White Sweet Clover / Melilotus alba
It's not clover. This thin, branchy, very tall weed with tiny white flowers grows all over, sometimes in big stands. It's a nitrogen-fixer legume, so that's good for the sandy common area next to our driveway.
In the area next to us in a dry, dry spring, these are scattered about and very open and sparse and tall. But I have seen fuller stands in other years at Dancing Ground park.
Hairy Goldenaster / Heterotheca villosa
It's a sunny, low plant that grows wild around our driveway area. It has never been watered, but pops up along the cracks at the side of the concrete drive. and in the sandy gravel near the garage.
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| Blooming July 1 |
Hairy Golden Aster is a happy looking plant, with daisy rayed flowers and gray green narrow leaves. The yellow blooms and gray foliage contrast nicely. With some water this might be a nicer shaped plant. Without any supplemental water and in a year long drought, it's sprawly and a bit weedy looking.
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| Self seeded in the perfect spot -- early June before flowering |
Several have self seeded in the low step wall at the back patio and I'm leaving them -- they look naturalized.
Palmer's Penstemon / Penstemon palmeri
This showed up out in the sand dunes by the garage in the wet spring of 2019. Fully formed, tall, upright, lovely pentstemon, with pink spires.
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| June 5, 2019. This popped up by the garage, toward the neighbor's side |
Where did it come from? How it survives with no supplemental water in a dry year with no rain . . .
3. Tufted Evening Primrose / Oenothera caespitosa
It loves very dry sites, so I put three in the common area next to the driveway. I had seen them at the Santa Fe Botanical Garden in late May and they were so striking -- big plants twith lots of blooms. The flower buds start out pink, then open white. But mine did not survive.
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| May 28 at the Botanical Garden |
Mexican Feathergrass / Nasella tenuissima
It's native to New Mexico and grows in very dry areas, but I actually planted several plugs in the common area by our driveway, hoping they will take. The first year, 2018, I planted some and they did not grow -- I simply did not get enough water out to them initially.
In 2019 -- a wetter year -- I planted a few more in open spots and will need to get some gravel mulch around each and then keep them watered to start. After that they should be bunchy and feathery and need little water.
Apache Plume / Fallugia paradoxa
It grows wild all over, a big showy plant with white flowers and then fluffy pink seedbeds. I planted three out in the common area by the driveway. They will grow in dry infertile conditions. They can get really weedy and unkempt looking, but will take pruning and can be improved.
