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Welcome to the Simple Garden Life podcast, a program dedicated to keeping the yard

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of gardening simple, fun and always
rewarding. Now Here are your hosts,

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Jim and Mary Competiti. Hello and
welcome everybody to another episode of Simple Garden

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Life. I am your host,
Jim Competit along with my wife Mary and

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Mary. Today we are talking about
drought resistant plants, which for us is

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actually extremely important because where we live
now on our new farm, everything we

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do is from water. We collect
through the rain, which is which is

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big because we don't have a well
well and sometimes it's minimal because you know,

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we have had very little rain this
year. And having plants that can

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be drought resistant and still look beautiful, it's very important to us and it

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really can happen, and that's what
we're going to cover today. We have

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six of probably some of the best
drought resistant plants around and some of them

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are even deer resistant, which is
also a big thing for us, but

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we'll get into that in just a
second. We want to remind everybody that

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you can sign up for Simple garden
Life by going to Simple garden life dot

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com. You can also follow us
on all the major apps for our podcast

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anywhere and everywhere. We will come
to you whether you like it or not.

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Right Mary, that's all right,
all right, So let's get into

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what we're talking about with drought resistant
perennials. For us, we talk about

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flower beds and how to keep them
weed free. We've done a lot of

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podcast on this, and for us, it's really packing your beds full of

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plants. But you don't want to
pack that full of plants that you're going

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to have to need a lot of
watering and constant maintenance. And that is

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where drought resistant plants really come to
play. Right. You know, one

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of the biggest complaints about gardening,
especially with flower beds, that I have

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to water them all the time,
and during the midsummertime months, you know,

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sometimes you have to water them twice
a day for them to look good.

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But the drought resistant plants are totally
different than that. Yeah, And

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just because drought resistant plants require less
moisture to survive, it doesn't mean that

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they can't still add a lot of
beauty and collar your landscape. I mean

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not only that they can have vibrant
collars and they can be magnets for pollinators.

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I mean some of our drought resistant
plants we talk about today are huge

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for bringing in butterflies and bees and
hummingbirds, all the things that can really

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add a lot more to your landscape. Yeah. And I don't know about

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you, but I can sit there
and watch bees and hunting birds for hours

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in the morning or the afternoon and
watching them pollinate everything. They're just magnificent

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to watch. It really is amazing. All right, Mary, So let's

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get right into it right now.
Let's talk about these plants that we're going

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to cover today. And I think
number one on the list might be my

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favorite. Yeah, I was gonna
say it's my favorite too. Maybe that's

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why it's number one on the probably, but blanket flower as a perennial,

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blanket flower is probably one of the
most biggest perennial plants. I guess it's

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a better way to say it.
That is going to bloom, not continually,

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but a lot of time throughout the
course of the year, especially if

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you practice that simple word of taking
off the old blooms and allowing it to

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regenerate, right dead hanging, taking
off the blooms, whatever you want to

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call it. But this blanket flower
has great color, it's got rich red

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orange yellow blooms that last almost all
season long. Yeah, and they are

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incredible. We talked about pollinators.
They will bring them in bees, you

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know, butterflies, hummingbirds, more, they will really bring it. It's

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I guess the bloom for me is
like I always call it, like a

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red or an orange day. Yeah, absolutely it is, and boy prolific.

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We have several here. They're a
great plant to also be able to

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divide each year or every couple of
years, so you can get more and

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more and more. But they come
in they're mound like as they grow,

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the blooms. I'm not talking one
or two or three. I mean I

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think ours right now probably has thirty
or forty on it, and that was

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just two weeks ago. When they
were dying off. You cut them back

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and they're right back again. I
think that's the key. You know,

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Even though that they're drought resistant,
you still have to what we call deadhead

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or remove the blossoms, remove the
blooms, the dead dying blooms, so

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that way the plant can produce enough
energy to produce more blooms. Absolutely absolutely,

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we don't even have to. You
know, blanket flowers a low maintenance

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plant. Not only does it not
require water unless it was an absolute extreme

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drought situation or just plant it's just
or when you're first establishing them. But

