Globe Thistle September 13, 2008

Another one on my must-buy list for the parking strip garden is globe thistle, or echinops. I like how the botanical name sounds like a kind of dinosaur, or maybe a Greek philosopher. And the leaves are so lovely and dark green and pointy, with those cute, totally spherical, purple spiky flowers that look like exploding fireworks. It grows in poor soil and full sun (although it can supposedly take better soil and part shade), and the flower heads are still interesting even after their color fades.

Here’s one I saw in a neighbor’s street garden. It was planted in a raised bed, maybe to help with drainage. I’m going to guess it’s echinops ritro, or small globe thistle, but I could be wrong there.

Supposed to make great cut/dried flowers, and to be a good one for the bees and butterflies too. Also good for xeriscaping as it doesn’t require much water once established.

Hm, if echinops was a dinosaur, would it be a meat-eater or a vegetarian?

Urban Oasis September 5, 2008

I was driving home from dropping my kid off at Day 2 of Kindergarten today and almost crashed the car when I spotted this garden. Talk about flower power! My photos do not do it justice, I hope to go back on a less brightly sunny day and try to capture the brilliance of the colors before they’re gone.

The front garden is obviously a long-term project, but the parking strip has been recently planted. It extends past neighboring houses on both sides and was so carefully harmonized with repeating plants and colors that I suspected it was a professional job.

By pure chance, the owner came outside just as I was about to leave, and I asked if he’d be willing to talk about his garden and have it featured on this site. He was totally agreeable and said that one of the main focuses of his business, Oasis Gardens & Design in Seattle, is to encourage people to get rid of their lawns and put in water-wise plants.

He has lived in this home for 15 years, and the tall palm in the front of his house was a baby when he planted it. He doesn’t wrap the palms in winter and they seem to survive just fine in Zone 8. He also doesn’t whack the banana plants back and they grow taller every year (no fruit though, too cold for that).

He had a lot of super bright orange, purple, and yellow plants, it reminded me of a Northern California garden. He said this plant, of which he had many in an incredible array of desert-like colors, is a gazania. Native to Africa and an aster relative, it has low water use once established and is grown as an annual or half-hardy perennial in colder climates.

It looks great with purple-hued flowers and his plan is to allow Minus Thyme to form a mat between the taller plants. It will also provide a tough groundcover for the currently blank space in the parking strip where he needs to load out his gardening tools for the business.

If you live in the Seattle area and need a garden designer, installer, and/or maintainer, call Don Peterson at 206-525-0830 or email him at OasisGardensDon@Comcast.net