Monday, September 29, 2008

My Inferno Strip

High Country Gardens has a selection of plants to thrive in what they call the inferno strip. This is a dry hot area of your garden where it is difficult to develop beautiful plants because of space and access. Mine is a narrow strip of soil (rocks in my case) between the retaining wall on the north side of my house and the walkway.

I bought into the concept believing that if there is an inferno strip, it is this area of my yard. These are the survivors.

Starting from the bottom, we have a salvia. I am afraid that I have forgotten which one and I bought it locally, not from High Country It's not a beauty yet but it does have some sky-blue flowers and it made it through the summer with little coddling.

Next is a penstemen (pine-leaf if I recall). It blooms in the spring and the rest of the time looks like this I started with two and this one is left

Next up is artemesia Seafoam. It doesn't bloom but is is attractive most of the time. This one is a survivor of two as well.

Finally, up top is an unlikely inferno dweller a self-seeded viola She popped up all by herself (and some siblings with her) and now as summer is fading has started blooming. I don't know how to explain her but she is definitely welcome.


2 comments:

Julie said...

That plant that is in the 3rd from the bottom pic is fantastic! Very unusual...I want one!!!

Ralph said...

If by that you mean the top one, then artemesia seafoam is your plant. Mine came from High Country Gardens. I don't know how it might like Florida. It's not clear yet that it likes California.