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not only that, they're they're deer
resistant, and once established, they can

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go tremendous amounts of times without water. You know, you can plant them

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from transplants, you can plant them
from divisions. They're they're a little difficult

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to grow from seed, but wow, once you get them started. We've

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had them forever and one of our
absolute favorite plants now and this is one

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of those plants that can actually do
very well in full sun even with very

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little water. That's actually a great
point all almost all of these plants today

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except for maybe one that I can
think of right now as we cover them,

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our full sun plants. And that's
just something that's extra when you're talking

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about trying to conserve water. I
mean to have a plant that can handle

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that sunshine and not have to worry. And I think that's something as before

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we get to this next plant,
I really want to kind of talk to

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our listeners about is we know this
and we watch it sometimes, but people

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tend sometimes to overwater just to say
they're watering plants. I shouldn't say just

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to say they're watching watering plants,
but just because they want to think that

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the plants are going to need that, you know, and they don't.

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The more you water plants sometimes the
more those roots come to the surface and

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they become shallow. Sometimes it's okay
to allow your plants to go a long

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time, especially with these plants where
you never really need to water them.

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Right, Your plants, if you
really look at them, will actually tell

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you when they need water. Great
point. Those will start to wild a

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little bit, they'll start to feel
droopy or look droopy. So if you

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see that, definitely water them.
But if you water them every day,

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you're not letting the plants grow the
roots that they need to develop. Absolutely,

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that's a great point. All right. So we've talked about blanket flower.

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Now let's get to number two on
the list, which is another one

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of my favorites. Maybe not as
much as blanket flower, just because of

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that amazing bloom time, but cone
flower, which you know they're named for

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that distinct shape. That center of
flowers kind of comes up surrounded by those

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purple petals. They kind of grow
in that downward angle but that seed head

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in the middle and the flower it's
just really pretty. And it's a mid

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summer bloomer, which you know,
you have all this spring color and then

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here comes coneflower that can really provide
the bees, the butterflies and all those

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pollinators more ability to have nectar and
all the things they need, and it

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really beautifies your landscape. It really
does. And the best thing I think

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about cuneflower is that it can grow
on about just any about any location,

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whether the soil is acidic or sandy
or great Kuneflower is one of those flowers

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that just keeps coming back and thrives
in almost every location. It really does.

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And you know, their bloom time
is a little bit longer than a

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typical perennial. It doesn't come back. You may not be able to get

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multiple bloom sets from them, but
you know, we've had our coune flowers

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that can last a month. And
then you have that seed head, which

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we allow to stay because it's great
you know, feed for the birds everything

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else. But is a really really
great plant, easy to propagate, easy

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to make divisions from. Again,
they're a self seeder, so you can

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grow them from seed. But I
really like using the transplants, getting a

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larger plant and then being able to
have it from year to year and taking

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divisions from it, whether it's the
spring or the fall. Well, Nick

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can the last I was all season
long. You have a cone flower and

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it can come in late spring,
it could last through the even the early

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cold months. Yeah, it's it's
amazing how how much it adds to your

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landscape. We are big believers in
using all of these. In fact,

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every six that we have today featured
we have on our farm and flower beds

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and for good reason, we don't
have to water them. We don't have

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to worry about them. Not only
are most of them and cone flowers another

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Greek example, a highly deer resistant
plant. You know, people, we

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have deer, I think way too
many deer. Now we become their friends.

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We wake up in the mornings now
and look out our bedroom window and

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there's seven laying out there. But
they but they leave these plants alone.

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And it makes a very very big
difference when you can plant these and not

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have to worry about them. They're
going to come back year after year.

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You're going to be able to divide
them and create more so blanket flower,

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cone flower two of our top ones
right off the bat, and I know

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we're gonna get to our third,
but I think, Mary, if I'm

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not mistaken, this is where we
have our question of the week, and

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maybe we can get the question.
Maybe we'll take a very quick break,

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and then we'll come back and answer
the question. Absolutely. So our question

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of the week comes from Missy in
Wellsboro, Pennsylvania. It has been extremely

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dry here this year, with temperatures
in the mid nineties for many days.

