Joshua Siskin writes about gardening in Southern California each week.
Perhaps I should say new lawns since some old lawns are still green and do not need copious amounts of water to stay that way. Often these arethat may have started as tall fescue but over time were taken over by perennial grasses such as Bermuda andgrass. The former has thin blades and the latter has wider blades resembling those on St. Augustine grass. Both have underground rhizomes and surface stolons that allow them to survive drought, with Kikuyu stolons thicker than those of Bermuda grass.
If you live near a park and see grass growing, it will more than likely include Kikuyu grass and its ropey stolons. The stolons will root wherever a node — the point on the stolon from which a leaf grows — touches the ground. If you collect the clippings cut from a Kikuyu lawn, you will have pieces of stolons from which you can start a drought-tolerant lawn, so ask whoever is mowing a Kikuyu lawn to give you their clippings.
Trailing rosemary is another ground cover whose maintenance is virtually waterless. Its tiny leaves seal off the ground to such an extent that water loss from the soil surface is impossible. It should be noted here that all rosemary species are extremely resistant to drought and never need more than one or two good soakings per month, no matter how hot is gets. Lantana is another ground cover in this category.
Two ground covers that are not often seen are excellent for partial sun to shady exposures where their tight-knit foliage obviates the need to water them. One of these is Asian jasmine and the other is dwarf periwinkle . Both have lush, dark green, diamond-shaped leaves that are an inch long and provide an elegance unmatched by other ground covers.
I was inspired to write about ground covers after receiving an email from Matthew Hunt, who gardens in San Clemente and has been growing ground morning glory for eight years in “mostly sun to partial shade.” I have marveled at the flower power of this ground cover for years as its lavender-blue gramophone-shaped blooms are prolifically displayed throughout the summer and into the fall.: Small-flowered morning glory has tiny five-petaled flowers in pink or blue.
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