6 Top Drought Resistant Ground Covers All Summer Long
My 6 Top Drought Resistant Ground Covers This Year
The drought is tough on plants and the best thing to do for them is to mulch them or smother the beds with ground covers that prevent moisture from evaporating and keep the soil cool. Here are 6 top drought resistant ground covers I have grown this year. The drought has meant that the plants are going over sooner than expected.
Flowers are going to seed, the maple leaves are already tinged with red and the blackberries are blackening. This time last year my Stargazer lilies were only just starting to bud but this year they and all the other late blooming orientals are in full bloom or already fading. (I also have the most gorgeous yellow Tiger lily just opened).
The Shirley poppies are still doing their bit, I’m pleased to say, but all the other poppies are long gone. I’m having a second flowering from some of the roses, which have proved to be remarkably drought resistant. Not one of the lupines I so carefully nurtured has done anything and my French neighbor told me he also tried and failed with them. The Naked Ladies (Crinums) are busting out all over as they say, along the highways, the byways and the fence lines. I was so taken by them last year that I begged and borrowed a few bulbs and I’m pleased to say that a couple have already agreed to flower for me less than a year after transplanting. From South Africa, these Crinums get their unusual common name from the fact that they send up their beautiful, scented flowers before they get their leaves.
My 6 Top Drought Resistant Ground Covers
The stars of the flower beds right now are the drought resistant ground covers, most of which are in full flush and look like they’ll continue for some time to come. Since I only water my garden once a week, all the plants I grow have to be pretty drought resistant but that doesn’t mean they will thrive with no water. Even the hardy Erigeron needs the odd sprinkling every now and then.
- My Lotus ground cover, grown from a cutting, has done me proud and spread at least two feet in all directions, trailing over the raised bed, down to the ground. Its fiery orange red lobster claw blooms really hit you in the eye as you come in through the gate.
2) The native Selene Vulgaris Maritima (Sea Campion) has been equally generous and its cute white balloon flowers have a calming effect on the lotus. I highly recommend this little beauty as it is very hardy and is also easily multiplied by cuttings. Mine has variegated leaves and there is also a plain green leafed one.
3) I have another great drought tolerant ground cover that is spreading beautifully called a California fuchsia but it’s not really a fuchsia at all. It is an Epilobium. Whatever its name, it is sun loving, has bright right flowers and a very prostrate habit, perfect for edging a raised bed.
4) A genuine, and most unusual fuchsia growing in among all these other treasures is the native Creeping fuchsia which I mentioned in one of my earlier articles. It is the only fuchsia that lies flat, has tiny little neon flowers in early summer and then produces huge red berries. It’s happy under my tree and is mingling nicely.
5) Of course, there are the annual ground covers too, which always put on a wonderful display, like Alyssum for example, or 6) Lobelia and, of course, as a bonus, one of my favorite drought resistant ground covers, the wild ones of the garden, Nasturtiums, which run up and down my side beds in all their riotous glory. I just love their exuberance and their jewel colors, even if I do have to be strict now and then. They thrive in dry conditions and, in fact, don’t flowers nearly as profusely if you water them too much. A perfect choice for California right now.
Please share if you enjoyed this and in the meantime, happy gardening!
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