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I think that's true for a lot
of places. I was going to say,

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it's very hot right now everywhere I
want to plant in my new flower

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bed that gets full sun. But
I'm not sure what could tolerate the heat

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and dry conditions. What do you
suggest? Oh, I've got a lot

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of suggestions. I bet you do
too. But let's take a quick break

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and then we'll come back and answer
that question, and then we'll also get

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to our other four plants that are
drought resistant perennials that are perfect for your

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landscape. All right, and we
are back, and Mary, that question

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of the week was a good one. I mean, we're talking about flower

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beds and being dry and what can
we plan. I mean, that's a

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great question. Yeah, this question
comes from Missy and Wellsboro, Pennsylvania,

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which actually she's just east of us. She asked, it has been extremely

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dry here this year with temperatures in
the mid nineties for many days. She

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wants to plant and a new flower, but it gets full sun. But

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she isn't sure what could tolerate the
heat and dry conditions. What plants do

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you suggest? Well, Missy,
the first two that we've talked about already,

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blanket flour and cone flower perfect examples
of what you want to be putting

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in. But I want to I
just want to take a quick second.

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You made a really good point Mary
before the break about once they're established.

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So just because the plant is drought
resistant or drought tolerant, doesn't mean you

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can sit in the ground, go
inside and never worried about it. Again,

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right when you pick up that plant
from the store and you look at

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it and so it's drought resistant,
it doesn't mean that brand new plant that

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you're putting the ground doesn't need water. Now. They need to establish their

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roots and they need to get involved
in the soil before they become truly,

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you know, worry free, and
that can take anywhere from three to six

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weeks when they first established. Sometimes
it can take a couple of months,

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depending on how hot your summer is. But Mary said also that your plants

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are going to let you know,
you know, when you see them wilting

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down and you just put them in
the soil. Yes, you want to

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give them water, but you do
want to water deeply more than every single

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day. So when you water,
make sure you're watering enough water that that

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water is getting down in the soil. And if you put your water on

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your plants and it just runs right
off, put a little on, Wait

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a little bit, put a little
on, Wait a little bit, let

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it soak in. The more soil
or the more moisture that gets in that

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soil, the better it's going to
absorb water in the future, and it's

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better going to be. But once
you've established them, then you're going to

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be fine. And I'll mention something
else about water in real quick. It's

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one of the worst ways you can
water is actually putting like a soaker hose

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over top of the plant, where
it just drenches the leaves, the foliage

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just and it never gets down to
the roots or the soil. So really

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aim the water down by the base
of the plant so it can get to

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the soil and soak down into the
roof. Yeah, I think by soakerhose

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you're talking about like just sprain,
just to sprain over the top. And

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yeah, you really you really do
want to get down to the ground,

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like you said, and get that
water to get to the soil lever where

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it can go in. So all
right, MESSI. We've talked about too

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that you can plant. Here's another
great one which is black eyed Susan.

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You know, they're native to North
America. They're they're almost in the prairies.

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They're used to this. It's a
wildflower, but but it's able to

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sustain itself in dry climates with ease. What a beautiful, beautiful bloom black

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eyed Susans have. Yeah, this
is one of my favorite drought resistant perennials.

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They get a beautiful they have a
nice dark core when they have and

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yes, that dark core with that
yellow just sets them off that I don't

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know, it's like almost like a
sun a sunburst. Really, it's just

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unbelievable the blooms they can do and
how prolific their blooms can be. This

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plant handles you know, dry conditions
and poor soil with ease and still produces

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a large number of flowers right.
And the pollinators love it, especially butterflies.

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Oh, butterflies will flock to that. Bees will flock to that.

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Black eyed Susan is just another one
of those plants. Again, easy to

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divide in the fall or the spring, easy to you know, to grow

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by transplants. And here's the great
thing we always tell people when you're looking

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at perennials like this, even if
you don't have somebody that can split them

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for you right now, when you
go to a lot of nurseries in the

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middle of summer, this is what
they're highlighting. And they might have smaller

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plants that are far less expensive than
these twenty to thirty dollars pots that you

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might find some small ones for gosh, seven ten dollars. Buy those,

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because if you put them in right
now, within a year, you're gonna

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be able to divide those into three
or four more plants. Great, great

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money value for you, and you
can really start to fill your beds.

