I have starts of heucheras: black currant, key lime pie and peach melba. I have a division of what I think is a purple palace but I am not sure. Please take a look at my list and see if youl'll be interested in any plants I have. I do not have any asters but would love to see if they will grow and bloom in my area. Thank you. Dee

You know, that's a really compact clump of yucca- instead of fighting it, why not use it along with the cedar and other shrub as winter backbone? They do have nice fragrant white blooms in summer. If it were spread out or a huge clump, i'd fuss with it, but if you're wanting to make life simple... leave it be. I'd say it depends on the compost whether you till it in. If it seems like it has a good bit of earthy stuff for the plants to dig into, then no, but if it's more top dressing stuff, perhaps till in half and top with compost. The quality can vary year to year and by the time of year, depending on what they are shredding and composting. If you're in wake co, you will need to find a truck/hauler to haul it for you, but the compost itself is fairly cheap- like 30 a big truckload full. City runs 2 for 1 specials sometimes, too. Meaning pay for 1 load, get the second free that same day- but you'd still need to pay for hauling. You could do a lasagna type bed- layer on newspaper, ect, and build up with out messing with tilling at all. There's been a good bit posted about it, and there are at least 2 books. It really does work if you have a little patience/time. There is a thread for the swap on the exchanges forum. It should have the where what when info- tho i can tell you quickly it's may 8th, at white deer park in garner. Doesn't matter if you're a newb. We always have some. Just bring some good food and anything you have to spare that you think gardeners could use- pots, hoses, rocks, etc. Even shallow boxes would be appreciated as folks always need them to haul away their new found goodies.

I keep going back and forth as I watch my ground covers spread. I do not like the "empty" look of nothing or the dead, messy look of mulch. I have a perennial vinca vine and ajuga. They just finished their bloom cylce. I loved the blue flowers among my hosta. The creeping jenny is just getting ready to bloom. It keeps moving toward the grass away from my woodland garden. At my place the ground covers compete more with the ferns, bleeding hearts and astilbe than they do with the hosta. The hosta aren't bothered but the others struggle mightily if a ground cover gets too close. They are not a huge issue to keep back. Once twice a season I go around and remove any invaders from under my hosta canopies. Once the hosta come in it is too dark under them for my ground cover to be happy. I have had LOV and snow on the mountain deep in the back of my woodland hosta gardens for over 10 years and never had a problem. They seem to be creeping now and I find myself pulling them up but I have so many seedlings to edit out it is all just part of the process. Wild violets love my gardens and I have all colors. It the spring they are very welcome. About now they are getting pretty large and the rain is usually at a premium so I pull them as I go. I prefer to think of "editing" vs weeding. People see my garden and imagine I do nothing but garden but they are wrong. I enjoy and hour or so a day. Some days when I am "painting" re-arranging I spend longer. This Lamium has me intrigued. I wonder if it would grow for me?

Hi Michiele, Landscaping around a pool that is in full sun, or at least in lots and lots of sun, can be very challenging. Often the heat that reflects from the pool and the pool deck are very hard on plants. When you are landscaping near a pool area, I think grass is always best because it can take the most abuse, from being walked on, having beach balls bounce through it, etc. To keep weeds to a minimum, put down a good quality woven landscape fabric, plant your grasses and add some mulch. When choosing a mulch, it is often better to use some sort of stone like river rock or lava rock because bark mulches tend to blow into the pool. Interplanting a taller ground cover like ornamental grass with a shorter ground cover can be difficult. Creeping ground covers like Asian Jasmine or Boston Ivy may tend to 'climb' up the clumps of grass. If you have a taller ornamental grass, then a shorter ground cover may get too shaded by the taller grasses and not fill in as well as you would like. You might try ice plant or creeping sedum. They also are creepers more than vining climbers so they would be easier to maintain. Both are very tough and can handle the reflected heat from the pool's concrete or stone surround. If you are going to have a taller form of ornamental grass, you could use ornamental blue fescue, fiber optic grass or blue-eyed grass as the shorter plant to fill in around the larger ones. It can be hard to combine ornamental grasses with shorter ground covers underneath them because the shorter plants can be overwhelmed by the larger grasses. A mixed planting of ornamental grasses, creeping groundcovers and dwarf shrubs can be used quite effectively if the plants are in scale with one another. You might go to the website for High Country Gardens (I think it is www.highcountrygardens.com) and look at their ground covers. They have a lot of uncommon plants that are suited to tough conditions. Good luck, Dawn