Walkable Ground Covers for Pacific Northwest
rooanddoo
11 months ago
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gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
11 months agolast modified: 11 months ago
rooanddoo
11 months agoRelated Discussions
Ideas for ground cover and evergreen shrubs?
Comments (15)Not sure if this is too late for you in your plant quest.... Did you know about the free plants available via Green Elephant plant swaps 1st Sat. November & again in March in Redmond, WA? Information posted on Pacific Northwest Plant Exchange forum & a website link there. Our family just found out about them last fall for perennials as well as some shrubs, vines, grasses, & edibles. We've received more plants than you can imagine some mature, some as rooted cuttings, or seedlings identified or not. Prior to GE we had just a handful of perennials and shrubs. Now we have lamium 'White Nancy', daylilies (named & not), bearded iris, strawberries, raspberries, hydrangea, currant, salvia, variegated dogwood, red twig dogwood, white lilac, fothergilla 'Blue Mist', cotoneaster, clematis, J. anemone, astrantia, lady's mantle, hosta, sedums (several types), 'London Pride', lemon balm, mint, chives, society garlic, brown weeping grass seedlings (likely sedge), 5 types of columbine, several different euonymous, rosemary, oregano, marjoram, persicaria, catmint, garden phlox, 'Ice Dance' carex, vinca major 'variegata', vinca minor, sweet woodruff, primrose, hardy geraniums, obedient plant, campanulas (several types), calla lily, small leafed ivy, alpine lady's mantle, ajuga (several types), etc. Not all survived the transplant process here or were labeled correctly, but 100s of dollars saved & what fun to share plants I've enjoyed with others. I potted up for weeks to just get them in something this spring until I was ready to put in the ground in the right place. Also gave me a chance to verify the plant ID & pick out any weeds intertwined in roots. I confess I still have plants in pots, but had to take a break from planting due to our daughter's wedding last week. Full speed ahead now this week again to get those groundcovers in place then mulched again. There is a free area as well as the swap items by each car. Anything that grows well here & is easily divided or rooted is likely brought to GE swaps, so you can save your $ for that special shrub or vine instead of spending on these types of things. We've filled 4 new planting areas with GE and the Olympia swap plants as well as sharing plants with friends, family & our camp. Ann Lovejoy's book about sustainable landscape design says to use 1/3 evergreen shrubs, 1/3 deciduous shrubs, & 1/3 perennials & bulbs. Plant according to Right Plant, Right Place (another recommended book) as well as the mature height so you're not pruning and dealing with overgrowing locations. Just decide what you want really in terms of color, size, shape, fruit, and maintenance. Hard to know sometimes what those are so you books might be helpful. For many years, I've read Marianne Binetti's columns & books for ideas. Her no-nonsense style & lazy gardener definitions are just what this perfectionist needs to get it done or toss it out if it doesn't "behave". Marianne Binetti's Carefree Landscaping is a great resource. Many of her books are in the KCLSystem. Use the GW search option for year-round interest or evergreen and you'll find resources and plant lists. I really like the Reader's Digest book suggested here awhile back for how it suggests companions for 4 seasons of color in the same location. Helped me decide plant placement & I moved several after looking at that book to create the designs suggested. Enjoy the process as well. I've learned a lot in my quest for low maintenance, year round color, focusing on spring & late fall/winter color. As Marianne Binetti says plants aren't children & it is okay to trash them if you don't want them anymore. Plant swaps are even a better way to get rid of them. I almost always have a start of shasta daisy, forget me not, bishop's weed groundcover, vinca major, and 'Wanda' primrose to share as those are long time vigorous growers in our gardens. Not for places you have delicate perennials though, but great for places kids or pets play as they'll survive almost anything with not much work on your part. Contact me directly if you want divisions. Corrine...See MoreWhat are some good woodland ground covers?