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If not, if you have a
friend that has some black eyed seasons,

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you wait till the spring or the
fall. You take those divisions and you're

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off and running. Yeah, I'm
sure they're more than happy to share them

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with you. Yeah. I mean, we've talked about it before. Our

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old farm, we probably had a
little over two thousand plants by the end

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of it, and I think almost
all of them were from divisions, whether

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they were from our own or somebody
else give them to us. So it's

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a great way to do it.
So we've covered three. Now let's get

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to that fourth win. And this
is not so much a flower but an

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ornamental grass. But unlike most ornamental
grass is feather reed grass, which is

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number four on our list today,
is a very controllable grass. I think

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I think it's one of our favorites
because you don't have to continually dig this

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grass up. We joke about it
in our own world. We call it

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a Judy grass. So we have
a member of our family that my sister

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in fact, that gave us a
start of this grass way back when it's

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just a very slow grower. Feathery
grass doesn't expand rapidly, but it plumes

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early. Those plumes stay all through
the summer in the fall, and gosh,

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we can go what five eight years
not even have to touch that plant,

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right. It actually it grows upright. It keeps the beds nice and

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tidy. It plumes earlier. Like
you said, it grows slowly, so

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you can go as many years without
meaning divide. Yeah, and if you

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want to divide it, which we've
done before, you can divide it early

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on. You can get extra plants. This name, this goes by a

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lot. Feathery grass is probably the
most you know, notable. I don't

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think too many people call it judy
grass, but Carl Forrester is the person

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that developed this, and you'll sometimes
see it called that as well. On

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our website. On this article,
we have links to this grass. You

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can kind of see what it is
and see where you can get it.

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But I'll tell you from an ornamental
grass standpoint, it's so nice because it's

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so neutral. It just goes with
all of these other perennial flowers we're talking

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about right now that the drought resistant, and it is probably, wow,

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it might be the most drought resistant
of any of these, and they are

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all extremely drought resistant. But this
grass can handle the heat. It can

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handle, you know, anything you
throw at it, and it's going to

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stay alive. Right. And this
grass is great for layering in your flower

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bed as the height in flower beds
where you want to have some height in

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00:14:31,919 --> 00:14:35,480
certain areas, or it can be
an anchor for certain corners of your flower

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00:14:35,480 --> 00:14:37,679
beds. Yeah, and I think
so many times people think of grass as

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they get so large and they overgrown. You're not going to have to worry

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about this with feathery grass. So
all right, So let's get to the

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next one, which we talked about
already with you know other ones. It's

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the orange Shasta daisy. But this
is the Shasta daisy, which is fantastic,

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I mean, another excellent drought resistant
perennial. It features a beautiful yellow

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center with small, delicate white petals. Everybody knows this the daisy, but

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the Shasta davies, that mounded growth
just produces a tremendous amount of flowers that

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once again your pollinators, you know, your bees, your butterflies, they're

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gonna love it. And then that
seed head the birds love as well.

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Right, And a lot of people
ask us what's the difference between a daisy

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and a Shasta daisy, And really, a Shasta daisy is a hyberd between

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them all. It is, and
most people don't realize that you have a

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lot of daisies that grow in the
wild. This was one that was created

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00:15:26,759 --> 00:15:30,440
solely to produce more blooms for you
know, a period of time. I

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would say ours usually blooms. I'd
say it's solid three to four weeks,

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right along with the cone flower.
And again, all these ones were featuring

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today are great summer flowering perennials.
Everybody concentrates so heavily on that early spring

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and then we get to the late
fall where you have asters and mums and

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all this late fall color. It's
that middle of the summer sometimes when beds

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struggle, and they struggle for two
reasons. The spring plants are fading off.

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It's also very dry. Well that's
where these plants come in. They

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don't need a lot of water,
but they provide a lot of collar.

