Gardening input please! - Update!

[M&M]

I live in a Victorian duplex with limited gardening space. I'm very fortunate - for such a small space, I have a sunny flower bed, a shady area in front of my porch, and I have several containers for vegetable gardening. They are oh-so-attractive - they live at the end of my driveway! But whatever, I get to grow some veggies! As many of you know, DH and I used to own a restaurant, where I got to do a lot of gardening, so doing a little is sooo much better than doing none.

Anyway, not having enough aggravation in my life, apparently, I asked the landlords if I could redo the area in front of the porch on the other side. I'm removing English ivy, day lilies and a couple of ornery shrubs. I want to put in groundcover that is low growing, and not at all thug like. (No vinca or pachysandra!) I'll also plant some bulbs, but I'm not going to install a full garden. Unless I do - LOL!

Anyway, the immediate question is the groundcover. I am seriously considering thyme, although it would take either a whole lot of plants, or a lot of time for it to spread. No pun intended. The landlord is going to give me some money for plants. I don't know how much, but it won't be a lot. This is a project I asked him if I could take on, not anything he was planning on doing.

The other thing I have seen that I have liked is a combination of different thymes, or thyme and sedums. I tried something like that at the restaurant, and it's a lot harder to make it look good than I thought it would be.

Suggestions? Thoughts? Dos/don'ts?

[M&M]

Forgot to mention - the area gets afternoon sun.

[WheresMyWhite]

M&M, I'm always fond of a "messy" look in a garden (neatly groomed doesn't appeal to me).

I like your idea of a mix of thymes and sedums. I love sedums and they are such a variety of shapes and colors and cold tolerant (grew them in CO).

Thyme isn't a speedy grower but not bad

[Tuffytown]

Maybe some low growing dianthus for some "taller" spring flowers and some textural variety.

http://www.churchcreeknursery.com/uploads/Products/product_73/Dianthus_Firewitch.jpg

I am particularly fond of wooly thyme.

https://www.mountainvalleygrowers.com/images/thywoollytrailing.jpg

[M&M]

Dianthus is definitely in the plan!

[M&M]

Which tells you how sincere I am about not creating an entire garden!

[carpevita]

Not ground cover, but useful and you can plant them in a few months--- leeks and garlic and other alliums?
Some have pretty stalks and flowers and of course yum!

[Tuffytown]

Globe alliums, yes. I have these little ones that look like they put their fingers in a socket with wild screwy appendages.

http://cdn.brecks.com/images/500/39472.jpg


You said victorian garden and all of a sudden I see hollyhocks, delphiniums, cleome. Then the minimalist comment and I had to dial it back.

[M&M]

I can't plant anything edible. There's a high likelihood of lead contamination due to the age of the house. I have delphiniums on my side - and some are getting ready to rebloom! Some more might have to go on the work-in-progress side.

I love those alliums, Tuffy! I'll probably be planting garlic chives, because they're pretty, and some of the shorter alliums. I do love the drumsticks, but they really have to be part of a fuller garden - at least in my opinion. I don't like them when they just stuck there on their own.

Ok, obviously, I'm going to plant a whole garden! I'll get measurements tomorrow, but it's a straight, narrow garden, running the length of the porch. So probably about 4' deep by maybe 20ish? feet long.

[Tuffytown]

Globe allium and fern. One of my favorite combos.

IMG_8331.jpg (188.88 KiB) Viewed 19620 times

But then the rest of my yard looks like this so yea, full garden.

IMG_8350.jpg (105.52 KiB) Viewed 19620 times

[texsuze]

I'm a big proponent of using natives in the landscape, instead of common exotics, so perhaps check with your native plant societies, and nurseries that grow plants native to your part of the state. You might already have some growing.

http://www.newenglandwild.org
www.grownativemass.org

We will need photos of the before/after, too

[M&M]

I'll definitely provide the before and after.

I absolutely agree with the native plants, but the one thing I will prioritize over native is drought tolerant. We're no California, but things are getting worse in our neck of the woods.

