Tag: drought tolerant

Trio of Gardens highlights what’s possible outdoors

Posted on By Maria J. Glover
GARDEN

For 26 years Keep Midland Beautiful’s annual Trio of Gardens has delighted and entertained thousands of visitors with an array of garden designs and planting advice. To get ideas on beautifying your own piece of Midland, you are invited to attend the 26th annual Trio of Gardens from 1 to 4 p.m. on Sept. 11. Here you can talk with the Permian Basin Master Gardeners in three of Midland’s most beautiful private gardens and get information and best-practice tips on West Texas gardening.

Each garden on the tour showcases versions of West Texas landscaping. All feature plants and designs that emphasize water conservation and proper plant selection. You may be surprised to see what all is possible.

You may also be surprised that having a beautiful and lush garden does not require massive amounts of water for irrigation, just proper irrigation techniques.

Keep Midland Beautiful will have resources will be available at the Trio of Gardens tour for you to take home and are always available by on the Keep Midland Beautiful or the Permian Basin Master Gardeners websites.

Ticket and Event Information

The 26th Annual Trio of Gardens is presented by Occidental Petroleum, The Morrow Family Foundation, ConocoPhillips, Karmen and Billy Bryant, Fasken Oil and Ranch Ltd, SM Energy, and Republic Services for the benefit of Keep Midland Beautiful. 

Tickets can be purchased in advance for $12 each at www.keepmidlandbeautiful.org. Or look for the QR code on posters around Midland. For your convenience, tickets may also be purchased for $15 on the day of the event at any of the garden locations.

Ticket purchasers are eligible to win a $500 gift certificate to Alldredge Gardens, graciously donated by Alldredge Gardens. 

Other sponsors of Trio of Gardens are The Midland Reporter-Telegram, NewsWest 9, West Texas Radio Group, Julie

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Salvias for My New Garden

Posted on By Maria J. Glover
GARDEN

Little did I realize that when I agreed to a garage expansion for my husband’s Mustang restoration project, I was also in for a garden restoration project. After the water-loving camellias, azaleas, and ferns were bulldozed from the north side of the old garage, I recognized the opportunity to establish a truly drought tolerant garden. Now, where to start? 

I checked the Master Gardener and City of Visalia web sites for landscaping ideas and plants, and the plant Salvia came up over and over. So, that’s what I considered first. 

The name Salvia is derived from the Latin word, salver, which means: “to heal.” As it happens, Salvia has been used for its herbal and medicinal qualities since ancient times. The genus Salvia offers gardeners one of the largest and most versatile groups of plants available. Since the 1970s, this genus has produced some of the most popular garden ornamentals. Salvias can be used as ground covers, bedding plants, herbaceous perennials and shrubs. A relative of the familiar kitchen sage, many types of Salvias produce spikes of small, densely packed flowers atop aromatic foliage. These heat- and drought-tolerant beauties bloom from early to late summer in shades of blue, violet, red, pink, and white. Plants can grow between 18 inches and 5 feet tall, depending on the variety. 

The genus offers a wide range of forms, textured foliage and vibrantly colored flowers that combine well with most other plants in the landscape. Many species attract hummingbirds, butterflies and bees, but fortunately, not deer and rabbits. It is the scent of their leaves, one we humans find so inviting, that acts as a foul- smelling repellent to garden pests. 

They are adaptable to almost any garden condition, from full sun to partial sun, and there are a few that will

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Salvias are the perfect thing for my new garden | Master Gardener | Lifestyles

Posted on By Maria J. Glover
GARDEN

Little did I realize that when I agreed to a garage expansion for my husband’s Mustang restoration project, I was also in for a garden restoration project.  After the water-loving camellias, azaleas, and ferns were bulldozed from the north side of the old garage, I recognized the opportunity to establish a truly drought tolerant garden. Now, where to start? 

I checked the Master Gardener and City of Visalia websites for landscaping ideas and plants, and the plant Salvia came up over and over.  So, that’s what I considered first. 

The name Salvia is derived from the Latin word, salver, which means: “to heal.”  As it happens, Salvia has been used for its herbal and medicinal qualities since ancient times.  The genus Salvia offers gardeners one of the largest and most versatile groups of plants available.  Since the 1970’s, this genus has produced some of the most popular garden ornamentals.  Salvias can be used as ground covers, bedding plants, herbaceous perennials and shrubs.  A relative of the familiar kitchen sage, many types of Salvias produce spikes of small, densely packed flowers atop aromatic foliage.  These heat- and drought-tolerant beauties bloom from early to late summer in shades of blue, violet, red, pink, and white.  Plants can grow between 18 inches and 5 feet tall, depending on the variety. 

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Why planting trees to cool your garden is a good idea

Posted on By Maria J. Glover
GARDEN

July is the ideal month to assess our need for trees. We may not even want to step out into the garden because of blistering heat, which could easily be mitigated by planting trees that cool the air, however.

It’s not only that trees provide shade but they literally cool the air through “transpiration cooling.” Transpiration has been referred to as botanical sweating. Just as the function of sweat is to cool us down on a hot day, transpiration cools down leaves and the air around them. Transpiration occurs when water passes from soil to roots all the way up to leaves. The final step in water’s transpiring ascent is when it exits leaves but hovers over them in gaseous vapor form. As heat passes through the vapor, there is a cooling effect. We experience this when we get out of a pool on a hot day and feel chilly because as the water on our skin turns to vapor, the hot air passing through the vapor cools the air.

This also explains why plants can wilt on a cool day if a strong wind is blowing. If the thin, cooling layer of water vapor on leaf surfaces is dispersed, the air surrounding leaves dries out. As fast as water is taken up through transpiration, it is immediately lost to the ambient dry air on a windy day. Eventually the leaves lose turgidity and wilt since the rate of transpiration or water ascent in the plant cannot keep up with the rate of foliar water loss.

Of course, the function of transpiration is not merely to keep leaves cool, but also to bring the hydrogen in water molecules up to leaves where photosynthesis, the process by which plants make their own food, takes place. Photosynthesis uses solar energy to

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