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That's absolutely right, you know,
Shasta daisies don't need a lot of water

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to survive, and they look beautiful
in your flower beds. Yep, So

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we got one more to cover and
it's probably my favorite plant for borders and

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edges and just filling in spaces where
you never want to have to worry and

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you don't want deer to have to
worry, and it goes by a lot

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of names. We call larrope I
mean that is what it is. Lily

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turf is another name that's commonly given
to it. But it's a small grass.

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But unlike most grasses, it actually
flowers with a berry. I mean,

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it has a very nice, beautiful
little berry. Some can be white,

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but most of them are usually purple
lavenders for style in the fall,

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right, you can violet, pink
or white. But it starts off and

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it's a grass most of the year. And it's a nice small mounting grass.

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Like you said, it doesn't get
very tall. It's perfect for bordering

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sidewalks, driveways. It's just one
of those ones that doesn't need a lot

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of water. It's easy to take
care of. Yeah, we actually have

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an article on this, and I'll
link that article on the podcast, article

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00:16:55,679 --> 00:16:57,360
on Simple Garden Life. But it
can grow, as Mary said, six

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00:16:57,399 --> 00:17:02,639
to eighteen inches. There's different variety, but a great, great border plant,

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a great plant to fill an area, even a hillside. The thing

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00:17:07,119 --> 00:17:10,039
about ropea is it can kind of
grow in any situation. It can do

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okay in shade, it can do
okay. And son we grow it just

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almost everywhere around the farm with a
lot of success. And you don't really

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00:17:17,160 --> 00:17:19,319
have to worry about anything to do
with that. I mean, we have

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split the rope in the middle of
a summer drought and had it come back

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00:17:25,480 --> 00:17:27,599
through the you know, its surface
and be fine. So it's going to

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00:17:27,640 --> 00:17:32,039
be an extremely durable plant. But
you know, we really do it.

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00:17:32,200 --> 00:17:34,880
Check check these six plants out.
I mean, you're talking about six plants

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that you can put in your bed
that can really provide not just the ability

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00:17:40,799 --> 00:17:44,000
to have a lot of color,
but you're not going to have to work

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00:17:44,039 --> 00:17:45,200
for it. I mean, you're
not going to be wasting a lot of

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00:17:45,240 --> 00:17:48,599
watering at all on these plants,
right, and most of these plants are

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00:17:48,640 --> 00:17:52,640
some of these plants also do very
well. Pollinators, the bees, the

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00:17:52,680 --> 00:17:56,559
butterflies, the birds, they're great
to add to your landscape, especially and

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00:17:56,599 --> 00:17:59,839
when you say that, it's so
important for people to understand pollinators when they

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00:18:00,000 --> 00:18:03,599
eat it most. You know,
bees and butterflies, all these things that

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00:18:03,640 --> 00:18:06,640
come out in early spring. They
have damnelions, they have clover that comes

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00:18:06,640 --> 00:18:08,720
on, they have all this stuff
early on this big but in that middle

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00:18:08,759 --> 00:18:11,960
of the summer before the fall comes
out. With a new burst of flame.

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00:18:12,039 --> 00:18:15,480
When it's dry, a lot of
those flowers shrivel up and they're not

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00:18:15,559 --> 00:18:18,599
around for them, and that is
where you're also helping, you know,

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00:18:19,240 --> 00:18:25,759
keep that pollin eater aspect alive and
giving them something to eat. I mean,

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00:18:26,079 --> 00:18:29,119
it does that for them, and
it also puts a tremendous amount of

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00:18:29,119 --> 00:18:30,640
beating your landscape. I mean,
I don't know where we would be without

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these plants in our landscape because we
fill our beds with these and in that

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00:18:34,279 --> 00:18:38,279
way we can go right from spring
color to summer color and then here comes

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our fall color again, so you
can't go wrong. No, let's go

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00:18:42,240 --> 00:18:47,240
ahead and review those once again.
The six drop resistant perennials that are great

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00:18:47,240 --> 00:18:49,359
for your flower beds. Absolutely,
let's take a look at them right now

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and in a quick review. So
the first one that we cover today was

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00:18:52,599 --> 00:18:57,079
a blanket flower. Oh yeah,
beautiful reddish orange blooms. Great plant.

