Nora Harlow Archives - Page 7 of 8 - Summer-Dry | Celebrate Plants in Summer-Dry Gardens

17 06, 2021

Lion’s Tail

Lion’s Tail

Nora Harlow2024-06-27T19:27:46-07:00Categories: Blog, Garden Plants, perennials, Nora Harlow|Tags: nora harlow, perennials|

Some plants just naturally bring out the child in all of us, and lion's tail (Leonotis leonurus) is surely one of them. The whorled clusters of softly woolly yet spiky-looking, neon orange flowers can look almost cartoonish --a caricature of flowers-- spaced out along emphatically upright, six- or even eight-foot stems. Leonotis leonurus in full bloom in the San Francisco Botanical Garden Of the nine to twelve or more recognized species of Leonotis, only lion's tail, a perennial or subshrub endemic to eastern South Africa, is reliably available in nurseries. Lion's ear (L. nepetifolia), an annual native from

11 06, 2021

Embracing Wildness and Change

Embracing Wildness and Change

Nora Harlow2024-06-27T19:27:47-07:00Categories: Blog, California Native, Nora Harlow|Tags: california native, nora harlow, garden maintenance|

It is possible that the most life-negating aspect of modern landscapes is the whole idea of landscape maintenance. Landscape maintenance implies -- no, insists -- that landscapes must be maintained as originally designed, whatever the costs and losses. A lightly maintained meadow garden in California In the service of what is called maintenance, most residential front yards and almost all commercial landscapes are forced into compliance, preserving the outlines of their original design but with virtually no sign of life. Shrubs considered too large or wrongly shaped are brutally distorted. Weeds and “bugs” are sprayed with pesticides. Soil,

19 05, 2021

Climate Change and Water Supply

Climate Change and Water Supply

Nora Harlow2024-06-27T19:27:47-07:00Categories: Blog, Water, Climate, Nora Harlow|Tags: water issues, climate|

Global temperatures have been rising at least since the middle of the last century, and most projections anticipate that this trend will continue. Effects of warming vary from one region of the world to another but prominently include the likelihood that precipitation will shift from snow to rain in many snow-fed watersheds. It is also likely that snow will melt faster and run off earlier, changing the timing of peak streamflow. Snow is an important, even critical, seasonal water source for many regions with large mountain ranges, including most summer-dry climates. Snowpack accumulates in the mountains in winter when demand

20 04, 2021

Mendocino Reed Grass

Mendocino Reed Grass

Nora Harlow2024-06-27T19:27:44-07:00Categories: grasses, California Native, Nora Harlow|

Commonly known as Mendocino or leafy reed grass, Calamagrostis foliosa is usually described as having blue-green or gray-green leaves with seasonal tints of purplish red, but that's not how it presents itself in my garden. Calamagrostis foliosa flowering in California garden This cool-season bunchgrass is worth growing not for the color of its fine-textured leaves, which for me emerge a rather dull green and remain so throughout the seasons. I grow it for its manageable size, its pleasingly symmetrical form, and the improbably long-lasting, greenish white flowers that remain neatly arrayed on arching stems as they age to

9 04, 2021

Living with Wildfire

Living with Wildfire

Nora Harlow2024-06-27T19:26:31-07:00Categories: Blog, Nora Harlow|

The goal of "firewise" landscaping is to reduce the intensity of fire and slow its advance as it nears the house. The basic principles are simple and few. Harden the target by making the house as resistant to fire as possible. Keep the area next to the house free of anything that will burn. Design and maintain planted areas farther out to provide no continuous path for fire to reach the house or move up into the tops of trees. Retain sufficient vegetation to buffer the house from airborne embers. Low plantings and concrete patio next to house reduce

16 02, 2021

Wildland Invaders and Garden Thugs

Wildland Invaders and Garden Thugs

Nora Harlow2024-06-27T19:26:27-07:00Categories: Blog, weeds, Nora Harlow|Tags: nora harlow, invasive plants|

Plants that readily establish themselves in wildlands, on vacant city lots, and along rural roadsides typically are adapted to a wide range of environmental conditions. They are long lived, self-sow readily, and produce many flowers over a long season. Some bear abundant crops of fruit loved by birds and other wildlife. In other words, some of the same sorts of plants we seek out for our gardens are those most likely to take over and spread. Echium candicans, Pride of Madeira, in a California garden Most plants are not invasive in wildlands or even weedy in gardens. Many

26 04, 2017

Oleander

Oleander

Nora Harlow2024-06-27T19:26:22-07:00Categories: Blog, shrubs, Nora Harlow|Tags: shrubs|

Nerium oleander Every so often it is worth reconsidering a once wildly popular plant that, apparently for no reason other than overexposure, has fallen completely out of favor. Agapanthus is one of those plants. Oleander (Nerium oleander) is certainly another. Overplanted in housing developments and along freeways in the 1960s and ‘70s, oleanders now seem to be seldom planted except by those who appreciate the dense screening provided by their lush evergreen foliage, their lengthy period of exuberant flowering, and their robust constitution. Oleanders are astonishingly tolerant of drought, reflected heat, wind, salt spray, poor soil, neglect, severe