Plants for Dry, Hot, Windy, Salty Locations

Wow. Dry, hot, windy, and salty?  Is there any bigger recipe for garden disaster than that? Yet, many people who live along boulevards or roadways where streets get cleared and snow and road debris gets dumped in their space deal with this every spring. What to do?  Spread rocks and thumb your nose at the mess? Now, I don't have anything against rocks (unless it's called mulch, but that's for another article), but we can do better than that.

I will add one disclaimer here - different cities have different rules for boulevards, so before you start your project, make sure you know exactly what you are allowed to plant in the area.

While no living plant can survive having its crown buried in road debris for the long term, there are a number of grasses, perennials, and shrubs that are somewhat forgiving of the hot, dry, windy, salty conditions often prevalent in those locations. While the ones named below are not the only options, they are plants that I know to be tough as nails and bred to do well in our zone 4, rather inhospitable climate.

Most lawn grasses do not do well in hot, dry, and salty conditions, but there are some beautiful ornamental grasses that are more forgiving.

Panicum virgatum "Heavy Metal" switchgrass (internet photo)

Panicum virgatum, or Switchgrass, is a native perennial species of the tall grass prairies. It is moderately drought tolerant, probably more so once the root system is fully established, and tolerant of salty soil conditions.

It is a warm season grass with lacy, reddish purple seed heads that form in late summer. Bright green summer foliage turns a lovely bright yellow in autumn.  It does spread by rhizome, but has not been pesty in my yard.  

Miscanthus "Purpurascens"  (internet photo)

Panicum is one of my favorite grasses, as the plumes wave softly in the breeze and give a nice, soft, airy look to the garden.

Miscanthus, or Maiden grass also becomes quite drought tolerant once it is fully established and tolerates almost any soil conditions we have to offer. Miscanthus "Purpurascens" is hardy to zone 3 and there are other varieties which, while classed as zone 5, have proven to be somewhat hardier than that, but it can be hit and miss. Purpurascens forms an upright clump of dark green leaves, which turn flame orange and then bronze in the fall. The tall spikes of soft-pink flowers turn into soft, silvery plumes, which stay on the plant for winter interest.  

Big Bluestem (internet photo)

The Bluestem grasses are also tolerant of pretty inhospitable conditions.  Androgpogon geradii, Big Bluestem, is another tall grass prairie native, so it's no surprise that it becomes very drought tolerant once established. Big Bluestem is big - it can easily grow six to eight feet tall, and it spreads by rhizomes to form a solid clump. The tall, bluish green stems change color to a deep reddish bronze with first frost. The distinctive three- toed seed heads are what earns Big Bluestem its common name of "Turkey Foot Grass".

Little Bluestem's scientific name is Schizachyrium scoparium. It is in the same family as Big Bluestem, but not the same species. Little Bluestem is very ornamental, with nice, finely textured foliage that forms dense mounds at about two to three feet tall. It has the same blue-green summer color as Big Bluestem, and in the fall it turns a deep mahogany red with shiny, white seed tufts.

Schizachyrium scoparium summer color (left) and autumn color (right)  (internet photo)

There are also a number of perennials that will tolerate the hot, dry, and salty conditions of boulevards and road ways.

One of my favorites is daylilies (Hemorocallis).  They are tough and beautiful and come in such an amazing variety of colors, sizes, and even shapes, that it is hard not to find one that you love. Daylily varieties come in one of three types of foliage:  dormant, semi-evergreen, or evergreen. For tough conditions in the northern climates, the dormant foliage type is the hardiest. All of them have hearty, grass-like green foliage that make a nice, flowing statement in your garden beds. You can choose a number of varieties with different bloom times, to give you flowers through much of the summer; or you can choose re-blooming varieties such as Stella d'Oro, Purple d'Oro, Rosy Returns, Happy Returns, or many other that will give you blossoms throughout much of the growing season, with just a little bit of deadheading time.

