Ground Cover

[FP]

Please can someone suggest something that is fairly bright and cheerful to plant in my fairly dry area of woodland garden under the trees and shrubs.  I am planting daffodils there and want something that the bulbs can push up through but keeps the ground elder at bay (I have spent all summer dealing with the ground elder).  All the usual things seem boring.  I want some colour and not too much height and evergreen.  Too much to ask!!

Dont want:  Ivy, Periwinkle, Hypercicum, Pachysandra

[mullein2]

if you look at suffolk herbs site..they have some wild flower and herb seed ..suitable for scattering in shady areas..so next year you will have preety things popping up to surprise you..and you could dot a few ornamental grasses around and turn it into a wild life haven..and every year it will just free seed..if you have any old branches hanging around saw it into logs and insects can live in them...dont listen to me..fp...i will turn your garden into a jungle..i desperately want a gunnera..but have to wait till i move as i wouldnt want to leave it behind..i have made a pond in a shady area and its only a few weeks old and its full of frogs..thats another thought??

[FP]

Mullein, my garden is already a jungle and a wildlife haven!!  I have half an acre divided into about four separate areas.  Your idea is really good.  Problem is with this particular area is that I need it to be low maintenance (must take care of myself now I am on my last legs, ha ha)  and the shrubs and trees are so large now that there isn't much light.  I have left them to grow large for the birds to nest and hide in, and want something to cover the bare earth that I have left below that had been overrun with ground elder.  I do admit to loving 'opportunist' plants that seed all over the place.

We have another area which is a huge stinging nettle patch and full of old logs - great for butterflies and insects.  I have cultivated my front garden (which is North facing and damp into quite a nice woodland garden with lots of shrubs with berries for the birds to eat.

Our back garden is dry and South facing and my dogs and cats are about out there so I don't do much to encourage birds in that area.

Where about to you live Mullein?  I always think of Gunnera as a Cornish plant, but noticed them growing in our local wildlife nursery recently (North Norfolk) and they are quite large?  My garden is too dry for them.

We haven't got a pond but my neighbours over the road have a two acre garden with a natural pond and it is beautiful, so natural.  Their ducks visit my garden often.

We also have a very active community of moles!

[andyjevs]

Without sounding harsh, you'll need to deal with the ground elder first with a systemic herbicide such as roundup. After it is sorted, bluebells can be grown and a lovely little plant called epimedium. Also try Dryopteris or some polystichum ferns wich love dry shade. Heuchera will tolerate this as will some shrubs such as forsythia and some conifers Good luck

[andyjevs]

Further to my last answer, If people want to grow gunnera but don't have the room, try peltophyllum...a small bog plant which grows to around 4 foot. It has smaller gunnera type leave around 10" accross and also lovely pink spikes of flowers before the leaves appear in april. Peltophyllum peltatum

[Clanad]

Ajuga, also called Bugle Weed is a good ground cover, forming a dense carpet of foliage over the soil. This semi-evergreen plant grows rapidly by producing mats of foliage in rosettes.
The foliage grows about 4 inches high with upright clusters of blue flowers reaching 6 to 8 inches. The plant flowers in early May to mid-June. Ajuga will flourish in almost any soil with good drainage. It grows best in full sun, but also tolerates shade.

The foliage is deep green in color and partly evergreen, turning brown after severe freezing weather. Bronze and variegated varieties are also available. The extensive root system prevents soil erosion.

If established plants are set 12 to 15 inches apart in the spring, they will cover the soil in one growing season. Do not set the plants too deep. The crown should never be covered. In the spring or early fall, rooted "runner plants" can be dug from established plantings and replanted elsewhere.

Additionally, Blue Rug juniper plants and their relatives are sturdy evergreen groundcovers for sunny slopes. Using juniper groundcovers controls erosion and weeds, and also eliminates your having to mow steep slopes.

I have both of these and they do well, even in shadier areas...  Good luck!

[Eels]

What about heather?  Grows well with a bit of special compost slung in once a year and really pretty.

[FP]

Thanks everyone so far.  Andyjevs, I have been treating the ground elder all spring and summer with Roundup.  It's been a real battle.  Small pieces are still coming up from tiny bits of root, but I am winning and feel confident enough to start on the project.  It was a harsh solution, as you say, but I was fed up with continually trying to dig the ground elder out.  I am putting the daffodils in one section of the area  this week.    Clanad, I have bugle in my front garden and it is lovely.  I thought bugle needed damper soil.  Will it be OK in the drier soil of the area I am working in?

