With a holiday this week, I took my little family and went and visited the Conservation Garden Park at Jordan Valley. (That’s the name. A little long). I’ve been here before, but they’ve expanded recently and I hadn’t yet seen the expansion. They are sponsored by the Jordan Valley Water Conservancy District, similar to the Central Utah Gardens. They are one of the first garden of that kind, and are the biggest and probably best too. They also have a great website with a good plant list, and detailed information about the gardens.

The focus is on water conservation and water-wise landscaping and they really do a good job. They have a “neighborhood” of demonstration residential landscapes, and a whole new section of educational exhibits. If you are a homeowner and need ideas, or get a good idea of what water-wise landscaping really is (and it isn’t rocks) go here. I saw some new plants and got some new ideas. The style, especially the new part, is a new formal type that I found very interesting. Different in a good way.

Just a couple more things–the succulents were amazing. Really beautiful, mostly grown in containers. I also found the use of glass mulch unique and pretty. I would’t do it in any large scale situation, but here it is reminiscent of a fountain without the water. It’s not a perfect garden, the most prevalent flaw is plants in the wrong aspect (purple coral bells in full sun, buffalo grass in shade). Definitely worth a visit.

So I wanted to start a new idea on my blog. My own garden is small and not always that interesting to write about. So each week I will feature a garden/landscape that I find interesting. I think I’ll try to keep it on Wednesday, but if it doesn’t show up until later don’t feel too sad. To start this off, I would like to share a garden created on an awkward corner in Springville. I saw this earlier in the year and thought it was a big patch of weeds. Look at it now:

Not at all what I thought it was. The “weeds” I saw earlier were actually a bunch of wonderful perennials. Now that they’ve started to bloom, this garden is a unique, inviting place. I’m not actually quite sure who owns it, so have very little information on the care and creation. The perennials have been allowed to naturalize, along with the trees and shrubs. I’m guessing the largest maintenance task is weeds, but not a lot else. And with the more casual look, a weed here and there (and there are few weeds) don’t look that bad. There are some annuals planted, a step I think is unnecessary due to the beauty of the perennials. The ground is covered in back mulch (which I need to do in my own garden). Mulch is GOOD and helps keep other maintenance tasks (like weeding) down.

They’ve used aspen, and several of the trees are dead. I kind of like the aspen in a situation like this. They can be allowed to sucker, and old dead ones are easily removed. There are also several native Rocky Mountain Junipers. The woody material provides a great backbone for the rest of the plants.

This is a great way to use extra garden space–naturalized perennials, with a woody plant backbone. Much better than lawn, and you might be surprised with how little maintenance you can get away with. Be sure to pick vigours perennials. Here they have Jupiter’s Beard (Centranthus ruber), Golden Marguerite (Anthemis tinctoria), Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia), Yarrow (Achillea), Lamb’s Ear (Stachys byzantina), Blue Fescue (Festuca glauca), and Feather Reed Grass (Calamagrostis acutiflora). There are some others that aren’t blooming that and I haven’t bothered to identify. (I had a tricky time with golden marguerite. I was thinking “marguerite” looked up marguerite daisy, and it wasn’t it. Took me a while to get it right).

The water conservation districts around here have all formed demonstration garden showcasing waterwise landscaping. I’ve been to the Weber Basin and Jordan Valley gardens, but had yet to go to the one now closest to my house. It is only a few years old. I’m used to new landscapes, and it felt very familiar to the Utah Botanical Center were I interned for a summer.

They had lots of good plants, irrigation demonstrations, kitchen gardens, signs and more. One of the coolest demonstrations they had was two mock houses. One was a traditional, non water-wise landscape; the other was better designed and more water efficient. I hope to transform many yards from the first to the second. Or something along the same lines. I’m a bit more of an eccentric designer. Some of the differences was more planting beds that had shape to them, less lawn, and tall fescue instead of kentucky bluegrass.

A traditional yard. Not too interesting.

This one looks much better. Why doesn't everyone do this?

They did have a good selection of plants on display, and better marked than I have seen before. The only downside was their plant list, readily available at the entrances to the garden, was organized by common name. Which doesn’t help if what I know as Jupiter’s Beard is something else entirely. It also keeps things like different types of geraniums all in different places. Jordan Valley did this too. It’s a good plant list, but not one I’ll use because of the difficulty in finding anything.

On my way out, I noticed a native plant garden that I completely missed. Good reason to go back. If you are in the area, I highly recommend going. Best garden I’ve seen this year.