called regenerative agriculture, should be part of the global response to the threat of climate change, but reduced burning of fossil fuels will still be important.

These promising methods for the management of agricultural lands can have substantial impacts when applied on a large scale, but they also have value when applied in residential gardens. In this column, we have advocated organic methods as beneficial to our flora and fauna. We find now that these methods also have long-term benefits to the health of the soil and the natural balance of carbon in our environment.

For more about this important topic, read Kristin Ohlson’s book, The Soil Will Save Us (2014), (which a reader recommended to me), and search the web for “carbon farming” and “regenerative agriculture.”

If you are growing plants and raising animals on hundreds of acres, try carbon farming. If not, by all means, garden organically!