Lot Lines – the Official Blog of Outdoor Design Group, Colorado Landscape Architects
Dog Tuff African Dogtooth Grass: The Best Turf Grass for Hot & Dry Sites
Do you love having a lush lawn, but hate the idea of wasting water? Do you have dogs who leave unsightly dead spots in your lawn where they’ve urinated? If you answered yes to either of these questions, then Dog Tuff African Dogtooth Grass (Cynodon ‘PWIN04S’) may be the best choice of turf grass for you. Dog Tuff is drought tolerant, resistant to dog urine, thrives is full hot sun, and is soft underfoot. Dog Tuff is a sterile variety of Bermuda grass, so it won’t spread via seeds. Dog Tuff grass was developed by respected Colorado horticulturalist Kelly Grummons. Kelly is working with High Country Gardens, and Plant Select to market this product. Watch this Plant Select video to see Kelly discussing this wonderful product:
Kelly has been working on bringing Dog Tuff to market for over ten years. The original parentage for this grass is native to South Africa, where a lush patch of it was found on a ranch. Dog Tuff is a “warm-season” grass, so it does not green up as early as blue grass. However, as Kelly mentions in the video, Dog Tuff needs only a fraction of the water to survive as compared to bluegrass. Dog Tuff grass will grow in many soil types, but it does need full sun (6 or more hours of direct sun). Dog Tuff is rated hardy to USDA zone 5.
We recently provided design services for a public park in Arvada, Colorado, where we incorporated Dog Tuff grass into an area the park. It was planted last year and is doing well. We are excited to have this as part of a park where people can visit and see the grass in person.
If you are planning a new lawn, or if you are thinking about replacing your current lawn with a more drought tolerant type of grass, you should consider incorporating Dog Tuff African Dogtooth grass in your home landscape.
This is the official blog of Outdoor Design Group, Colorado Landscape Architects. For more information about our business and our services, please visit our website at odgdesign.com.
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10 tips for Choosing the Best Plants for Commercial Sites
The landscaping on commercial sites may be low on a business owner’s list of priorities for their property. But you should not underestimate the positive influence an attractive landscape can have on potential clients. With this in mind, here is a list of ten issues to consider for choosing the right plants to keep your property’s landscaping looking and functioning at its best.
Non-Invasive
Some very hardy plants would be great choices for commercial landscapes if not for their tendency and ability to invade and spread where they are not wanted. This may happen via seedlings or by creeping rhizomes (horizontal underground stems that can send out new roots and shoots). Luckily, here in Colorado and the Inter-Mountain West, our growing climate is challenging for many invasive plants that have ravaged milder climates in North America. However, there are some plants you should never allow to take root in Colorado due to their invasive nature. For a list of plants see: http://www.invasivespeciesinfo.gov/unitedstates/co.shtml; http://www.ext.colostate.edu/ptlk/2041.html
Blonde Ambition Grama Grass and English Lavender
Disease Resistant
Nobody wants to spend extra money or time dealing with or replacing diseased or dying plants. Avoid choosing plants that are easily susceptible to attack from disease or pests.
Long Lived
Along the same lines of replacing diseased plants prematurely, nobody wants to spend time and money replacing plants that live short lives. The cost of purchasing and installing landscape plants is significant, so it is wise to choose plants that will stand the test of time.
Adaptable to various exposures
The location you are planting on your property may currently be in any degree of exposure from full sun to full shade. But conditions may change in the near future. Will a new building or new trees be placed on the neighboring property? Conversely is a structure or tree slated to come down, creating a new pocket of full sun? Picking plants with higher adaptability to various exposures will ensure success for your landscape.
Adaptable to various soils
The soils in my area are typically heavy in clay with a high (alkaline) pH. This is one more challenge to add to the list of issues that face landscape plants. For best success and longevity, choose plants adapted or adaptable to the soil conditions on your property.
Adaptable to variable moisture levels
You may be familiar with desert plants and you may be familiar with rainforest plants. These two extremes of ecology illustrate the wide variability of climate that plants live in. Your landscape likely falls somewhere in between these extremes. However, even in the most average commercial landscape, we might find wide degrees of moisture and irrigation levels. Having plants that can handle these extremes will help ensure your landscapes do well.
