wicked green

Dasylirion wheeleri aka Desert Spoon This is technically a shrub but it definitely has a grassy feel to it though the thin leaves are on the stiff side. It has a great silhouette and a nice, soft green color.  It’s larger size makes i it a great focal plant. Best Feature:  round shape, thin green [...]

Here’s a picture I took at the Cuyamaca Water Conservation Garden. It’s a demonstration garden for low water use plants at Cuyamaca Community College in Rancho San Diego. Definitely worth checking out if you’re in that area. The Euphorbia ‘Sticks on Fire’ and Twin Flowered Agave (detailed info in previous posts) work really well together [...]

I was at Starbucks the other day and noticed that thay had two large bags of free coffee grounds. I almost took one even though we don’t have a use for them just yet. This is a nice, green gesture on their part. Starbucks has some details on how they can be used and the [...]

Nassella tenuissima aka Mexican Feather Grass (sometimes sold as Stipa) I am a big fan of grasses. They have so much movement and this one has a really soft look and texture. It’s a nice contrast to stiffer plants, like this image, or succulents, like this image in an older post. Best Feature:  soft texture, [...]

We got our first box from Suzie’s Farm! I wrote about joining their CSA in a previous post. Saturday was a big day. It started at the farmer’s market picking up our box along with other goodies and went to Ray at Night later, which is in the last post. We decided to get a [...]

Aeonium arboreum ‘Atropurpureum’ aka Purple Aeonium The green center of these mostly purple plants create interest and contrast when it’s not in bloom and the bright yellow flowers add even more when in bloom. Best Feature:  shiny purple leaves with green center, bright yellow flowers, evergreen, low maintenance, relatively low water From :  Canary Islands [...]

Euphorbia tirucalli ‘Fire Sticks’  aka Euphorbia Fire Sticks, Sticks on Fire, Fire Sticks Pencil Cactus I think this is a sort of love it or hate it type of plant. It is a succulent and so distinct in it’s color and silhouette. This plant adds an interesting element to a garden area. And it is [...]

I walked by this very cute garden the other day here in San Diego. It’s a good example of a low water, low maintenance garden. No grass here. The larger succulent to the left is Aeonium ‘Kiwi’, the ground cover in the foreground is Senecio mandraliscae (Blue Finger), the grass in the front is Nassella [...]

Hesperaloe parviflora aka Red Yucca The gray/green foliage and the tall red/coral (though there are some with yellow) flowers are a really nice contrast. Best Feature:  tall, arching thin stalks of flowers in late summer to early fall, low maintenance, low water From :  Texas and Mexico Preferable Places : Sunset Zones 2b, 3, 7-16, [...]

It poured here today which is not common. It made me wish I had a rain barrel but we unfortunately do not even have gutters. That’s pretty common here due to the lack of rain. If we did, all of the water from the gutter downspouts could be collected in large containers and reused. You [...]