Paeonia "Sarah Bernhardt" 

For a brilliant boost of spring color, Paeonia or peonies are hard to beat. There is a reason that when driving by old, abandoned farmsteads, you will often still see stands of peonies, blooming even after receiving no nurturing for years and years - they are tough!  While we are accustomed to seeing the old fashioned white, light pink, and deep maroon varieties of our grandmother's beds, there are about 33 named varieties that are available, and all are tough and beautiful.


Perovskia (Russian Sage) is a woody perennial that seems to thrive in the poorest of conditions and often languishes and struggles if treated too well. It's gray-green leaves and lavender to deep purple flowers add a nice touch to plantings with denser, spikier leaves, such as daylilies. Russian sage is much loved by bees and butterflies both, and there are a number of varieties available to provide a size for nearly every location.                                                           

Nepeta "Kitten Around" (internet photo)

If you don't care for the look or the smell or Perovskia, Nepeta (Catmint) is a similar looking plant that is also loved by bees and butterflies. Many of the newer hybrids of Nepeta are sterile and do not present the problem of spread by seed. All Nepeta will bloom heavily in early summer and, if trimmed back hard after that initial bloom, will reward you with another flush of purple blossoms late into summer and early fall. The fuzzy, heavily veined leaves of Nepeta and the airy purple flowers are a nice contrast. Nepeta does have a distinctive fragrance, which people seem to either hate or love. Some people also find that the neighborhood cats find it irresistible, however, I have found that the cats around my place give this plant pretty wide berth - they apparently are in the "hate the smell" camp.

Salvia "Sensation Rose" (internet photo)

Salvia (Garden Sage) is another similar looking plant to Nepeta and Perovskia, but tends to have a smaller growth habit, staying at about 18 to 24 inches tall. Blossoms appear in mid to late spring in variations of purple, rose, and white. May Night and Sensation Rose are two popular varieties here. The downside of this plant is its relatively short bloom time and inconsistency of rebloom, even with hard pruning after initial flowering. It also has a tendency to "collapse" mid-season and leave you with a large, gaping hole in the middle, while the stems of your salvia have fallen over to cover everything around it. I will often times walk out to the garden and see the salvia covered with bees and butterflies, so I am willing to keep some of it around to draw them to the yard.

Coreopsis verticillata "Zagreb" (internet photo)

Well, it seems like that's enough purple for now! Let's take a look at some lovely yellows for these tough locations.  One of my favorites is Coreopsis verticillata, commonly known by the names Threadleaf coreopsis or Tickseed. This is another plant that is tolerant of nearly anything our garden spots might decide to dish out. The ferny foliage of Coreopsis verticillata is a nice textural difference for the straplike foliage of daylilies, or the coarser texture of the sages and nepetas.

Solidaog "Little Lemon"  (internet photo)

Solidago, or Goldenrod, is a native plant to the prairie regions. Or, at least some of them are native. And, I can tell you from personal experience that those native solidago are probably not the plants you want to put in your garden. They spread voraciously by rhizome and make every great effort to take over the world! They also do not like to die for any reason, including from exposure to most herbicides available to the home gardener. That said, there are some "tamed" varieties that make lovely additions to the garden, especially if one wants to attract pollinators. Their lovely yellow or gold colored flowers are highly attractive to bees and butterflies in late fall when many of the other pollinator favored plants have finished their blooming for the year. Little Lemon and Fireworks are two varieties that I have found to be pretty well-behaved in my garden.

Asclepias tuberosa (internet photo)

Asclepias tuberosa,(Butterfly weed) is a form of milkweed that is attractive to butterflies, and its leaves serve as a food source for monarch butterfly caterpillars. Its bright orange and yellow flowers make quite a statement in the summer garden. The plants emerge late in spring and sometimes need two to three years' growth before they first come into flower, but they are worth the wait. This is a plant that you will want to plant where you know you want it to stay - it has a very long tap-root, and while the plants are very easy to start from seed, they are very difficult to transplant once the root is established.

Armeria (internet photo)

For a nice touch of pink in the garden, Armeria, or sea thrift, is an option for those difficult areas. This is a very compact, low-growing plant for right at the front of the border. A mound of bright green, grass-like leaves is topped with clusters of tiny pink to white flowers on long, slender stalks in mid-spring. It is critical to get the debris off the top of the thrift plants before growth starts in the spring. If they set in wet, moist areas, the center of the plant tends to die out and become very unsightly.

