Watering the Garden
Hmmm. Seems to me the key is in the name itself... "SWAMP Mallow". :-)
So, if we try making our gardens into a swamp, this plant will grow. If we grow in a soil that holds moisture, we're more likely to have success than if we grow it in droughty garden soil.
And that brings me to the number one tip for growing gardens.
Water.
Plain and simple, nothing fancy.
You see, the first response of a plant under water stress is to reduce flowering. So all this talk of plants that grow in dry conditions means that you're looking at plants that survive but seldom thrive.
Even the native plants in the northeast that tolerate drier soils won't bloom as heavily in dry soils as in damper ones. They'll survive but not thrive or bloom heavily.
And that leads me to the garden question of the day.
Do you want your garden to
survive or to thrive? Do you want flowers or do you want your
plants to eke out an existence?
Oh, I know that dryland and xeric gardening is all the rage in some garden writing circles. It is quite fashionable now to grow plants that tolerate drought. And the magazines are full of those articles. Boring and frankly, inappropriate if you want a blooming garden.
Thrive or survive. Water.
If you want a blooming garden, you have to water.
Figure an inch and a half a week in a sunny garden. Two and a half inches under trees because the trees use way more than the plants and are much more efficient at sucking up the water.
And yes, there's a cost in watering but hey - it's a garden. Nobody said this passion of ours wouldn't cost you.
You want that Swamp Mallow to live - get out the hose.
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