Garden Conditions

Slightly alkaline soil is the perfect home for some plants, but too much of a good thing can be detrimental to the health of many garden plants. One of the side effects of arid regions where rainfall is scant is alkaline soil with a high pH rating, but with attention and care, you can modify garden beds to lower the pH. Or you can choose plants that thrive in alkaline soil. Fortunately, here you'll find many low-maintenance, well-adapted performers that fill the bill.

All plants need light to grow. But you don't need full sun to nurture a dazzling array of care-free plants. In nature, many woodland wildflowers, bulbs, small trees, shrubs, and other plant treasures have adapted to grow where trees block out some sun. Many plants commonly grown in full sun can also adapt to partial shade, or may need it to survive hot climates.

One of the challenges of turning a shady spot into a lush, colorful garden is to compose a mixture of plants that will grow together happily without root competition. After all, where sun is scarce, not only must plants vie for light, but there's usually competition for moisture and nutrients below ground.

Enjoying breathtaking views and a sense of seclusion are just a few of the highlights of living and gardening on a hillside. But the same breezes that cool you on hot days can torment plants when the wind gains strength and whips everything, shredding leaves, limbs, and toppling pots. City gardeners with rooftop or terrace gardens face a similar challenge, as do seaside and lakeside gardeners, and even those with gardens that overlook an empty field. If the wind where you live sometimes nearly blows you off your feet, imagine what it can do to your plants.

Whether silhouetting a rocky coastline or a sandy beach, seaside gardens enjoy a gorgeous setting and views. But they appear deceptively calm and peaceful in contrast to the waves and sounds of the ocean and the starkness of the beach environment. In reality, seaside gardens take the brunt of the elements that are part and parcel to their ocean setting. Careful thought must go into their creation. Wind is often a constant presence, and placid weather can quickly turn into a raging gale as storms move over the water, with nothing to buffet their force.Tough, care-free plants are mandatory. If they can't resist wind, they'll be turned into confetti. If they won't tolerate salt spray, they'll be desiccated and possibly killed.

If you can't beat it, enhance it. A rock garden is a great way to handle a sloping front yard, or to artfully plant any hillside. Rock gardens showcase the natural beauty of stone as well as plants. A well-constructed rock garden will look as if it has been there forever, especially once the rocks are clothed in care-free plants. You can choose any style for your rock garden, from an informal tumble of stones to a simple garden built around existing ones. If you need to stabilize the slope, add small, stacked-stone retaining walls backfilled with good soil. They'll serve the additional purpose of creating more planting pockets for plants, particularly suited to those that require perfect drainage.

Some lucky gardeners are blessed with deep, friable, fertile soil. They are fortunate enough to have inherited soil with a loose, crumbly texture that makes it easy for plant roots to stretch out in all directions, absorbing all of the moisture and nutrients they need. But most gardens have more humble beginnings. But be assured that no matter what kind of soil you have, you can choose a number of garden-worthy plants that will thrive there, and no matter what sort of soil you have at the outset, simply improving it by incorporating organic matter sets the stage for a successful garden.

Every garden is dry sometimes, but in some climates and with some soil types, moisture is always at a premium. Scant rainfall typical of many places in the West, as well as in areas where late-summer droughts create temporary desert conditions, sets the stage for a garden created with dry soil in mind.

Plants that ramble and scramble over the ground are great problem solvers for inclines that are too steep to mow but not too steep to plant. At their best, ground-covers form a thick carpet of foliage that excludes weeds, retains moisture, and protects the soil against erosion.

Slopes are tough places to garden. Rain runs off a slope quickly so the soil is often dry and erosion from rain and wind can cause mudslides. So, how do you cope with a slope? Solutions depend on the steepness of the slope. Extremely steep slopes may be best topdressed in stone, but a rocky hillside need not be bare. Plants that are adapted to this kind of terrain can be tucked between stones, transforming a rocky outcrop into a beautiful garden.

