"As often happens when you say I’ll worry about it later, later happened, and spring brought a bumper crop of dandelions absolutely thrilled to have found a yard owned by an anti-pesticide crusader with no affinity for lawn care." —Maggie Slepian on why you should kill your lawn (on purpose).

https://longreads.com/2026/05/14/kill-your-lawn-maggie-slepian/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

#Lawn #Turfgrass #xeriscaping #Montana #PersonalEssay

Just set up the rain barrel for the season.

Then I ran across this. Pretty cool.

"Massachusetts Native Plant Palette
Welcome to the Massachusetts Native Plant Palette!

The MA Native Plant Palette is a website application that will allow users to explore native plants and create lists ("plant palettes") which they can then bring with them to their local nurseries or garden centers."
https://www.mass.gov/info-details/massachusetts-native-plant-palette

#NativePlants #Xeriscaping #Massachusetts

#LambsEar is doing very well 💚

#plants #perennials #foliage #leaves #botanical #gardening #xeriscaping #DroughtTolerant

Stage 2 of my little rock garden is complete. We had enough of the right sized aggregate and some pea gravel on hand to mulch the slope and most of the scree.
Micro weeding before spreading the aggregate was the hardest part. I left some local volunteers, including the ridiculously tall fleabane, just because I like them. They'll eventually be replaced by chosen imports.

#rockgardens #RockGarden #gardening #xeriscaping

The first rock garden plantings are starting to show. I've left some of the "local volunteers" to help hold the soil until I find just the right crushed stone mulch, and more plants of course.
Gritty rock garden with large and small boulders forming a slope and scree, backed by a grey parged wall. Purple Siberian irises, yellowish lewisia, and fuschia-pink dianthus are blooming. You can just make out small sedums between some of the rocks.

#gardening #gardens #rockgardens #alpinegarden #flowers #xeriscaping

It's garden planning time in our neck of the woods and I'm working on a planting list for the small rock garden I built last summer. Any suggestions or discussion of suitable plants would be welcome.

So far I have 2 small sedums to move in from a temporary location and an abundance of wild strawberry and creeping thyme all over the place.

The garden is south facing on a slope in full sun, North American climate Zone 4a, min winter temp -30C to -35C. There's a paved path on the south and west sides and a wall of the house on the east. This makes it fairly warm, and thus dry, in spite of the 80 to 100 cm of precipitation (much of that snow) it gets every year.

Edit to clarify: images were taken last summer. More snow today and coming this weekend.

#gardening #mastogardening #RockGarden #rockgardenplants #perennialgardens #xeriscaping

Garden featuring many South African native plants mixed with a few annual wildflowers outside the Mann Lab on the UC Davis campus.

#Garden #Xeriscaping #Flowers #DavisCA