Comments (0)Posted by Lauren Z4 - 4: I'm looking for a good source for native northern ground covers for my shade garden. I'm particularly interested in bunchberry (cornus canadensis?) and asarum canadensis - wild ginger. I also have bleeding hearts, bloodroot, bellwort, purple foliage violets, monkshood, etc. in the area.The canopy is oak and some airy pine. I moved in some trillium this fall along with some hepatica, birdfoot violet, and solomon's seal. Would bunchberry or ginger overwhelm? Would they be better off on a completely shaded sloped north side of house? Thanks! Lauren Follow-Up Postings: Alta 56N zone2: Bunchberry are native where I live. They seem to grow best in partial shade, acidic like yours should be with those trees, cool and moist but on higher ground. Will they overwhelm? I certainly don't think so. Here they grow in company with twinflowers (linnaea), and wintergreen. One does not overtake the other. Frances Boninti: Yes wild ginger will take over. I'm overwhelmed with it and once it invades the space of another plant it wins. I lost trillium to it. be careful. Dot - 7-OR: Cornus canadensis is compatible with all plants mentioned and in the Pacific Northwest grow extremely well together. I have also found them growing in open sunlight under summer drought condition in logged over ground. sheri zn 5 MI: I just saw a show that suggested a great companion plant for hosta and guess what it was? Yep, and it looked great he said it was a "well behaved" plant....See MoreIdeas for a small backyard with dogs in the Pacific Northwest
Comments (2)Agree that a small outdoor area given over to large dogs in particular = equivalent to zoo exhibit. In other words the impacts from the dogs will dominate how it looks (and smells), how it will have to be managed. Regarding the neighbor the natural choice for a screening planting in your climate and soil conditions is western redcedar (Thuja plicata). With there being an existing landmark sized example visible in the distance, just to the right of your house. And maybe a grouping of currently smaller ones over the fence, behind the two broadleaf trees. Such an installation can be sheared to control size once the desired level of privacy is acheived. As long as the lower sides are kept wider than the upper half, so as to prevent the upper shading the lower too much and making it become thin looking. This is how it usually is with plant choices for hedging and screening - the fast growing ones that provide the desired effect with any level of quickness are also large growing, genetically programmed to grow vastly bigger in time than the typical modern planting site. And the comparatively small growing and naturally tidy kinds often need decades to reach even human head height level....See MoreStrange climate of the Pacific Northwest
Comments (22)The PNW basically has two distinct seasons: cold & wet from mid-October to late-May, and hot & dry the other half of the year. I think the reason the trees grow so big is due primarily to the Spring, and a short interval in the late Fall when there is constant drizzle and overcast skies, and a few rare days when the sun comes out and it warms up. This is actually great weather for the trees to grow. I think the main thing is the constantly cool temperatures mean evaporation is very low and plants don't require as much water to grow. It is true that during this same time temperatures are too cold for many ordinary garden plants to grow, but the native plants are well adapted to a bit colder temperatures and take advantage of the few rare days during this time when it does warm up for a little while. With the ground completely saturated with water from all the previous cold drizzle, a single warm day during this time the plant will put on a lot of growth. The Summers can be hot, and are dry. That's why all the trees are conifers. Needle leaves mean air can pass through them and cool down the leaves to prevent excessive evaporation and water loss. Otherwise dark leaves would warm up under the sun to a temperature above the surrounding air (and there is some marine influence from the cool ocean so the air helps cool things down a little bit, especially at night). Another reason for evergreen leaves is that the leaves don't have to regrow after the Winter, and can take advantage of unusual sunny warm days early on in the year, since that's when all the water falls. If you look at the deciduous trees here, temperatures don't rise long enough for them to regrow until about late April or May. (And the Big Leaf Maples generally grow close to water in places where the soil stays wet even throughout the summer) Winters surprisingly don't get that cold, but it's a long extended period of cold, constantly hovering just above freezing. The winds coming in from the ocean, while cold, are still warmer than the land and keep things from going below freezing. The cool ocean waters also mean calm winds and mostly no storms that would bring in arctic cold. Ironically it's the warm waters on the East coast that lead to the freezing storms. I'm farther North in latitude than New York but am experimenting growing certain varieties of citrus outside. (Well, actually I'm just a tiny bit further North than Quebec City, Canada or Duluth, Minnesota, if you can believe that) A few people in my neigborhood have ornamental banana plants in their yards, and I have read of some adventurous gardeners around here growing treeferns by tieing and bagging up their fronds for the Winter. thread with pictures here: [https://www.houzz.com/discussions/banana-in-the-snow-dsvw-vd~4956439[(https://www.houzz.com/discussions/banana-in-the-snow-dsvw-vd~4956439)...See Moreken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
11 months agoken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
11 months agogardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
11 months agorooanddoo
11 months agorooanddoo
11 months agogardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
11 months agolast modified: 11 months agoLeptinella squalida, aka New Zealand brass buttons. Not overly drought tolerant but it will withstand modest foot traffic. And feels wonderful to walk on barefoot!!
btw, despite what you may read, this is fully evergreen in my climate.
Leptinella squalida 'Platt's Black'
Solid green version also available, as is a dwarf/miniature form, L. gruveri.
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gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)