[M&M]

Although, now I'm browsing the New England Wildflower site, and being reminded why natives are so important. So, thank you, Texsuze. I'm a little embarrassed that I needed to be reminded.

[WheresMyWhite]

Native, for the most part, will be adapted to whatever water is available.

Depending on where you are, if you get something too drought tolerant and get more rain that it is used to, it may also not be successful even if the amount of rain would be less than normal for your area.

[Tuffytown]

One of my favorites it think native to your area? not native here in washington but does well. Low growing, great leaf shape and cute although short lived flowers but great seed pods.

http://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=JEDI

[M&M]

Thank you, Tuffy! I wasn't aware of them, and they are native to my area.

Thank you, also Where'sMyWhite. I used to know this stuff off the top of my head. It's embarrassing to need the reminders, but better to be embarrassed than to plant thing that aren't helpful to my local bugs and butterflies!

[WheresMyWhite]

M&M, that's why our collective is better than the individual parts

I am in the process of taking the course work to become a Master Gardener and here in the low desert, too much water can be as much of an issue for a plant as too little water as I have been learning

[texsuze]

[M&M]

Hey, I am too! Allegedly, anyway. I've only taken the first section, which is basic botany.

[WheresMyWhite]

4 months of 3 hrs/week course work plus volunteer work - I'm now past half way!!!

[M&M]

I'm doing it on line, so I won't get certified - no volunteer time, etc. I'm more interested in the knowledge than the certification. However, doing it at my own pace means I've only done the Basic Botany class - I don't have to tell you when I started, do I?

[WheresMyWhite]

I don't think you can take our coursework online. Botany was ages ago it seems I've also taken a botany class through the local botanical garden.

I agree the knowledge is fun!

[M&M]

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[M&M]

How do I get them to show up in the post, instead of being a link?

Ok, got it! Now, how do I make them smaller? LOL! On photobucket, I shrunk the size 4 times, but it still looks big here!

(I used to be good at computers, but they changed, and I didn't!)


(Edited after Flight's input!)

[Flight]

How do I get them to show up in the post, instead of being a link?

You've got to stick the link between the Img thingies.

So, I just copy the 'direct link' stuff on photobucket, click the Img button up the top, and then paste the link in between the img's.

Sometimes you have to downsize the photobucket photos when you link them, otherwise they are quite big.

[AnnCohrs]

Jeffersonia is an ephemeral for me (disappears by July, comes back in the spring). I grow a ton of native spring ephemerals, but they are way out back where I dont have to watch them die as spring turns to summer.

Will cyclamen withstand the amount of afternoon sun you have? Ditto European ginger? Both of them are exquisitely elegant ground covers. You are probably warm enough to grow some of the native evergreen gingers. Asarum canadense is not evergreen, but is a willing multiplier.

I love the geraniums (species geraniums, not the big red annuals). Roxanne blooms most of the summer for me, sun or shade. There are several that are good ground covers, though shorter blooming. Geranium macrorrihzum selections have been very satisfactory for me.

If i had a million bucks, i would use epimediums for a ground cover in shade. I suspect E.grandiflorum would sulk in sun, but there are much tougher species I grow which just need a taller plant to the west to be just fine.

Low growing ferns?

[M&M]

I have yet to meet an epimedium that I didn't love! I have several on my side, which is shady. Funny you should mention cyclamen - I just started looking in to them yesterday. I do love wild ginger, but a google search hasn't turned up any that like full sun. Any that I have seen in full sun get quite burnt.

I'm thinking of armeria, and I'm definitely going to be using a lot of lower growing sedums as ground cover. I would love to use thyme also, but it is a large area, and I learned years back that it's not easy to mix different thymes and sedums and have it look good. I know it's possible, just not easy!

[Tuffytown]

I've had Asarum Europaeum in pretty sunny areas sucessfully.

Another I love is Mouse Plant but it has always been in shade. The flowers are fabulous.

http://www.greatplantpicks.org/plantlists/view/169

[M&M]

Unfortunately, I'm in Zone 6a. Too bad. Mouse plant looks awesome!