Drought Tolerant
Although nearly all municipalities require automatic landscape irrigation, it is good if the plants you specify for a site are truly drought tolerant.
But on the flip side, some plants that are considered very low water plants may be more difficult to establish on a commercial site due to over watering. Many but not all native plants fall in this category. They are more fussy about soils and drainage. They may need to be ruled out of the “set it, and forget it” situation that many commercial clients may seek. But if you have the time or the staff to work with some very low water plants during their establishment time, they can eventually become great components of your drought tolerant landscaping. The easiest plants to use in your landscape will be adaptable to varying soil moisture levels.
A variety of perennials and shrubs adapted to Colorado’s climate.
Not messy or difficult to maintain
Your maintenance crew has enough on their plate with regular landscape maintenance. There’s no reason to increase their burden and your costs by having messy, difficult plants on your property.
Readily available from nurseries (not rare)
If you lose some of your landscape plants due to accidents, vandalism or bad weather, you will likely want to easily replace the missing vegetation. If the plant that needs to be replaced is hard to find, you might have to resort to replacing it with one that does not match.
Attractive/Interesting/Eye-catching
Attract eyeballs and attention to your business by choosing interesting trees, shrubs and flowering plants. Just as having aesthetically pleasing buildings or signage is good for business, eye-catching vegetation and other landscape elements makes good business sense. Choose Trees and shrubs with notable flowers or good fall color.
A Hawthorne tree in spring bloom.
In Summary
If you are planning a new commercial landscape or taking an assessment of your existing commercial landscape, keep these guidelines in mind. They’ll help you avoid potential problems that might repel clients and customers from your property, rather than inviting them in. An inviting landscape on your commercial property is one of the first steps to achieving business success.
This is the official blog of Outdoor Design Group, Colorado Landscape Architects. For more information about our business and our services, click here.
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Photo of the Day – Datura with Blanket Flower
This photo of a Datura bloom was taken in the early evening, soon after it had opened. In the background of the Datura are blanket flowers (Gaillardia aristata). Datura wrightii is Datura’s full scientific name, but it may also be known as Jimsonweed, sacred thorn-apple or angel trumpet. The flowers are amazingly fragrant, with one of the best floral scents available in the xeric garden. The striking flowers begin to open at the start of night fall, and close up and wither soon after sunrise the following morning. In its native habitat, night flying moths are its main pollinator. Scientists report that the hawkmoth (Manduca sexta) is Datura’s typcial native pollinator (http://aob.oxfordjournals.org/content/103/9/1435.full.pdf), and also one of its main consumers as the moth larvae feed on the plants tissues soon after hatching from their egg cases.
In my garden, I mostly observe European honeybees visiting the flowers early in the evening before their day is done. The bees can be seen anxiously and voraciously trying to get into the nearly opened flowers. The plant’s flowers exert a hypnotic draw to the bees who are dwarfed by the Datura bloom’s size. In my photo you can see a honey bee who’s happily made it into the flower.
Datura’s are easy to grow in average soil with full sun. They are easy to start from seed, as evidenced by the many seedlings you might find popping up around your xeriscape beds. Datura is usually classed as an annual in most areas of Colorado. But I’ve got a couple plants that have become perennial in one of my flower beds. Every year I have several plants that come up from seed.
Datura is said to be a source of hallucinogenic compounds, but that seems to be in dispute. What is not in dispute by horticultural experts is that all parts of Datura plants contain “dangerous levels of anticholinergic tropane alkaloids and may be fatal if ingested by humans, livestock or pets.”(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datura_wrightii) Even more shocking is the connection of Datura wrightii’s cousin, Datura stramonium to the creation of slave zombies in Haiti. So don’t ingest the Datura, just observe their beauty and admire their fragrance as you enjoy the late summer evening.
This is the official blog of Outdoor Design Group, Colorado Landscape Architects. For more information about our business and our services, click here.