Back to the garden

[muckefuck]

So we went back to Gethsemane today and bought the 'Coppertina' ninebark. We were both relieved to see that it was more compact than we remembered and fit easily into the trunk of the taxi alongside the cotoneaster we bought for good measure. At least now we have a couple of living shrubs on our side rather than merely a macabre display of bleached corpses. And we've already matched our expenditures for last year, without even filling the hanging baskets or replacing the leggy-ass geraniums we sheltered inside!

When it comes to the Battle of the Parkway, we may have found a new ally, namely the dwarf crested iris. They're supposed to be shade-loving and slow-spreading, so we're trying a couple out near the base of the maple trees. While planting them, I was thrilled to discover that one of the sweet woodruff plants I put in last year around this time made it after all. Moreover, it seems to be thriving, so now I feel better about planting a new passle of seedlings in the same area.

There are also some lilies-of-the-valley of mysterious provenance blooming there. monshu suggested trying them in the beds at the bases of the maples as well, and I think I will as soon as they stop blooming. Right now, my philosophy is to keep flinging candidates into the shade garden, see what takes, and then go back and buy more. With that in mind, we also picked up some periwinkle for the dimmest corner of the front lawn.

Comments

[mollpeartree.livejournal.com]

Lilies of the valley can spread kind of aggressively if they're happy. They're not hard to dig up, though. I've got tons more if you'd like to come and get 'em (also wintercreeper, English ivy, and snow-on-the-mountain, aggressive shade-loving spreaders all.)

My neighbor is cutting down all of his volunteer trees, so everything in my yard will probably be dead by July.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Aggressive is what we want, since right now what we have is a big uneven mess of bark mulch that collects wind-blown trash. I'm not a big fan of wintercreeper and English ivy is kind of a last resort, but I've got a soft spot for natives, so I might take some of your spurge and see what it can do.

[mollpeartree.livejournal.com]

Okay, now I don't know what the groundcover with the white-edged pale green leaves is called, because it's definitely not what pops up when you Google "snow-on-the-mountain spurge".

FWIW, I have a lot of pachysandra, which is also called Japanese spurge. It takes a while to spread, but once it does it's a pretty nice groundcover. It's unlikely to get out of control too quickly and it stays green over winter. It may be too similar in color to your woodruff to be interesting, though.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Moreover, my online bible for plant advice tells me that snow-on-the-mountain demands full sun, so scratch that.

Pachysandra is why we have this problem. That is, the neighbours planted some there years ago because they were told it would spread like a rash and cover the whole area. It never did, which is why I'm searching out alternatives.

[mollpeartree.livejournal.com]

Woah, nice plant bible! The mystery groundcover is Bishop's weed. It spreads pretty quickly, but it doesn't tolerate dog urine very well (we have learned in the parkway).

I also have masses of vinca and a couple of coral bells that could stand to be divided.

Too bad about the pachysandra. Is it a full-shade area?