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The second one was cone flower,
which is going to give you a beautiful

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00:19:00,079 --> 00:19:03,680
you know, I call it upside
down cone, but it's that purple and

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00:19:03,720 --> 00:19:08,119
again mounted shape which just really can
handle the heat. Right. Next one's

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00:19:08,119 --> 00:19:12,079
black eyed Susans, one of our
favorite you know, they have the dark

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00:19:12,160 --> 00:19:18,279
core with the yellow absolutely yeah,
petals that look absolutely gorgeous. And then

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00:19:18,319 --> 00:19:21,839
feathery grass. And feathery grass is
great to put in with all of these.

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00:19:22,079 --> 00:19:25,400
It kind of provides a little centerpiece
and then you can put the colors

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00:19:25,440 --> 00:19:27,640
around them and it's gonna you know, plume early in the summer. And

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00:19:29,119 --> 00:19:32,839
of course one of our favorites also, it's Chasta daisies. Yeah, Chestadaisies.

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00:19:32,839 --> 00:19:34,920
I don't know, there's just something
about in that mounting white color you

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00:19:34,960 --> 00:19:38,160
see, it's just so pretty.
And then we end with another border and

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00:19:38,240 --> 00:19:42,759
grass plant the rope. You know, all six of these can be wonderful

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00:19:42,839 --> 00:19:47,839
place together or by themselves, and
all of them are going to reduce your

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00:19:47,880 --> 00:19:51,759
watering to near zero because they can
all handle it, and they can handle

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00:19:51,799 --> 00:19:56,039
deer as well. They're just they're
they're great plants. And as I said,

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that's the reason we've chose these six
plants because they really are to us

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00:20:00,960 --> 00:20:03,799
some of the best droute resistent perennials
around, right, and anytime that we

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00:20:03,839 --> 00:20:07,799
go over any type of guarding subject, you know, you can follow us

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00:20:07,799 --> 00:20:11,960
on simple gardenlife dot com. That's
right, Simple garden Life podcasts. Yeah,

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00:20:11,960 --> 00:20:14,599
and we put all the links at
the end of each article, and

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00:20:14,759 --> 00:20:17,839
you know, we come to you
and just try to give the information.

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00:20:17,880 --> 00:20:22,319
Has really helped us create a low
maintenance landscape that can still be beautiful.

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00:20:22,359 --> 00:20:25,920
I think so many people think to
have this incredibly beautiful landscape that you have

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00:20:25,960 --> 00:20:30,880
to spend hours upon hours and resources
upon resources and water and fertilize. Another

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00:20:32,039 --> 00:20:34,559
great thing about all these plants that
they are very low feeders, so you're

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00:20:34,559 --> 00:20:37,960
not going to be spending a lot
of time out there fertilizing or watering or

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00:20:37,960 --> 00:20:42,119
doing anything with them. So we
hope you enjoyed today's podcast, and especially

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00:20:42,319 --> 00:20:45,279
on the six perennials, Mary,
I think it's time if you're ready for

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00:20:45,319 --> 00:20:49,279
it, absolutely remember whatever you do, find the fun and gardening and grow

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something beautiful. Happy garden everyone,
So long. We hope you've enjoyed this

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00:20:56,000 --> 00:21:00,720
episode. Subscribe to the Simple Garden
podcast on iTunes, Apple Podcasts, Spotify,

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00:21:00,880 --> 00:21:03,880
or most of your favorite podcast apps. You can also head over to

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00:21:03,880 --> 00:21:07,559
simplegardenlife dot com where you can listen
and read all of the show notes to

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00:21:07,640 --> 00:21:11,880
every episode and if you have any
questions, any ideas for show topics,

350
00:21:11,119 --> 00:21:15,079
or if you want to share your
favorite garden tip, email us at the

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00:21:15,119 --> 00:21:18,559
Farm at owgarden dot com. Until
next time, Thanks everyone,