[FP]

Andyjevs.  I looked up epimedium and it looks really attractive and just the sort of thing I need.  We have Forsythia, Holly, Ornamental Cherry, Budlea Globosa, Berberis and Rowan growing in the area I am trying to create, plus several other shrubs and some large conifers.  Our garden is established,  but what I am trying to do is cut down on work whilst still retaining an attractive garden which is wildlife friendly.  Flower beds are a thing of the past and I just plant them in tubs now for some colour.

[Robinia]

Hi FP - under a tree & therefore in a very dry & shady area in my garden I've got variegated periwinkle, bergenia & canterbury bells doing amazingly well with a few logs thrown down as well.  You're the same as me, looking towards low maintenance - I don't have many of the perennials that need regular lifting anymore & tubs are great for moving around to give some changes & colour.  My dry & sunny front garden was really hard work so last autumn I had it cleared & gravelled with a bed where I'm planting mostly herbs & silver plants that will relish the warmth. It was a tough decision but in light of how I've felt for a lot of this yr I'm so glad I did!
I have a bud globosa - you don't see them very often - I call it the bubblegum tree!

[Clanad]

FP, I have Ajuga in three different places... two side hills to control erosion and a part of a rose garden that get's foot traffic.  It does well in all three places, including one south facing side hill that is quite dry.  I don't water it and our rain fall here in the western U.S. is less that 16 inches per year.  It happens to be the bronze Ajuga, and quite attracftive.  The one in the rose garden gets plenty of water and is somewhat shaded, in fact next to some Hostas... it does well too...

[woofgang]

mullein, you can grow gunnera in a big pot either stood in a pond or in a bucket of water, also it makes offsets prolifically so you could take son of gunnera with you when you move!

[andyjevs]

Me again !!!! Heuchera, physallis and day lillies (hemerocalis) will also tolerate dry shade.

[FP]

You lot are fantastic.  Thanks!

[Robinia]

Brilliant woofgang - son of gunnera!!! ...tears rolling down face.....gonna be thinking about that all day, I'm a bit delerious, it's ok, it's this virus.....

[FP]

Sorry you are under the weather Robinia.  Hope you feel better soon.  Tuck yourself up nice and warm, get a good book and relax.  The weather is bl**dy awful anyway, so you won't be missing much.  My bulb planting will have to wait!!

[woofgang]

glad that I made you laugh, get well soon

[FP]

This place is only 10 miles away from me and it's just lovely.  They have quite a lot of Gunnera!

http://www.naturalsurroundings.org.uk/

[Robinia]

Thanks girls! :-)

[mullein2]

i am in the west midland have less than 30 months to go yipeeee..i saw some lovely gunneras at the botanical gardens in bham..the other week..they were overlooking a pond but in full sun...i think i shall have to get one and keep it in a large pot ..as they are lovely...i dont think i can wait 30 months for one..also as i am moving to the east midlands i shall have to rent while i look around to buy..so i am likely to be without a garden for 12 months as no one is going to let me fill a rented house garden with plants..i can allways store plants in the daughters garden as i am moving by her...the garden i have here is bursting..back and front...its crammed full of herbs and wild flowers..i buy those mixed herb and wildflower seeds..as i like things popping up to surprise me..also i am fortunate in some ways living on the edge of a city i have fields at the rear and a nature reserve accross the road..so its not to bad...its bearable..just...the thing is with filling the borders full.. they dont get full of weeds..as their isnt space..thats my idea..allthough i was overrun with chickweed in the early spring..and it took hours to remove..i have only got 50 foot square back garden and the same on the front so i am jealouse fp..when i move i shall look for a smaller house larger garden...and if thats not possible i will get an allotment...

[mullein2]

son of gunnera?? you people dont know me very well i would have son ..daughter ..aunt ..uncle..grandad..grandma...etc..etc..i am allways starting plants off the greenhouse is full now and my potting table..and i have no where to put them..in birmingham market their is a stall selling out of date seeds by quality companys..for 25p..well every month i buy 8 packets and come home and sow them..and they have all grown..i shall be going again this friday and no i cant walk past without buying them  i am an addict..i had 36 lavender plants last week but fortunately the daughter has taken half of them..they might be out of date seeds but they sure grow fast..