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Fragrance Garden |
Many of the plants
of the Southwest are among the most fragrant of all plants.
Placing them near sitting areas or along sidewalks will result
in a pleasant fragrance experience for most of the year. |
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Hummingbird Garden |
Plant the
hummingbird plants and they will come. Further, sugar
water is not particularly healthy for hummingbirds, so by
featuring these plants in your garden, you are doing these great
little visitors a considerable favor. |
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Moonlight Garden |
A moonlight garden
consists of plants which have light colored branches and
foliage, and white flowers which can be seen in the moonlight
... a great feature for warm summer nights. |
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Mountain Garden |
Many trees and
shrubs which grow several thousand feet above the Mojave Desert,
grow well in the High Desert and require little or no water once
established. Indeed, you can have the Lake Arrowhead or
Crestline look if you so desire. |
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Songbird Garden |
Food and nesting
sites are an attraction for songbirds and the plants featured in
this garden selection do just that. |
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Sonoran Garden |
Many plants of the
Mojave Desert also grow in the much lower and hotter Sonoran
Desert and visa versa. It should also be noted that some
Sonoran plants will not grow, however, in the High Desert.
Here is a selection that will. |
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Thornless Garden |
Plants for a park
or for a place where children will be playing are obviously more
ideal if they are thornless. Most of these plants,
however, do not do well with the volume of water it takes to
maintain grass. |
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Nurseries |
A list of nurseries
which inventory native plants native to the High Desert of the
Western Mojave |
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Planting |
Here is a "How To"
for planting success of native plants |
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Watering |
This is required
reading if you are to understand our philosophy of watering
native plants which are planted from pots |
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High Pollinators |
All high
Pollinating plants are not necessarily totally undesirable, but
their application should take place with eyes widen open.
Clearly high pollinating plants should not be used in
landscaping for a health care facility, or in a condominium,
apartment, or hotel courtyard. Neither should these plants
be set close to a house, especially if it has occupants who are
afflicted with asthma or allergies. The high pollinators
are plants which use the wind to spread their pollen. The
worst are dioecious plants which have separate male and female
plants. Here the males must expel huge volumes of pollen
in order to germinate distant female individuals to ensure the
survival of the species. In landscaping, one must go no
further that the junipers, cypresses, ephedras (Mormon teas) and, of course, corn to
find such culprits.
But there also monoecious plants which depend on the wind
for pollination, even though both male and female sex organs are
on the same plant. Though these plants do not emit the
same volume of pollen as the dioecious plants, they nonetheless
are relatively high pollinators, and should not be used in the
aforementioned landscape applications. The main culprits
in this category are the conifers (pines, firs, and spruces),
oaks, acacias (including the mimosa or silk tree), poplars
(including the cottonwoods and aspen), sumacs, olives, and
numerous grasses including fescue, bermuda, bluegrass, and gamma
grass.
Some people may be allergic even to plants which do not
emit pollen, but have fragrances caused by aromatic oils in
leaves or flowers. Such hyper-allergic persons should do
their research before purchasing any aromatic plant. |
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Invaders |
Invasive plants are
a major problem in the High Desert. Particularly
vulnerable is that area of the Mojave River in which water
remains on the surface the year-round. Most of these
plants send their seeds down river during the rains where they
germinate and choke out native species. By far, the most
invasive plant is the High Desert are the Phragmites, or as most
people call them, River cane or Bamboo. These plants can
not only reproduce sexually by seed, but they can reproduce
asexually with rhizomes. The national data base of
invasive plants lists, in addition to Phragmites, Olives and
Salt Cedar or Tamarisk. We have observed Mimosa and Pampas
grass invaders growing along the Mojave River in Victorville and
Oro Grande, as well. Please visit this link for the
government list of invasive plants:
http://www.invasivespeciesinfo.gov/plants/main.shtml. |
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Water Hogs |
All riparian plants
are water hogs whose only valid use in the High Desert, in some
cases, is along
the shores of the Mojave River or on park or limited
residential lawns in which the grass must be watered regularly
anyway. Nonetheless, many riparian plants have shallow roots
and have a propensity to damage nearby sidewalks, driveways, and
foundations, and to invade septic tanks and sewer lines.
The riparian plants seem to be the most popular plants offered
at the local nurseries, particularly the "big box" hardware
stores who, despite their advertising claims, seem to know
little about what kind of plants are best for the High Desert.
The following are some riparian plants which meet the
aforementioned description:
| Alders |
Cottonwoods |
Weeping Willow |
| Ashes |
Poplars |
Wild Roses |
| Aspens |
Sycamores |
Willows |
| Betonies |
Palm Trees |
Salt Cedars or Tamarisks |
|
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Non-native Plants |
Even though they
are endorsed by many local agencies as being drought-tolerant,
few non-native plants are suitable for the high desert.
Almost all require much more water than do any of the
non-riparian native plants ... case-in-point: Cork Oak,
Italian Stone Pine, Austrian Black Pine, Aleppo Pine, and
Spanish Oak, to name a few, all require moderate watering, much
more than the native plants. And, the often recommended
local native Singleleaf Pinon Pine is impossible to grow
successfully as a small tree in anything by a highly governed
nursery setting. |
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Food Gardens and Orchards |
There is nothing
better nor healthier than fruits and vegetables from one's own
garden. We would hope that there never comes a time when
such endeavors are discouraged. So few citizens pursue
home gardening that we doubt that their effect upon the water
usage statistics is even measurable. |
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Palm Trees |
Palm trees are
beautiful and majestic, but they do not grow well in the High
Desert, and they use considerable water. They are not native. To plant them is a
gamble. Many, if not most, will die as a result of the
severe winter of 2006-2007. Hundred of thousand of dollars, if
not millions, will be lost this year to those who gambled.
Many nurseries and landscape architects assured their customers
and clients that palm trees could survive the extreme weather of
the High Desert. They were dead wrong. |
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Other Observations |
| 1. Native plants like their debris.
Some do not drop a great deal of debris, but others do.
Native plant debris is not flammable, not even pine
needles or oak leaves because their is little oxygen in
the debris layer. Rake up this debris and your
native plants will not thrive. The debris keeps
out competing weeds and retains needed moisture.
If you are bothered by the appearance of the debris, it
can be replaced by a layer of cedar chips. Once
the cedar chips are in place, allow the debris to rot
and break down into the cedar chips. Sorry, but
this may take a little time. also, do not pile the
cedar chips up around the trunk. This may cause
trunk rot and kill the plant. |
| 2. When planting native plants, dig a hole
three times as wide and twice as deep as the pot.
Mix only 10% to 20% mulch into the removed soil.
Refill the bottom of the hole to slightly higher that
the depth of the soil in the pot. Tamp the bottom
of the hole to the point that the dirt on the pot will
be level with the ground. Remove the native plant
from the pot. With the help of a fork, gently
separate the roots if they are root bound. Set the
plant into the hole and fill in the with the remaining
soil. Build a slight berm around the plant,
ideally twice the diameter of the limbs. Water
twice. Water the plant according to the directions
herein for the first year. Water sparingly to not
at all for shrubs and perennials the following year.
Wean trees off of water more slowly, allowing three
years for clay loam soils and four years for sandy
soils. |
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For further information, landscape architecture services or
consulting for the High Desert, contact: |
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Larry Sunderland |
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Four Directions Institute |
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P. O. Box 400385 |
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Hesperia CA 92340 |
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sundy@fourdir.com |
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