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WaterSmart makeover: Welcoming a sense of whimsy
Cathy and Mike Godfrey’s most recent front yard landscape project was not their first rodeo. The couple, who bought their Carlsbad house in August 1997 and are empty nesters with two adult daughters, are avid gardeners and DIYers. Twenty years ago, Cathy dug 40 holes to sink posts for the white picket fence that encircles their small front yard. They reduced the scale of the lawn (mostly to discourage neighborhood dogs being walked from pooping on their property) and, for a tropical look, added palms and decorative plants like red fountain grass, which Cathy said they regretted. “It’s beautiful, but maintaining it is terrible. It spreads everywhere,” she said with…
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Wildflower whimsy: Add foxgloves to your garden
Foxgloves are a single of my private favorites. With their tall spires of vibrant flowers, these beauties create drama in the semi-shade or shade back garden. Foxgloves, botanically referred to as “digitalis,” are labeled as biennials. Biennials take two years to full their lifecycle. For the first calendar year, biennials only grow leaves, stems, and roots and then they produce their bouquets for the duration of the second calendar year. Even so, after you develop these beauties and admire their tall tasteful spires, their biennial standing will not be a problem for you. Foxgloves are in fact an previous wildflower they were developed in cottage gardens of the Middle Ages.…
