Saturday, April 22, 2006, Mrs. Satya
Kaur (Balwant S.) opened our eyes to such an amazing variety among her thriving ground covers!
She
had red ones (Dragon’s Blood Sedum), green ones (Vinca Minor, Vinca Major, Thyme—both moss and regular), silver
ones (Lamb’s Ear and Snow in Summer), ones that are blooming pink and purple now (Moss Phlox), and ones that promise
amazingly bright flowers (Ice Plant)! All of these ground covers do bloom at
some time, and they each have distinctive textures—from shiny leaves, fuzzy leaves, tiny to larger leaves, or succulent
pod-looking leaves. What a great alternative to grass!
Everything she has in the ground now are
perennials, meaning they come up from their roots year to year. And I understand
that when ground covers get well established, practically no weeds appear through them.
Satya’s only quandary is that she is never quite sure where they will choose to wander each year! But it was very effective to see them run up against one another.
And for height variation, she intersperses
taller flowers among the low ground covers such as Jupiter’s Beard with delicate dark orange flowers just now peeking
out and Soapwort with purple flowers, and she also adds bright annuals as the season progresses.
Most of these groundcovers are doing well
with partial sun under her two large thinned out globe willows. These spreading,
ground hugging plants paint in the surface of her rock bordered raised beds (no dirt and little mulch showing), surrounding
her Oriental consciousness-setting statues of Quan Yin (that she got at the Flea Market!) on one side and a seated Buddha
on the other.
All this region of her garden with
its cypress mulched paths around her raised beds, and the yellow and white honeysuckle (the fragrant one) covered arbor framing
the garden entrance gave such an interesting, artistic and serene invitation.
And in her back yard, she and Balwant
have created a wonderful pond with Buddha and fountains near their patio, with yet another cozy and very private garden space
just outside their large bedroom windows. Just as a tip, she amends her soil with mushroom
compost and uses cypress mulch. We really did enjoy our visit!
If you are interested in taking in Satya
Kaur’s garden yourself, just call her at 753-5548 or gurusikh@yahoo.com.
Since there was much more than we can tell
here, you will find a list of her perennials and some of her methods below in the box.
