Ground cover for shady backyard
With spring finally approaching, I’m looking for a low-maintenence grass alternative for a shady brownstone backyard. Any thoughts, advice, suggestions for local sources much appreciated.
With spring finally approaching, I’m looking for a low-maintenence grass alternative for a shady brownstone backyard. Any thoughts, advice, suggestions for local sources much appreciated.
if you are willing to go the mail order route, a really interesting nursery is sunshine farm in west virginia…
http://www.sunfarm.com/
I have a north-facing shady back garden and was lucky enough to have glechoma hederacea naturally occurring. I have given over the lawn area to it. It has small dark green leaves about the size of a quarter, is fragrant, can be mowed like a lawn but if left alone tops out at about 4 inches. It has a history of medicinal uses and is available from several mail order nurseries.
Is there a type of ground cover that likes full sun?
Moss! check out http://www.mossacres.com/ and there was a pretty interesting article about moss in the nytimes about a year ago worth trying to find.
I think ferns are amazing and totally under used.
perhaps what you want is fake turf make of postconsumer recycled product. before you react vehemently I urge you to read up on it, it’s actually come a long way.
You would be wise to wait until at least April 15, which is the frost date in this area. Planting small plants before that date may result in transplant shock as the nights are still too chilly for plants that were probably grown in a greenhouse or down south. Nurseries at this point really don’t have a lot of stock in yet to choose from, either.
I agree with eman and vinca- those nurseries are nice. If you have a car or a friend with one, check out these:
Tony’s in Westchester (Scarsdale, I think). Large selection, plants in good shape.
Sprainbrook: http://www.sprainbrook.com/ Large selection. Plant stock kept in excellent shape. Some unusual and difficult to find things.
Martin Viette : http://www.martinviette.com/ Some real specialty items here. Helpful staff. Not cheap but they often have things I don’t see elsewhere.
As far as the ground cover as lawn, you can do it but you really can’t have kids or dogs running back and forth on it often or before it’s really established. It does tend to work out better if you have stepping stones or a clear path to take the bulk of the foot traffic. Most of the “stepable” ground covers will not hold up as well as grass because they don’t have roots that form that tenacious mat like grass does so having kids running on it and serious back and forth foot traffic would have to be a relatively occasional thing.
Check out stepables.com.
Thank you to all! My original post was low on specifics, i realize. For a brownstone yard, it’s rather large–a lot of space to cover, with a stone path around the perimeter. I want something low-lying and easy to maintain, as I travel a lot and don’t plan on ever buying a mower, if I can help it. My friends have kids, and I want something that won’t get patchy if children occasionally step on it. I will look into some of the plants mentioned above, and will check out the gowanus nursery and bbg publication–I’m too impatient to wait until May to tackle this, I think. Thanks once more!