To the Max
I'm going to plant Maximillian sunflowers along this east facing, barren side of our garage. A couple volunteers popped up, but more are needed, so I'll plant a whole row of them.
There is no property setback here, so the side of our garage is directly on the property line, and the sandy open area bordering our driveway is common land with a paved walking trail through it. It's not my area to plant, and getting any water over there would be difficult.
The clumpy blobs on the slope are self seeded grasses, and although the whole stretch is more bare sand than grass, it gets very pretty in fall all along our driveway as the seedheads turn tawny.
I like the spare look of this natural "brown space", but the gardener in me wants something along that stark garage wall. I'd love to get some of the bare spots filled in with more native grasses, too, but without a way to water all of that, it won't happen, and it's not my space to garden.
But a row of sunflowers at the base of the garage wall might be doable, and my neighbor has planted some at the foot of her fence on the common land side nearby.
Helianthus maximiliani would do well in this sunny, dry, inhospitable sand -- it's what the plant loves. Along with cowpen daisies, Maximilian sunflowers are seen in late summer growing wild all over Santa Fe on disturbed land and untended ground. They are tough.
They were named after the German prince Maximilian, a naturalist who explored the Great Plains in the 1830s, but the max in his name really describes this plant. These sunflowers can grow to be 8 feet tall. And they really are the sunniest, brightest, biggest, boldest things in late summer.
And . . . just after I posted this, I saw that the wholesale greenhouses at Waterwise are opening for one day next weekend, and they have Maximilian sunflowers for sale. Guess where I'll be then?
There is no property setback here, so the side of our garage is directly on the property line, and the sandy open area bordering our driveway is common land with a paved walking trail through it. It's not my area to plant, and getting any water over there would be difficult.
The clumpy blobs on the slope are self seeded grasses, and although the whole stretch is more bare sand than grass, it gets very pretty in fall all along our driveway as the seedheads turn tawny.
I like the spare look of this natural "brown space", but the gardener in me wants something along that stark garage wall. I'd love to get some of the bare spots filled in with more native grasses, too, but without a way to water all of that, it won't happen, and it's not my space to garden.
But a row of sunflowers at the base of the garage wall might be doable, and my neighbor has planted some at the foot of her fence on the common land side nearby.
Helianthus maximiliani would do well in this sunny, dry, inhospitable sand -- it's what the plant loves. Along with cowpen daisies, Maximilian sunflowers are seen in late summer growing wild all over Santa Fe on disturbed land and untended ground. They are tough.
They were named after the German prince Maximilian, a naturalist who explored the Great Plains in the 1830s, but the max in his name really describes this plant. These sunflowers can grow to be 8 feet tall. And they really are the sunniest, brightest, biggest, boldest things in late summer.
And . . . just after I posted this, I saw that the wholesale greenhouses at Waterwise are opening for one day next weekend, and they have Maximilian sunflowers for sale. Guess where I'll be then?
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