A Full Entry Along a Busy Highway-Landscaping a Driveway Area

Here in upper Middle Tennessee, just like in many areas of the country, we experience droughts and harsh growing conditions for our plants. No area of the garden can be harsher than the area by the driveway entry point for your property (if you live-like me-on a state highway or any road but not in a subdivision). My driveway area is an area I do not like to spend time in gardening but I still want it to look nice for when I come home and for my neighbors to enjoy as they pass the house.

Prickly pears are but one plant that can not only thrive in harsh growing conditions (think no water, red clay and rocks mixed with gravel, sloping areas, periods of heavy rain and even flooding due to the drainage ditch, heavy piles of snow pushed on it during the winter, and the smog and pollution from motorists passing by) but can laugh in the face of adversity. I love this plant-but! It is not a plant you would want to plant where you do heavy gardening due to the prickly side of the 'pear'. This plant is native to our country and is very easy to grow. I got my starts from a fellow gardener who handled her prickly pears with long tongs and gloves. She told me, "Just simply lay the pad on the ground and it will grow.". Now four years later she was right and I have a thriving community of prickly pears growing on either side of my driveway. 


I chose to highlight the blooms of prickly pears because if there is one fault the prickly pear have it is that their blooms last but a day. They do have several blooms though so the show lasts for as many days as you have buds and blooms. The bright yellow is an eye catcher in the garden and alongside the roadway. Here I have paired my prickly pears with other tough perennials such as artemesia and 'Adam's Needle' yuccas. Let's look at the long shot of the driveway area.

My driveway is flanked with large wagon wheels Mr. Fix-it and I picked up at an antique store in Enterprise Alabama. The south is the best place to find cool ornaments for garden decorations and I find Alabama to be a great state to find some really useful things for my garden. The entire area along side my driveway was torn up two years ago when the local water company installed a new water line. My garden seems to have recovered okay but at the time I did not think it would ever bounce back and in fact, the area has not totally recovered as we see in the next few pictures. The above picture shows the left side of the driveway as you enter it from the roadway. The house pictured is my neighbor's house. She has moved away now and I do miss her. While my neighbor lived there if I ran out of spots to garden I would go over into her yard. There are many plants in her garden compliments of Tiger Gardens. I smile knowing they have homes that I could not provide for them here.

Here is the right side of the driveway looking toward my home. Both sides of my driveway are similar but not complete mirror opposites. The left side of the driveway has a shorter slope down to the drainage ditch whereas the right side has at least a four to five foot drop to the drainage ditch. I have tried to cascade 'Powis Castle' artemesia down the bank on both sides to help with covering the slope and to hold down erosion. Behind the artemesia are 5-6 yuccas on both sides of the driveway. They are in full bloom in these pictures. I love yuccas but wish they bloomed longer than one week. Again though, despite the short bloom times yuccas are right up there with the prickly pears in ease of care and structure in the garden. Both prickly pears and yuccas are evergreen and hold up year round. The 'Powis Castle' will stay looking nice until about January then it dies back a bit. To start the spring I simply give it a haircut. All three plants are the lowest maintenance plants in my garden-they require no additional watering and only the slightest bit of maintenance in the spring. (I cut the flowering stalks from the yuccas after the flower has passed by and trim the artemesia in February before new growth begins.)



Do you remember when I told you most of the area where the water company dug up has recovered? If you look on the bank to the right of the gray artemesia you will see bare soil that is pretty rough. Nothing seems to grow here except the occasional weed. It has been frustrating to me that this area has not greened up because it was green prior to the waterline install. It is, however, the right of way belonging to the state so I can't worry about it too much. 


A favorite groundcover of mine (for the right spot) is this yellow sedum 'Acre'. It is another low no care perennial that looks good most of the year. It does tend to fade away in the winter but returns vigorously in the spring. Sedum acre is an adaptable plant and will spread given the right conditions. Here it is spreading but not to the point it is irritating. In a garden location it would be though so I do not recommend for it to be planted in a garden area. It is very easy to get rid of if you do not like it. 

There are gardens directly behind the entry way on both sides of the driveway (Driveway Garden on the left and Front Roadside Garden on the right) but I have not highlighted those plants today. They do add to the overall look of the entryway though and are all low care perennials and shrubs. The primary plants I use by the road in harsh conditions in my garden are: 'Powis Castle' artemesis, 'Adam's Needle' yucca, prickly pear, and sedum 'Acre'....


in the garden....

Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team, In the Garden

Update on the Waterline Dig Ups and Gardens

You may remember when I initially posted about the waterline installation along my road? If not do look at the post found here because the before pictures of these two angles in front of my home are found there. The changes are quite amazing-even to me and I'm the gardener!

Both sides of the road were torn up and a four foot ditch was dug into the hill and along the road in order to install a new water pipe. You can see in the two pictures exactly where the water pipe is located because the asphalt on the driveway is a different color.

The first picture shows the left side of my driveway when looking at the house. I am most happy with this little garden. Growing in it are: 'Powis Castle' artemesia, several yuccas, prickly pears, a few lavenders, and brown eyes. I smoothed out the ditch after the workers left and stacked some rocks alongside the bank. I actually gained about a foot of real estate once the ditch was smoothed back over. This is a flat area where I could not resist putting in a little garden. In order to stabilize the small hill lining the ditch on this side of the driveway I planted the 'Powis Castle' cuttings all along the bank. I think they make a great border and they have loved the location more than I imagined. This garden is a low maintenance easy going simple kind of garden since it is alongside a busy highway. I do not tend it much at all.
The right side of the driveway fared much better than the left in the major renovation. Other than having to move the prickly pears and the Angelina sedum it suffered little damage since the workers cut into the hill half way down it instead of into the garden. The grass has quickly filled in along side the bank and the sedum and prickly pears are looking great too! I did plant a few more brown eyes on this side and seeded the bank a bit. The hay is a result of the workers trying to fix everyone's front yards once they finally finished their work. I have added some 'Powis Castle' cuttings on this side too. Once they fill out they'll shine and highlight the driveway in a nice way.

