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Waterwise Gardening - a book review

Waterwise Gardening: Everything You Need To Know About Efficient Watering to Grow a Healthy Yard by Richard Restuccia Published by Rizzoli, 2025 I would guess that watering is the major issue that most gardeners grapple with, especially novice gardeners. I know from working at the nursery that the majority of questions and issues we get stem from either watering too much or not watering enough.  Many people in our area have sprinkler systems and I'm sure that can be a good thing if used properly but I feel that they primarily keep the lawns green but fall short for landscape plants. Especially when it comes to trees and larger plants, the timing and amounts are not satisfactory for many plants. I often hear people say that their sprinklers are set to come on every day - yikes! And there are those who did not water because it "rained" when it actually drizzled.  The best thing to do in this situation is to have a xeric garden but that would mean sacrificing favorite plant...

July doldrums

This is not exactly the most exciting time in the garden. Since we've finally received some rain (FINALLY!!), the weeds are taking off and the grass is greening up. The humidity is down and this was a pleasant weekend but still a tad hot. This morning I mowed, spread some mulch and did some minor weeding. I took these photos this afternoon.

The paniculata (PeeGee) hydrangeas are beginning to bloom. This one is called "Pee Wee."





Not many roses are blooming right now, but "Belinda's Dream" has several blooms.





I'm beginning to see frogs around the waterfall.





I think this is a rain lily but I don't remember the name of it. The color is fantastic.







Containers around the mailbox include coleus, million bells and ageratum.




Coleus are truly wonderful plants for containers. This one is called "Saturn."






This is becoming one of my favorite annuals - Begonia "Dragon Wing"




This is the first time I've grown this annual and I love it. It is called Dichondra 'Silver Falls' and is a trailing plant with silvery round leaves - they remind me of coins. I put it in a shallow concrete basket which has always been difficult to grow things in but this is doing quite well.



Text and photos by Phillip Oliver

Comments

  1. Great photos Phillip. I especially like the effect of the PeeGee looking through the "Gateway Of Light" between the trees. Not sure why but I was unable to view the first picture from July 22 as it would not download properly. DW

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you! Can you see all the photos now? - Phillip

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  3. I like the way you've used the Dichondra, like a silver waterfall. We call it silver ponyfoot around here, because of the round, cloven leaves.

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  4. Phillip,
    The top photo is still not coming through. DW

    ReplyDelete
  5. Oh dear! When I click on the Photo Label, I get 2 posts. But this one has 'there was a picture here' all over it. No pics at all ;>((

    ReplyDelete

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