Achillea (photo from Bluestone Perennials catalog)

Achillea (yarrow) is another tough as nails plant. Its feathery leaves and brightly colored flower clusters are a thing of beauty. Its rhizomatous root structure, on the other hand, might not be. Couple that with the fact that it also reproduces by seed, and you have to do a pros and cons study to decide if it belongs in your garden plot. It is a plant much beloved by pollinator insects, and is a preferred food plant for the Lepidoptera order of butterflies, moths, and skippers. As is usually the case, the newer hybrids are better behaved in the gardens, but in some cases, the jury is still out on whether or not these hybrids are as beneficial to insects as their ancestors. Achillea also comes in a variety of colors from white to the most vivid reds, pinks, yellows, and oranges.

Echinops "Veitch's Blue" (internet photo)

For a great structure plant, Echinops (Globe Thistle) is one of my favorites. It doesn't necessarily have the colorful blooms of a lot of other plants, but it adds interest with its spiny foliage and blue or white spiky, sphere-shaped flower heads. It is a perfect pollinator plant, and its seeds are also much loved by many birds.

Xenox sedum (internet photo)

People often ask me what my favorite plant is. Boy, that's a tough one - sort of like asking me which one of my kids is my favorite. If I am forced to choose, though, the sedum family is going to be in the top five for sure. It is tough, beautiful, and comes in so many different sizes, colors, and  leaf variations. It is very low maintenance, and grows well as long it doesn't get too much water. In those locations that get inundated with road dirt, the taller growing varieties are more practical than the ground cover ones, only because it is easier to clean the dirt away from the crown, instead of trying to untangle and unearth the ground cover stems each spring. Some of my favorites in the upright sedum are Xenox, Matrona, Purple Emperor, and Autumn Joy.

Viburnum "Blue Muffin" in bloom on left; berries on right
(Wilson Bros. photo)

If you have a larger space and want to use some shrubs, there are some of those that fit the bill for the hot, dry, windy, salty locations. 

Viburnums produce masses of white blooms in late spring. Height and overall size is dependent on the variety, and can range from just a few feet tall to eight or more feet. The scent of their flowers is attractive to birds, insects, and people. Arrowwood is the hardiest variety, but virtually all varieties are hardy to zone 4.  Mohican, with its huge white snowball flowers, and Blue Muffin, with its bright blue berries after flowering, are winners in my yard.

Rugosa rose "Roseraie De L'Hay"

Rugosa roses are tough cookies.  Their native habitat is on sand dunes along the coasts, so as long as it's a variety hardy to zone 4 or lower, it will do well in our climate in these tough spots. Rugosa roses usually are quite thorny shrubs with lots of deeply-veined leaves. The flowers are large and may be single or fully double. Rugosa flowers are shades of pink to white, and they are highly fragrant, so this rose will attract bees, butterflies, birds, and other wildlife to your garden.  They also have a long bloom season and will reliably re-bloom if the hips are kept trimmed off. If flowers are left to turn to hips from about mid-August on, deer, pheasants, and other wildlife will enjoy them in the winter.

Potentilla "Pink Beauty"

Finally, let's talk about Potentilla, or gas station shrubs, as some people like to call them. It's not an accident you often see these planted in those little islands between gas pumps or along the perimeter of parking lots. Potentilla are as tough as they come. Potentillas are members of the rose family, and are sometimes called bush cinquefoil. They are small, growing anywhere from one foot to four feet tall and wide. Flowers come in yellow, white, pink, and orange. Dakota Goldrush and Dakota Sunspot are two varieties that were developed at North Dakota State University specifically for the conditions of North Dakota growing. They obviously do well in northern climates, but so do many other varieties, such as Abbotswood, Goldfinger, and Pink Beauty. These shrubs are easy care and bloom almost the entire growing season. 

