Gardening & Landscaping
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PIP-Would love ideas for this ugly corner of my front yard
This corner is what I see when I look out of my office window. I want to make it pretty! God I hate those boulders though! But I'm stuck with them. I plan on mulching the top area all around that main tree but what plants/flowers/shrubs/ground cover do you think would look good in this mostly shady area?
TIA!
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Re: PIP-Would love ideas for this ugly corner of my front yard
Anything tall would impede visibility, so I wouldn't do shrubs. I'd do perennials for dry shade. I'd also move all the rocks to the perimeter, and remove the saplings. I'd expand the size of the bed as well, and keep it mulched.
You can find shade perennials for your zone by googling.
This corner has a lot of potential. It could end up really looking great!
Good luck.
I agree with everything NB said. That space has a lot of potential. You could move the rocks to the edges of the property or try to use them to make a small rock wall somewhere (possibly another area of the property?). Make the rocks along the edge look intentional by stacking them nicely and picking out a few nicer looking ones to scatter in the flower bed...if you have any moss covered ones those always look nice among the bed. I would make the whole corner a bed that included the large tree so you don't have to mow around it. That gives you a lot of space to work with and use a variety of plants.
You should be a zone 5 or so which is what we are too and I have a lot of shade as well. Here are some easy to grow shade perennials:
-bleeding heart
-coral bells
-ferns (all shapes and sizes)
-hostas (all shapes and sizes)
-trillium
-virginia bluebells
-columbine
-hellebore
-pulmonaria
-japanese forest grass
-toad lily
-perennial geranium
-bloodroot
Toward the back of the bed I'd add a few shade loving shrubs to give the area some height and dimension. Boxwood and hydrangea (Annabelle varieties are the most reliable in our zone) would work well.
It takes time for perennials to fill in the beds so for some color right away and all year long (until frost) you could add a few shade loving annuals as well.
HTH
Hi NB (I see you all the time over on F&B!) - I don't think this corner floods. It def slopes downward towards the line of rocks that extend out onto the lawn section. I think I decided on moving those rocks over to the perimeter and replacing with a short wall of those interlocking stones from lowes. I think this will divide it nicely from a lower section (with just a small bed in front where I will plant some bulbs) to a larger upper section. The wall will also allow me to backfill with a significant amount of new soil (the soil there I am guessing is quite bad - going to send away for a soil sample - worried i won't be able to read the results once they come back though) anywho....my thoughts are to put high enough plans towards the permiter to cover those ugly borders. Hostas should do the trick after a couple of seasons agree? Here is my inspiration pic (sorry about bad formatting!):
Sounds like a good plan. Paver edging that is low enough to put the wheel of your lawn mower on makes mowing a breeze.
Yes some hydrangeas get big but there are many that don't. In my area it takes many years for them to get big and lots of fertilizing to do so. If you're more of a slacker like me you don't fertilize them and they stay a nice little shrub that slowly grows then it reaches a certain height and kind of tops off. The listed height and width will give you a good idea on the size it will get in the next 10 years. One of my favorites is Incrediball because it has strong stems that stand up to storms (no flopping over). Here are some good instructions for growing them. Another good option to look at is some type of oakleaf hydrangea. There are name varieties that stay smaller if that is what you're looking for. Here are a few pics of one of the shade gardens of one of my fellow garden club members:
The shrub on the left is an oakleaf hydrangea. There is an awesome multi-colored hosta next to it.
Boxwoods toward the back of the flower bed on both the far left and right, Hostas in both beds (green with yellow edging, blue, etc.) and yellow blooming corydallis...that is another good suggestion. The standard corydalis is the longest blooming shade perennial in our zone.
Hosta in the center and mini brighter green hostas to the right of it. Little round boxwood on the left and bright green Japanese forest grass cascading in the back. A small purple coral bells in the front.
Most hostas will fill in pretty quickly. If you give them one season to grow the second season they will be pretty full. The bigger leaved varieties take longer the fill in though (and so do some of the mini leaved ones)...the big leaved ones can be the most spectacular when mature. Hostas are easy to find at plant sales and plant swaps because they need to be divided every so often. If you're looking for a deal that is the place to look. Slow growing might mean it will take more time to fill in but it also means you'll have to do less dividing down the road so keep that in mind.
Part Sun = 4 hours of sun or dappled shade most of the day
Full Shade = anything less than that.
I have hydrangeas in both but the ones in part sun are much better bloomers. The lesser blooming ones still provide as nice backdrop for the other perennials I have in front of it. Oakleaf hydrangeas are especially nice to look at with or without blooms because of the leaf shape. Many have leaves that turn yellow, red, or orange in the fall before they fall. There are a few dwarf varieties that stay small and compact as well.
So if you have a spot that gets a little more sunlight (maybe where the rock walls stop get more sun than in the back corner for example) that would be best but I would give it a try either way just to see how they do in your area. Start with one this year and go from there. You might be tempted to buy a bunch of everything and fill in the area completely but you might find you don't like something, or it doesn't do well, or you want to try a different variety of it, or that it spreads too much and is crowding everything you crammed in there the first year. Gardening is definitely a process.