So, all's well that ends well....

in the garden....

Prickly Pear Blooms

I've had my prickly pears for several years now and just love them. In fact I did a whole post on them my first year of doing this blog. Despite being dug up due to a waterline install, run over by a sleepy driver, and planted in an inhospitable spot practically in asphalt, these prickly pear plants thrive.

I was happy just to have to them live but with all the new growth they've put on I am delighted! So much new growth that for the first time in two years I have blooms! I was in shock because I never expected them to bloom. Why you ask? Because they are growing in a lot of shade and have been abused over the last few years. But just look at this bloom (one of only two)!

This bloom is so yellow and quite a substantial bloom. I enjoyed it very much for the one day it made it's appearance. Now I expect I'll get a purple fruit in its place in a few weeks time. Look closely inside of it and what do you see? (Enlarge for a better view of the pollen and bee) Not only pollen but one of the prickly pears pollinators, the halictid bee (aka sweat bees). I was most happy to see nature at work and making sure this lovely native plant survives and goes on and on.

Mr. Fix-it and the Jimster thought it would be funny to buy some canned prickly pear since I like them so much...in the garden. Yup, there is such a thing. We all gamely tried it and all I can say is yuck! No amount of vinegar will make it palatable in my book, however, if you like seaweed, it might be to your liking. So take a word of warning, it is an acquired taste I think.

Who grows prickly pear? Does yours bloom each year? Ever eaten prickly pear?

in the garden....

Everyone have a great and SAFE 4th of July!

Prickly, Prickly, PRICKLY PEARS!

As you all know, I was out of town for Thanksgiving. I was in western North Carolina area for a visit with Mr. Fix-it's family. While there we all went out shopping on the Friday after Thanksgiving. Not sure what you call this Friday. On the way to the big double decker mall I could not help but turn Mr. Fix-it's truck around practically in the middle of the highway to stop and take pictures of this very unique and (I think) beautiful community garden. My mother-in-law and sister-in-law were a bit shocked I got out in the road to snap these pictures. (There were no cars around I promise)

You can tell from the two pictures it is all of what appears to be cactus. It is in fact cactus. The common name is Prickly Pear Cactus and the scientific name is Opuntia humifusa. My Southern Living Garden Book says this is a southern heritage plant and it is native from Canada south to Florida and eastern Texas.

This is a really, really cool plant. I was fortunate to visit a great gardener here on the south side of Clarksville (Lucy) who gave me the prickly pear. My garden club friend (Nancy) set up a visit to Lucy's wonderful garden for Geri, myself and another friend in early spring. It was a gorgeous garden and Lucy is so knowledgeable about so much.

Lucy was reworking some areas of her garden and happened to have just thinned out her prickly pear. She asked us all if we wanted some. Of course you know I had to have some. My friends kindly said,"No way. We will just see how it does for you in your garden Tina." A bit squeamishly I might add. I think the spikes scared them silly. You can see them in the first picture this cactus has some spikes.

I hurried over to where the pile of discarded leaves were and went to pick out some choice samples for my Wal-mart bag when Lucy screamed, "NO! Don't touch it!" Geri got quite a kick out of this and loves telling this story. I jumped about out of my skin because I was not expecting this. I though I had done something wrong. Come to find out Lucy was just protecting me and my bare hands. She approached the cactus with long gloves and an even longer skewer fork to pick up the leaves. She pierced the leaves mercilessly and threw them in triple Wal-mart bags. You see, it is not the big spikes that will get you but the little ones you can't see. Lesson learned. Jimmy has also learned about the little spikes you cannot see, the hard way. I don't know what it is about cactus that makes us want to touch it just to see if we will get pricked.

I had just the place for the cactus-right next to my prickly low maintenance yucca next to the road. Lucy told me to just throw it down and it will root. How right she was! It didn't take long either. I love this stuff.

When my mother came in August the one thing Dawn, my sister, requested was some prickly pear from the beaches in Florida since my mother was heading to Florida to see the other sister after she left my house. I told her don't bother, I would just cut a leaf off from mine and skewer it into a triple Wal-mart bag and she could take it to Dawn. Dawn kindly sent me a picture of her prickly pear and you can see it is doing just fine. She rooted hers differently than I did. I just literally threw mine down and the roots grew out of the side but this cactus is very adaptable and doesn't care how it roots-it just does. Dawn, I think you can safely plant out your prickly pear next spring. It should do fine in Maine.

I have seen this cactus all over town and in a lot of my travels but I am sure I have never seen its fruit. It flowers a lovely yellow flower but then the fruit comes out a dark purple as in the first picture. Isn't it cool? The entire garden in Hickory consisted of nothing but prickly, prickly, PRICKLY pear. If the garden had been next to the restaurant it fronted, a burglar would never stand a chance!

If you grow this cactus make sure it is in a location you and small children or pets will not accidentally run into. I would not plant it near my house that is for sure. It would work as a good deterrent for errant adjacent property owner's dogs and children if desired, along a border in a sunny area. It does do well in part shade as mine grows in mostly shade. I am thinking the pesky deer will not eat it either!

I have some bad news. I saw a dead fox on Dover Road not far from the bypass. I am wondering if it is the same one I almost hit over two weeks ago. Please be careful out there when driving as animals are out in full force looking for food and dashing across busy highways. It is heartbreaking to hit and kill an animal. I have done this only once and will never forget the thumps. So I feel bad for both the dead fox and the person who accidentally hit it.

in the garden....