What's a black thumb to do?
My new clients pointed to the double level planter outside their front door and informed me that they had never, ever, grown anything there that survived.
Ha! I love challenges. Not only will I make it grow, I told them, but I will also make it verrrrrry unique... (which in a neighborhood full of all-green yards and pygmy date palms, wasn't that hard to achieve...)
Well, it worked out so well that I thought it would be worth sharing the recipe.
INGREDIENTS
2 Variegated pink/red Phormium (Evening Glow, Lancer Terracotta)
1 Burgundy medium height Phormium (Bronze Baby or Platt's Black)
20 Coleonema 'Sunset Gold' (dwarf gold Breath of Heaven)
3 flats of Gazania 'Pinata' hybrid mix
3 Salvia greggii 'Furman's Red'
3 flats Sedum 'Confusum'
6 to 8 assorted succulents (Aeonium, Echeveria, and Kalanchoe)
2 small to medium Three River stone boulders
1 decorative pot
DIRECTIONS
Pick a sunny spot (at least four hours a day of sun)
Amend well with a mixture of Cactus Mix and Planting Compost
Plant Salvia greggii in curved row at back of planting bed.
Plant Phormium in triangular pattern in center area, four feet apart.
Place boulders and pot in triangular pattern near boulders and pot.
Plant Coleonema in row around edge of planting bed, three feet in.
Plant gazania in row on outside of Coleonema
Plant succulents around boulders and in pot.
Plant Sedum throughout planting bed to cover any bare soil.
Water well daily for first week, then reduce water to give a good deep water twice a week (more or less, depending on rain/temperature.
WATCH IT THRIVE!
