Re: [SG] Low Maintenance Gardening
Belated reply to your request for low maintenance shade gardening tips. I
have just created a monster of my own--a 2000-3000 square foot sun and shade
front yard with very little grass and lots of ornamental grasses. Its only
a monster in the sense that it took a lot of work to make it and will take
some work to maintain it. I have yet to fill in the shade part - some
clethra and lots of ferns are planned. . Perhaps some astilbe as well. I had
planned to use Andromeda (Pieris japonica) in lots of places, but have had
some difficulties this year with the one I put in two years ago. It has
wintered all right, but had trouble this summer.
I have also had a terrible time with my new Cimcifuga ramosa Black beauty. I
bought 9 -- and they cost a fortune -- and planted them in the shade part of
the new garden -- and have four doing well and the rest are gone. I suspect
it is the intense heat and too much watering, but don't really know.
My tip for today is mulch, mulch, mulch, but it isn't very original. I am
eager to hear what others have offered you in the way of advice.
Roberta Diehl wrote:
> Thanks Nancy. I will take a look at Tracy's book. Meanwhile, does
> everybody have any ideas on HOW to do low-mtce [shade] gardening? I bet
> you do. Let's hear them.
>
> I ask because my husband and I have been working very intensively in our
> yard this spring and summer, and it definitely shows! But the hard labor
> is getting to us, particularly the weeding. Frankly, I don't know if we
> can keep this up year after year. We ain't gettin' any younger. Hiring
> help is one possibility, but I'm sure it would be difficult to find the
> right person, one who could be trusted not to uproot the good stuff. We
> already try to plant as many natives as possible, and minimize the things
> that need a lot of fussing over, like roses. It's still getting to be too
> much. We are even thinking of moving someplace with a smaller yard!
> I would hate to do that. So, any ideas?
>
> Bobbi Diehl
> Bloomington, IN
> zone 5/6
>
> On Wed, 7 Jul 1999, Nancy S. Shlaes wrote:
>
> > Bobbi - a landscape architect with whom I worked once told me that "low
> > maintenance" means "on your knees". I concur.
> >
> > Nonetheless, I recommend Tracy diSabatino-Aust's book The Well-Tended
> > Perennial Garden. It is very precise and interesting. However, it is
> > neither about shde gardens specifically nor low-maintenence--so I am
> > certainly not being responsive
