Vinca minor (Getty Images)
Q. My quest is to reduce watering, but I like a lawn and we have a medium-sized dog. I see that miniclover has a good root system, takes about half as much water as grass, and resists dog urine. My question is: Does miniclover resist some modest dog activity such as chasing a ball? Also, some people are putting in a very tough ground cover that does not need mowing. Is there one that you would recommend? – Glenn Hodding, Long Beach
A. White clover, including the miniclover variety, makes a wonderful lawn substitute and stands up well, or recovers well, from moderate dog traffic. This is also the ideal time of year, now that temperatures are cooling, to plant clover. There is no need to remove your existing lawn or any surviving patches of your former lawn; you can simply overseed the lawn that’s there.
Like clover, kikuyugrass is also resistant to dog urine and even more resistant to drought. Where aesthetics are concerned, miniclover is more attractive due to its deep green foliage that’s only half the size of regular clover. Yet kikuyugrass is virtually indestructible. Yes, it will look best if watered two or even three times a week, but it will grow satisfactorily with a single weekly soaking. And even if you could not water it at all for a period of weeks, it would bounce back once it was irrigated again. Occasionally you see kikuyugrass available as sod, but you may have to grow it from seed. Seeding should be done while the weather is still warm since it is a tropical grass and experiences some dormancy in winter, depending on how cold it gets.
Alas, what makes kikuyugrass so durable is also its biggest criticism, namely, its tough ropey runners that are famous for invading adjacent planter beds, so you will have to be vigilant about keeping it in its place. Incidentally, if you have a friend with kikuyugrass or see it growing in an abandoned field or vacant lot, you may wish to cut pieces for propagation purposes. Fill some containers with ordinary soil and plant kikuyugrass runners in them or, alternatively, dig them right into the ground where you want your lawn to grow. It is worth mentioning that kikuyugrass is rapidly becoming a golf course fairway turf of choice due to its drought tolerance.
Speaking of the tough ground cover you seek, if your yard enjoys partial sun, Asian jasmine (Trachelospermum asiaticum) is highly suitable. It’s water-thrifty enough and resistant to dog trampling, growing around a foot tall. This is not a true jasmine but, like star jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides), its cousin, it handles a certain amount of shade quite well and performs best with a half-day’s worth of direct sun. Asian jasmine’s leaves are half the size of star jasmine’s and, although Asian jasmine does have small fragrant flowers, they are usually not much in evidence.
Asian jasmine forms a very tight mat so that no water can escape from the soil in which it grows. This is similarly true of Vinca minor, which is even more shade tolerant – or perhaps I should say shade needy – than Asian jasmine and less than a foot tall. The handsome diamond-shaped foliage of these two ground covers is similar in size and appearance and both would offer a solution to the problem of what to plant in partial sun to shady exposures, while requiring minimal irrigation, no more than once or twice a week, when fully established. Neither is bothered by dog urine and Vinca minor can even accept some foot traffic.
To make your planter beds dog-friendly, select scruffy species where your dog can feel at home without causing damage. In this regard, the first category of plants that comes to mind is ornamental grasses. Dogs will happily forage in them and, in the taller types, find shade. You do not have to sacrifice color when selecting grasses, as many blues, reds and golds, and variegated types, in addition to the greens, are available. You can find dozens of species and cultivars of ornamental grasses at smgrowers.com
Other plants that are not damaged by dogs and are non-toxic to them include: roses, rosemary, thyme, coreopsis, hibiscus, rose of Sharon (Hibiscus syriacus), mahonia, liriope, ice plant, coral bells (Heuchera spp.), and red hot poker (Kniphofia spp.)
California native of the week: California white sage (Salvia apiana). This plant is a bee magnet, as its species name apiana (apis means bee in Latin) makes clear. If I had to use one word to describe this plant, it would be “astonishing.” Each whorl of opulently tentacled, aromatic, silvery white leaves is unlike anything seen in nature except, perhaps, in a sea anemone. The length of its flower stems, reaching up to five feet, exceeds the height of young plants which eventually grow up to five feet tall and wide. Its unusual white flowers merit close inspection and they too are fragrant. The seeds, stems, and leaves have long been incorporated into the diet of Pacific Coast indigenous tribes and the seeds are used medicinally as well.
Originally published at Joshua Siskin