Given this wide selection of grasses, perennials, and shrubs, there isn't really any reason to fight the battle to keep lawn grass alive in those tough areas, or to resign yourself to just looking out at a patch of rocks. With the right type, color, and texture choices, you can have a beautiful, hardy garden, even in those hot, dry, windy, and salty locations. 

Preserving Carrots

Sliced frozen carrots - internet photo

Even the best storing techniques sometimes don't keep carrots fresh for as long as the carrots last. If you have more than you will eat within a reasonable storage time, you'll want to consider more long-term methods of preserving them. Carrots can be frozen, dehydrated, pickled, fermented, or pressure canned.

I prefer frozen carrots. It is easy, quick, and yields a good end product. To freeze carrots, choose nice, crisp carrots.  Wash and trim any green off the shoulder of the carrots. Peel the carrots for the best end result. Small carrots can be frozen whole; larger ones should be cut into thin slices, small cubes, or small strips, depending on how you like to use them. Heat a large kettle of water to a rapid boil. Blanch small whole carrots by dropping them in the boiling water for 5 minutes. Slices, cubes or strips should be blanched for 2 minutes. Blanching stops the activity of enzymes that cause undesirable flavor, color, and texture changes in the vegetables. It also cleans the surface of the vegetables of any clinging soil or organisms and helps preserve the nutrients and delicious flavors of the vegetables.

Diced frozen carrots - internet photo

When the blanching time is completed, remove the carrots from the blanch water and immediately immerse them in ice water. Monitor the chill water temperature, and if it warms before the flesh of the carrot is completely chilled, replace the ice water. Once the carrots are thoroughly chilled, drain them well. You can package them in single meal packages right away, if you wish. I prefer to spread the blanched and cooled carrots on towels on the countertop and allow the excess water to dry off. Once they have dried a little, I spread them in single layers on plastic wrapped cookie pans and place them in the freezer. Once they are completely frozen, I put them all in a large freezer bag and stick it back in the freezer. Freezing the carrots singly gives me the flexibility to thaw only what I actually need to use at any given time.

Freezing allows you to preserve the carrots at their peak quality, and it preserves a great deal of the nutrients found in fresh carrots. The color of frozen carrots usually stays a nice, vibrant orange. A disadvantage is that freezing alters the cellular structure of the carrots and they may seem a bit tough or rubbery when they are thawed.

Canned carrots - internet photo

If you aren't a fan of frozen carrots, canning is another alternative.  Carrots are low acid foods and can only be safely canned in a pressure canner specifically designed for canning, following research tested instructions meticulously.  I can't stress this enough.  Canning vegetables is perfectly safe as long as you follow the rules and the directions of research tested recipes.  Failure to do so can be deadly, as botulism loves the low oxygen, low acid environment in a jar of vegetables and other low acid foods. There is no safe way to water bath vegetables.

To assure that you are using safe methods for canning your carrots, look to the instructions from the National Center for Home Food Preservation, the Ball Blue Book Guide to Home Canning latest edition, or your local university extension service.  These are the resources that do food safety research and can steer you to the most up to date safe canning methods.

Carrots can be safely pickled using hot water bath processing. The vinegar used for the pickling process creates a high enough acidity to thwart the dreaded botulism spores and toxins. In order to be sure the vinegar to water concentration creates adequate acidity, you should always use research tested recipes even for pickled vegetables.  As delicious as Grandma's pickled carrots were, they might not be as safe as what we know today we should be feeding our families.  Here is a pickled carrot recipe from the National Center for Home Food Preservation, my "go-to" site for safe canning recipes.

Pickled Carrots

• 2¾ pounds peeled carrots (about 3½ pounds as purchased)

• 5½ cups white distilled vinegar (5%)

• 1 cup water

• 2 cups sugar

• 2 teaspoons canning salt

• 8 teaspoons mustard seed

• 4 teaspoons celery seed

Yield: About 4 pint jars

Procedure:

Wash and rinse pint canning jars; keep hot until read to use. Prepare lids and bands according to manufacturer's directions.Wash and peel carrots well. Wash again after peeling and cut into rounds that are approximately ½-inch thick.

