Tag Archives: xeriscape

Jade Plant (aka Jade Tree, Money Tree) is a great landscape plant for the Sunnyvale garden. It is a succulent that needs little watering.

Common in our Sunnyvale yards but little known in the North American kitchen, purslane is both delicious and exceptionally nutritious. Common purslane (Portulaca oleracea) — also known as duckweed, fatweed, pursley, pussley, verdolagas and wild portulaca — is the most frequently reported “weed” species in the world. It can grow anywhere that has at least a two-month growing season. My …

Echinocactus grusonii, popularly known as the Golden Barrel Cactus is a well known species of cactus, and is endemic to east-central Mexico. My barrel cactus in Sunnyvale is 14 inches wide by 11 inches tall and is 30 years old. It started in a 4-inch pot. The plants do have some basic requirements; an average minimum winter temperature of 12°C …

California Poppy is a pretty native wildflower. It is very drought-tolerant and is excellent for xeriscapes. When the plant stops looking pretty, pull it up/break-it-off. The poppy seeds disperse widely so you will be surprised by the next year’s plants. I always have it in my Sunnyvale garden.

There are many great perennials and California-native plants that can beautify your yard for little water The whole Salvia genus Star jasmine Lantana Ceanthos

It is possible to water most of your Sunnyvale garden using drip irrigation. Our Bahl patio home has 3 external faucets: One in the front yard, one in the courtyard, and one in the backyard. We installed Y-connectors on the 3 faucets: We connect a hose to one connector and a drip timer to the other.

EASY TO GROW bringer of sunshine. EVERBLOOMING here along the coast-even in Winter, its form is tight & compact with small, dense, bright-green foliage 2.5’ tall & about 3’ across. Smothering itself in golden centered, red-tipped sunniest-yellow, many-rayed blooms 2” across, it’s one of those big-bang-for-the-buck fellows. Native to S. Africa & highly drought tolerant, it does look best with …

Common Cosmos, Mexican Aster. Cosmos are annuals, grown for their showy flowers. The flowerheads may be bowl– or open cup–shaped and are atop of long stems. Cosmos are easy to grow and make good border or container plants. They make for good decorations in flower arrangements and also attract birds, bees, and butterflies to your garden.   Family: Asteraceae (ass-ter-AY-see-ee) (Info) …

Aeonium arboreum “Schwarzkopf Black Rose” Succulent is a Latin word meaning juicy, and is descriptive of many plants and plant families that store water in their leaves, stems and roots. Succulents can survive long periods of drought, even to a year, with this storage capacity. Aeoniums have handsome rosettes of fleshy leaves, one of which bears a spectacular terminal holding …

Calandrinia is a plant genus that contains many species of purslane, including the redmaids. The genus was named for Jean Louis Calandrini, an 18th-century Swiss botanist. It includes around 150 species of annual herbs which bear colorful flowers in shades of red to purple and white. Plants of this genus are native to Australia, Chile, and western North America. This …