drought tolerant plants | East Sac Edible

During the Edible Garden Tour, one question that I got a lot was what is this plant?

Well I knew it started with an L-sound and it had something like a “rope” in the name but I couldn’t quite remember. By the end of the day we had about 8 different pronunciations. I had to look back in my garden notes to find the correct spelling and pronunciation. This plant is Liriope. I have the variegated clumping type along the walkways of my garden.

One reason why I didn’t know the name was because my landscaper put it in and I don’t pay much attention to plants that don’t give me food. I do know that it is extremely drought tolerant and does well in the shade of my house as well as in the full hot Sacramento sun. Since we landscaped, I have barely paid attention to them and they don’t seem to be bothered by my neglect. They even decided to bloom bright violet flowers for the Edible Garden tour for all the people to ooh and ahh over. So if you want a nice plant that you don’t have to worry about I suggest “Le-rope” (my suggested pronunciation… which was probably THE WORST out of all the suggestions of the day)… or “Liriope.”

I finally added some yarrow in my garden. This has been on my to do list for a long time and after reading about the benefits of yarrow in the garden I added two plants one on each side of my garden so if you enter from either side of the house into my backyard it will be the first thing you see! I picked these locations because yarrow is a perennial so I will have welcoming flowers and color year after year greeting me every time I enter my garden. I added one called Moonshine, which has bright yellow flowers, and another called Red Velvet with pinkish red flowers.

Yarrow is considered a nutrient catcher which means it has long roots that bring up nutrients in the soil. Once the yarrow is established in my garden, I hope to use it as a chop and drop mulch. This means I will be cutting back the plant and dropping the cuttings as mulch in my garden beds. Yarrow accumulates nutrients so as the cuttings rot the stored nutrients break back down into my soil. In addition, yarrow has beautiful flowers which attract many beneficials such as ladybugs, bees and parasitic wasps. Also yarrow is drought tolerant once established so I don’t have to worry about how much water the plants get!