Hi, I'm Sue Fitz, and a member of the Perennial Plant Club from almost the beginning, although I have to confess my attendance at meetings is sporadic, since I have to commute in from Davis. My main contribution to the club these days is producing the club's newsletter, and hopefully this website. I'm an R.N., married to a sweet man who can't tell a petunia from a pansy, owner of a sturdy truck and a quarter acre of prime farm land in Davis.
I have spent the last twenty five years experimenting with what plants will put up with Davis' alkaline well water heavily contaminated with boron and other toxic goodies. After extensive research (and plant deaths) I have come to the conclusion that forest under story plants are particularly sensitive to the water, and have taken down most of my trees to provide the light necessary to grow the sun-lovers that will ignore the less than optimal water. If you visit in Davis, you may notice that there are almost no azaleas, camellias, dogwoods, hydrangeas, Japanese maples and other similar plants. Shade gardening in this town is extremely limited in plant palette, few people garden seriously, since very few people are willing to cut down their prize shade trees. Still, I have lovely deep fertile light clay soil with average drainage, which I try not to take for granted. If the water doesn't kill it, anything planted in the yard grows with vigor.
My yard is about fifty feet wide and two hundred feet deep. So far I have concentrated on the back half of the property, where several large flower beds ring a tall fescue lawn. Pink Arizona flagstones connect the plantings together, and since the slabs are laid on sand, not concrete, rock garden creepers colonize the cracks in the pathway. Points of interest are provided by a rustic tool shed, a life-size terracotta colored lion, and a brick patio with a teak bench flanked by a pair of Swane's Golden Cypress. I have a tiny water feature, a large terra cotta pot with a water lily and mosquito fish, but the mineral deposits from water evaporation tend to disfigure the pot and sicken the plants. Concrete re-enforcing wire is attached to the wooden fence surrounding the yard and has been enveloped by a wide assortment of climbing roses, clematis, and other climbers. I tend to plant perennials and annuals, and have tried to consciously put in some evergreen plant so the garden has some interest and structure in the winter months, but I should put in more (I hate giving up space to "boring" evergreens!). Here are some pictures of my garden.