Combine vinegar, water, sugar and canning salt in an 8-quart Dutch oven or stockpot. Bring to a boil and boil gently 3 minutes. Add carrots and bring back to a boil. Then reduce heat to a simmer and heat until the carrots are half-cooked (about 10 minutes).

Meanwhile, place 2 teaspoons mustard seed and 1 teaspoon celery seed in the bottom of each clean, hot pint jar.

Fill hot jars with the hot carrots, leaving 1-inch headspace. Cover with hot pickling liquid, leaving ½-inch headspace. Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace if needed. Wipe rims of jars with a dampened, clean paper towel; adjust two-piece metal canning lids.

Process pints in a boiling water canner, 15 minutes at altitudes up to 1000 feet; 20 minutes at altitudes of 1001 to 6000 feet, and 25 minutes at altitudes greater than 6000 feet.  Let cool, undisturbed, 12 to 24 hours and check for seals.

Allow carrots to sit in processed jars for 3 to 5 days before consuming for best flavor development.

Dehydrated carrots - internet photo

I do a lot of dehydrating, but I have to admit, I have never dehydrated carrots. As a "starving" college student, I ate a lot of very cheap, packaged dried soup mix. Those little pebbles that passed for vegetables in those packets pretty much turned me off dried veggies for life, But, nonetheless, it is an effective way to preserve vegetables and some people enjoy the end product.

To dry carrots, you begin by preparing them as you do for freezing, right through the blanching process. Instead of chilling them until fully cooled after removing them from the blanch water, simply dip them quickly in cold water and then spread in a single layer on the drying tray. Follow the instructions for your dehydrator as far as temperature and time. When dehydrating any foods, it is important that all the moisture is out if you plan to shelf-store them. If you are going to store them in the freezer, a little moisture will not hurt.

Having a supply of preserved carrots on hand makes it so easy to put a delicious, nutritious meal on the table, even when fresh supplies are not readily available. If you grow your own carrots, it gives you the opportunity to extend the fruits of your labors throughout the year. I love going to my cold storage room, grabbing a couple jars of something, stopping by the deep-freeze to take out whatever I need from there, and then throwing it all together for a quick meal. It doesn't get any better than that!

Storing Carrots

Carrots (internet photo)

Our vegetable garden at Wiese Acres was disappointing this year. It was a year of extreme temperatures, both hot and cold; wind that wanted to pick up the entire garden and move it to the next county; and extreme drought.  We grew enough to eat fresh and preserve for ourselves for winter use, but that garden plot just was not going to produce enough for us to provide fresh produce to the food pantries and homeless shelters like we often do. We did, however, have a nice crop of carrots.

Not all carrots are created equal when it comes to growing or storage. In a previous blog, I discussed the carrot varieties that grow best in certain types of soil. For storage, I have found Chantenay, Imperator, and Danvers all have good storage characteristics, and this year, Chantenay proved to be my best producer as well.

Carrots can be left in the ground through light frosts but are best harvested before real hard frosts. I know some of our ancestors left carrots in the ground over the winter and harvested them in spring. I tried that one year. Yeah, I think they only did that because they didn't have a better storage option. The texture of those frozen solid carrots was sort of like styrofoam. They were ok for cooking in soups or grinding for carrot cake, but not much else. So, after that experiment, I now dig the carrots after frost, but before ground freeze-up. 

Carrots will store fresh for up to six months, if they are handled properly. I do keep a close eye on mine in storage, though, and if they start to lose quality, I freeze or can what is left. I'll tell you how I do that in a later blog article.

Carrots need to be mature before harvest for the best storage life. Immature carrots tend to go limp or spoil in storage. One way to know if carrots are mature is to simply keep track of the growing time for the particular variety you have planted. If your variety says 90 days to maturity, that's generally about what it takes. Another way is to check the size of your carrots against the expected size of the type you planted. If your variety is expected to obtain a size of one inch at the shoulders and six to eight inches in length, it is probably mature when it reaches that size.  Color can also be an indicator of maturity.  Standard carrots are a deep, rich orange when mature. You can also taste test your carrots to determine maturity. If the texture is firm and crisp and the flavor is sweet, it's harvest time.