Cool summers are a joy for people and plants alike. Some of the advantages of gardening in northern latitudes or at higher elevations in mountainous regions include low humidity and delightfully cool summer days that seldom exceed 80° F (27° C). Additionally, many coastal areas benefit from cooling lake or ocean breezes.

For most plants, a garden site that offers rich, loamy soil and full sun is the best of all possible worlds. Nearly everything you plant will thrive in this situation with little additional care, but to capitalize on the situation, consider growing care-free plants that have multiple endearing traits. For example, lavender and dianthus boast beautiful flowers and intoxicating fragrance. And their soothing gray-green foliage lets them and other silver-leaved plants, such as artemisia and dusty miller, combine well with any other plants. Silver-leaved plants can be paired with bright blooming perennials and shrubs, employed as a quiet, cooling presence along a sunny sidewalk, or cut and woven into indoor container bouquets.

To learn how plants that thrive in acid soil fit into their natural environment, explore a natural forest. The same forces that shape and nurture a forest create acid soil. Copious rain that filters through the trees and soaks the ground below leaches alkaline minerals, such as limestone sediment, from the soil, neutralizing it. At the same time the natural mulch of evergreen needles or the tannin-filled leaves of trees like oaks, which blanket the forest floor, contribute acidity to the soil as they begin to break down. So, unless a forest happens to be sitting atop a hefty deposit of crumbled limestone, the natural pH of its soil will be in the acidic range.

The reflection of clouds rolling by, the lazy hovering of a dragonfly on gossamer wings, and the chorus of frogs create a unique ambiance in a pondside garden. If you are lucky enough to have a pond, or have the ambition and budget to build one, you will marvel at the diversity of beautiful plants that thrive in its company, their colors and textures accentuated with remarkable clarity in close proximity to water.

All plants operate on solar power because of their unique talent for converting light into energy through a process called photosynthesis. So rejoice if you have a garden site with plenty of sun, because you're well on the way to having a garden that can support many kinds of foliage and flowering plants.

In most densely shaded sites, either large trees or buildings block the sun. And any barrier than can block sun can also stand in the way of rainfall, which explains why dense shade and dry soil go hand in hand. Your task is to find drought-tolerant plants that require scant light and moisture. It's a design bonus if they also brighten dim garden spots with colorful blossoms or leaves. If you also use a couple of light-reflecting tricks to supplement sunlight, all that's left for you to do is to irrigate as needed.

Gardening in the searing summer sun is always a challenge. Not only do plants wilt in the heat, but gardeners also suffer! But hot summers don't mean that you can't have a colorful garden. Numerous care-free plants with tropical temperaments crave high temperatures and strong sunlight.

Do you have a low, sunny spot that never seems to be dry enough to dig? Don't despair. While wet soil can be murder on plants that demand great drainage, there are plants that prefer this unusual niche. You can also plant moisture-loving trees as a care-free way to slowly change the nature of the site by removing some of the moisture from the soil and by introducing shade. In nature, trees often shade moist sites, and there is a wealth of shade- and moisture-loving perennials, shrubs, and other plants that have adapted to these conditions. So planting trees in a wet site opens up a whole new world of planting possibilities. Another care-free option is to simulate a low meadow, as might occur along the banks of a stream that floods often in winter and spring, introducing some of the plants that are native to these areas.

A woodland carpeted with wild flowers in spring is an unforgettable sight. Rich, moist soil coupled with dappled shade can foster not only native woodland treasures but also shade-loving plants from around the world. Woodlands and forests in Europe, Japan, and China have given us some of the most beautiful plants we can grow in our shady, moist gardens.

Do you mow a hillside over and over with little to show for your efforts? If so, consider transforming the area into a care-free wildflower meadow. A single annual mowing, in fall or spring, is usually sufficient to maintain such a meadow. And meadow plants growing on a slope present an impressive picture that changes costantly as different species come in and out of bloom. Meadow gardens are always packed with intrigue. And the show is a never-ending display of different plant combinations, usually pairing flowering plants with clump-forming grasses.