I don’t know if they are still watering golf courses in Guanacaste but they need to stop!


Now ask yourself, could you be more conservation-conscious and still have a great yard?


Of course you could! You could Xeriscape!


New to you? Xeriscaping is planting with lush plants that thrive in hot, dry conditions. No, you don’t have to think cactus. Start by thinking sedum.

Sedums are incredibly forgiving of sun and drought. They are also simple to grow and spread on their own. You want flowers? These plants have them in abundance and in all the colors of the rainbow.

They don’t just grow, they decorate the yard. Need something tall? Sedum. Want a ground cover that’s short. Sedum. Why are they called ‘stonecrop plants’? Gardeners joke that only stones live longer with less care. Just don’t give them too much water.


Need something taller and more herbal? Lantana fits the bill and it comes in a great variety of colors now. How about snake plants aka mother-in-law-tongue for something tall. It will love Guanacaste.


But my favorite? Portulaca, aka moss roses. I bought some years ago and in January I planted them on a little slope thinking they would cover it with flowers. Wrong. I planted them in a great spot except that they got way too much rain. Bucket loads of rain.

About three months ago, a friend gave me four little plants from her hanging basket and I didn’t know where to put them (since I had killed the other ones) so I stuck them into a raised planter that’s under a bit of roof. They went bananas. They are everywhere crowding out everything else in the planter. From four tiny plants I have about five square feet of plants.


Anyone from the coast want some?