Freeway Daisies
For years, the dazzling white, trailing African daisy was a staple of highway landscaping, so much so that it earned the sobriquet “freeway daisy.” The plant proved astonishingly tough, a...
Category Archives: Ground Cover
Pink Yarrow’s 20 Years as Lawn Alternative
Choosing the right plant for the right place is part art, part science, part experience and part luck. As someone once said, you are always a beginner in the garden and, no matter how many years you ...
Dwarf Pink Yarrow as Lawn Substitute
Q: We have Marathon tall fescue grass in our rear yard that has never done well, possibly due to two Dobermans. However, they are much calmer now that they are older and won’t be around forever...
Dichondra ‘Silver Falls’
It used to be that winter was the season when you received seed and plant catalogs in the mail. You could sit by the window and watch the rain (or snow in colder climates) while leisurely leafing thr...
Fertility Plants
Every subject under the sun can be found in the Bible – even aphrodisiac and fertility-enhancing plants. In Genesis, Reuben goes into the wheat fields at harvest time and finds mandrake plants,...
Sedum confusum: Dreamy Ground Cover
Sedum confusum is the ground cover of my dreams, and might be of yours. Sedum confusum doesn’t have a common name, and is appropriately possessed of uncommon qualities. Unlike ivy, gazania and ...
Bacopa
Bacopa (buh-KOH-puh) answers the dilemma of gardeners in search of long-blooming plants for balcony containers and hanging baskets. It also does a magnificent job spilling out of planter boxes and tr...
A Brief History of Ground Cover
Much like clothes or furniture or hairstyles, gardens and landscapes change with the times. Many of the plants you see around you today are not the same ones your grandparents knew. Thanks to plant b...
Wiley Coyote Brush
Before people started to consciously landscape with California native plants, there was coyote brush (Baccharis pilularis). During those long years of drought in the late ’80s and early ’...
Getty Center Rooftop Garden
The new Getty Museum complex, rising atop the San Diego Freeway south of Mulholland Drive, will contain a 60,000-square-foot garden and an expansive rooftop, succulent garden. This is not a coinciden...
