As I stated earlier, I'm eagerly plotting (er, planning) next year's garden.

I'm still quite the newbie, but I do have the advantage of having lived in Colorado for 25 years, so I know just how dramatically variable our climate and conditions can be. Poor soil, wind, blizzards, floods, drought, grasshoppers -- I've seen it all.

Taking that into consideration, I'm hoping to compile a list of plants that could be considered "bulletproof" for my little backyard. Plants that don't just survive, but seem to actually thrive on adversity.

Here's what I got listed so far:

Lilacs
Bearded iris
Cinquefoil
Kale
Lamb's quarters
Sunflowers (wild or dwarf varieties)

Any other ideas? Feel free to add them to the list...

:)

I’ll be leaving for a few days again, so I probably won’t be one of the first ones to give you a helpful answer, but it will help everyone if you tell us what kind of light conditions you have—it sounds from your list like maybe it’s full sun—and are you looking for xeric things or do you plan to water regularly. Do you have run-of-the mill Colorado clay soil, or are you doing any major improvement to the soil when you plant? Are you dealing with any critters that eat or interfere with your garden? When we know your conditions, it’ll be a lot easier to recommend things that might work for you.

If you do have full sun, I’d be inclined to recommend Russian sage, Agastache, and some of the succulents—sedums (upright or spreading) and hen & chicks. Yarrow is another possibility, but many of the varieties can be INVASIVE, so be careful what you get if you’re thinking about that. All of those are xeric, and there are lots more—and lots of things that aren’t xeric too. If you need deer resistant, it becomes a little bit harder.

I have deer resistant lists, but I don’t have any bullet resistant lists—yet!
;-)
Skybird

Good luck
Billiie

Although 2009 will be the first year I experiment with flowers, what does well, meaning xeric and full sun/wind, for me is Coreopsis (sunburst?), French Dwarf Marigolds, Love in a Mist, Gallardia and Sunflower, and then the hardy succulents. Until I learn to propagate the succulents, I have a bunch of the rest for you:)

Deb

I forgot, the only tree I have gotten to live without protection here is Australian Pine. I just wish it gave more shade. Someday.

Billie

I don't need to do anything other than find an out of the way corner where a volunteer is already growing and leave it to produce seed. The next Spring, little purple plants will be all over the place.

I can decide where a few dozen (or hundred ;o) would be appropriate and allow them to reach harvest size. And, I've directly planted saved seed on my own, especially so that I've got the "greens" for a little longer during the growing season.

I'm not much of a fresh salad person. I prefer stir-fries. Orach is just great fresh - I wouldn't make this claim re: lambs quarters even tho' I snack on it quite a little while working in the garden. Orach is so tender and flavorful, I suppose that I prefer it to spinach fresh . . . not sure, just suppose.

digitS'

I just came across this online Washington Post article:

So, I turned on the speakers and turned up my hearing aids and clicked the 3 (!?!) pronunciation buttons on the link below. The way I say it is found with the "(ôrich, or-)"

Now, I suppose all those interesting symbols won't be reproduced here on GW . . . but, you can click the link below.

d'S'

About my yard: First of all, it is quite small compared to the size of the house -- roughly 20" by 15" in the front, and 50" by 15" in the back. The inner parts of these rectangles are ringed by about 5 or 6 feet of landscaping "river rocks". The rest is grass, a mottled mix of xeric fescues. No trees, no shrubs, nothing else -- except for two 4 x 4" raised beds and many, many containers of flowers and herbs. The backyard is on a rather steep slope going *upwards* from the house, surrounded on all sides by 8 ft wooden fencing and neighbor's houses. Sun exposure is southern in the front, northern in the back. Over the course of the year, the backyard manages to get lots of sun, however. Soil is a sandy-clay mix, with some compost that was added a few years ago with the sod. Drainage is fairly good, overall. Watering is currently a conventional sprinkler system, but can be expanded into a drip system. This year I watered my raised beds and containers by recycling aquarium water and/or using the garden hose sprayer.

Lots of critters visit, despite the fence and rows of suburban homes. I think this is because of our collection of birdfeeders and birdbaths. Not only do we get many species of songbirds, but cottontails, fieldmice, mourning doves, red-winged blackbirds, hawks, owls, and the occasional cat stop by. Not many squirrels yet, as this is a new neighborhood with no mature tree cover. I kept the bunnies out of the lettuce by putting chicken wire on posts around the raised beds. Not very pretty, but it worked. The field mice behaved themselves, but if their population gets too big again, I'll do what I did last year: catch them in live traps and release in a far off meadow.

What I'm hoping to do next year is to change the massive ring of boring rocks into a multi-use raised bed area of veggies, fruits, flowers and the like. After my first year of in-the-dirt gardening, I'm hooked!

The reason I'm asking about "bulletproof" plants is that I realize that our area is a challenge for new gardeners, so I'd like to have a handful of plants to cheer me up if others don't make it for whatever reason. E.g., this year much of my fledgling garden was shredded by hail, but the kale didn't seem fazed by it at all.

I am working on making an actual diagram and list of plants, but am hoping to get a few more ideas from more experienced folks such as yourselves. (I'll definitely look into orach now, for example. Thanks!)

Thanks again,

Laura

Do you know which fescues they are? I've planted some sheep fescue, which is supposed to do really well with little or no water. I'm using streambank and western wheatgrass in the front lawn. I'm always willing to learn more about xeric grasses.

During the drought they turned brown in spots, but recovered quite well; however the wet spring of 2006 nearly did them in with snow mold. It took until this year for the resulting bare patches to fill in, because I think the seed we used to re-seed was too old to germinate.

If one is used to a uniform Kentucky bluegrass lawn, it may take awhile to get used to a mix like this, because after a few years the different varieties tend to separate and look like a patchwork quilt. Also, the stems can be quite tough to mow if you let them mature. (But then , I use a manual reel push mower and am small in stature. Heh.)

However -- if you want to save water and like variety, this is a good option. Just realize that it might not win any "best lawn in the neighborhood" awards.