Sedums HAVE become much more popular, but I'm still amazed that they're not used more. Our front door sedum bed (in the mountains) is wonderful, full of colors and textures, and changing with the seasons.
Here's what it's looking like currently.
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| sedums in early June |
I like to encourage folks to think about the views from their windows and front doors, as they're planning their gardens and landscapes (in programs that I do in my work).
In spite of it being 'low-maintenance,' we weren't happy with just mulch and stone outside our front door in our mountain house. (No green welcome and nothing to check, enjoy, and tend....Hrrmph, is what we thought.)
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| front before raised beds (after planting of sedums) |
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| front door view in the mountains |
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| sedum bed from front path |
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| Potted carnivorous plants |
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| Expanded sedum bed |
It's been rewarding to enjoy the changes in the sedum bed in front of our small house in the mountains over the last year.
The delightful sequence of flowers has been an unforeseen addition to the colors and textures of their foliage, much of which is evergreen, too.
The jewel-like foliage colors contrasting with flowers of different colors and heights are quite remarkable.
I never imagined a sedum bed would be such a nice addition to the front of our small mountain house.
Practically care-free, it was planted in a curved area defined by the previous owner's landscape (but left mulched). It glows with different colors and textures. We planted it in June, 2009, and it's sailed through a harsh winter and is looking great.
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| Sedum bed with raised stone vegetable beds beyond |
Our small sedum garden is doing wonderfully well. In the mountains, afternoon thunderstorms have returned, bringing plenty of soaking rains.
Our small sedum planting and pitcher plant bog are doing well. They reflect our urge to plant and transform mulch to green, even if our mountain space is focused on rejuvenation and we look into a forest towards the back.
These plants seem to be thriving with intermittent summer rain (so definitely they're low-maintenance so far).
I'm going to submit a landscape plan for the front getting ready for fall planting (it's required because of the historic district location). Uh-oh.
My gardening companion admired some exuberant perennial plantings this morning in the flower garden at Biltmore Estate (Joe-Pye, Rudbeckia lacianata, a beautiful rose-pink Monarda didyma selection, pink Asclepias, along with a deep pink butterfly bush, and many other things, and said 'could our front yard look like that?' Hmmm, I'm not sure that we're willing to apply the water to make that happen but I can create low-water use perennial beds, for sure.
Sedums are one of my favorite groups of drought tolerant plants. I like to use the
m in window boxes and containers, where they thrive with minimal care. They also have a tremendous diversity of habits, color, and form within the large numbers of species available, although with much cultivar diversity.
I was admiring a green roof display at a mountain nursery a couple of weeks ago, and took my gardening companion back to look at some other plants (thinking that he'd enjoy the sedums, too).
They were exceptionally attractive (happily, he doesn't need much encouragement) and we set about adding a small sedum garden in the dry mulched area above the bog-in-progress.
We even went back the next day to get more to add, along with a few with some height.
We're hoping that they'll thrive with minimal care!
Our gardening assistant (perhaps I should say 'supervisor') seems to approve.
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