I usually try to find a day where it has been dry for awhile before I dig the carrots.  That was not a problem at all this year!  The only reason for this is because it makes it easier to brush the clinging soil off the carrots. I prefer to not wash root vegetables before storing them because the skins are quite tender when they are first dug and the more you handle them, the more likely you are to damage that skin and open the root for bacteria, mold, and fungal infection. Research has shown that unwashed carrots do keep longer and maintain flavor and odor better than washed carrots.

If you do choose to wash before storage, make sure they are allowed to air dry adequately before putting them in whatever storage method you choose.

Anyway, back to the garden.  Cool, cloudy days are great days for harvesting carrots. The first roots dug or pulled usually stay on the surface of the garden or in a basket until I am done with the last ones. Cool, cloudy days make it easier to keep them fresh while they wait for me to get done digging the rows.

I trim the tops to about 1/4 inch above the carrot shoulders.  I leave those trimmed tops lie right on the garden soil and compost them in to help loosen the soil for next year's crop. Then, I lightly brush the soil off the carrots, being careful not to damage the tender skin.

The next step is to sort the carrots by size.  The larger the root, the better the storage potential.  Smaller roots are best used first. Any damaged carrots (you know, those that you sometimes get a little impatient towards the end of the digging and knick them with the potato fork or pull it up too quickly, leaving the tip of the root still in the ground), should also be sorted out and either used or preserved by freezing or canning right away. 

Once sorted, I carefully place the sorted piles in baskets, again being careful not to bruise them. Any bruised area is an opportunity for spoilage to begin. Bruising and shock also stimulates the production of ethylene, which causes bitterness and off odors.  Then, I get to decide how I am going to store them.

Growing up, we had a root cellar. All root vegetables were stored in that dark, moist, creepy (to my childhood mind) place that was at the perfect temperature and humidity to keep fresh food available all winter long. Carrots were left in wooden bushel baskets, with layers of newspaper, straw, sand, or sawdust between them.  Some people still store carrots this way, although root cellars have become few and far between.

I don't have a root cellar where I live now, but I have a cold storage room that closely mimics the conditions in those old root cellars. I either store my carrots in there, or in one of the refrigerators in the summer kitchen. The reason I don't always store my carrots in the cold room is because apples and carrots don't appreciate living together. The gases from the apples cause the carrots to become bitter. I don't have a good way to keep them separated enough, so when I have both crops to store, I usually put the carrots in one of the refrigerators that I set to stay at around 38 degrees.

Unwashed carrots ready for storage

When storing in the refrigerator, I layer them in plastic bags that I have cut slits into in several places.  I use the 2.5 gallon zipper top plastic bags, but any food grade plastic bag will work. The slits allow the carrots to breathe while still maintaining the 95 to 98% humidity they like to stay crisp and firm. I used to place paper towels between the layers of carrots in the bags, but have found that is extra work with no difference in the storage quality of the carrots. This method of storage would work in any cold storage area, but in the cold room, I prefer something that is a bit more protective of the roots.

Cold storage bucket

When I store them in the cold room, I use a 5 gallon bucket that I have drilled air holes into the sides, bottom, and lid in several places. The carrots are layered in those in the same way they are in the plastic bag and stored at the same temperature as the refrigerator. You'll notice on the photo that I drill the holes from the inside of the bucket out - that minimizes rough edges on the inside of the bucket that may damage the vegetables.

There are some advantages to using a refrigerator, if you have the space to do so. Layering them in the clear plastic bags gives you much better visibility to see if any are starting to spoil. With the buckets, I end up taking all the carrots out every month or so to check how they are doing. In the clear plastic bags, I can just turn the bag over and look carefully. It is also easier to maintain the high levels of humidity in the refrigerator than it is in the larger cold storage room.

Even with the best storage option, carrots don't last forever, so in my next article, I'll talk about how to preserve them longer by either freezing or canning.

Perennial Garden Design