6. Xeriscaping
Some portions of Arden Hills lie within the Anoka Sand Plain, with sandy soil deposited as glaciers receded. Those areas are better suited to growing plants that are adapted to dry prairies and savannas rather than sod and standard garden flowers. As usual, I have a spreadsheet for that: Plants for Dry Sun. The species that are most commonly available from native plant growers are in bold; many of the rest would likely need to be started from seed. (If you don’t have experience growing plants from seed, contact us and we might be able to help you.)
If that’s too much to sort through, here’s a (somewhat arbitrary) list of ten of my favorites:
- Side Oats Grama (grass)
- Prairie Dropseed (grass)
- New Jersey Tea (small shrub)
- Sky Blue Aster
- Whorled Milkweed
- Upland White Goldenrod
- Fame Flower →
- Purple Poppy Mallow
- Partridge Pea (annual)
- Prairie Smoke (groundcover)
Fame Flower (at right)
Purple Poppy Mallow (at left)
Photos by Kerri Seemann