Sierra Foothill Garden

Drought tolerant and colorful plants for any garden…

Sometimes you find an ideal list of plants suitable for your area to save and keep.  This time one of my customers at the nursery happened to bring in an especially nice one. We were able to impress each other,..they were because most of the plants they expected to order were right in the nursery and me, because they had the ideal plant list for our area.

When Tim and Barbara Fruehe, of Oakhurst, came into the True Value Garden Center they held a list of easy care drought tolerant and colorful plants they wanted for their garden. Each is perfect for a garden in the Sierra Foothills. Read about their garden renovation in the previous post here.

How did they know what to plant? Each plant was one they had planted before at Barbara’s former home during another project. They wanted plants that could take 100º heat and cold down to 10 degrees. They wanted to discourage deer and wanted to avoid pruning and fertilizing chores. Tim especially likes penstemons  and sage because of their long bloom time, from early spring to nearly December.

Take a look at the before and after:

Here is their list, tried and true:

Lavender, Spanish
Lavender, French
Lavender, English
Rosemary, upright and prostrate
Rockrose, Orchid and Sunset
Santolina, grey and green

Buddleia
Wallflower
Black-eyed Susan
Coreopsis
Gaura
Ceanothus(wild lilac)
Salvia, Autumn sage, Blue oak sage
Penstemon
Nepeta, Catmint
Artemisia
Iris
Day lilies
Agastache, Hummingbird mint
Thyme
Blue fescue
Russian sage

While at the garden center the couple looked over the plants just in and also chose Crape myrtles, Hardy hibiscus and Mimulus or monkey flower, and some grasses to add to their list.

I’ll be visiting after a year or so to update on what has worked the best for Tim and Barbara.

More about Tim and Barbara’s garden

Tim and Barbara’s carefree artist garden  The renovation

Tim and Barbara’s ‘ideal’ Foothill garden: One year later

More ideal plants: