woodland garden

i thought i could wait til the fall to start on the 'other' side yard - yeah right! george motivated me to get started when it took me 20 paper towels and a hose-off to get his feet clean the other morning.

the other side yard - when we bought the house

basically, i just decided to hurry up what nature is doing and let the whole area naturalize. the grass still grows in the center where there is less shade, but moss, violets and periwinkle from the neighbor's yard are slowly filling in along the fence and between the dogwood and hydrangeas.  unfortunately these plants are too low-growing to slow george and he is constantly grinding them into the mud, and enlarging the muddy area in the corner.

dogwood in side yard - before 

the goal - a clean walkway to from the backyard to the front, with lush eye candy on either side that needs next to no help surviving (this is the furthest point from the water spigot...) and is dense/tall enough that george will prefer to stay on the grass most of the time.

the answer - an assortment of miracle plants! seriously, they sound too good to be true.

1. lenten roses - to fill in under the dogwood with evergreen foliage and flowers in late winter/early spring

hellebores (lenten rose)

2. foamflower - a native forest groundcover, with evergreen foliage and spring flowers

3. white wood aster - a vigorous perennial spreader with tiny white blooms in early fall

white wood aster 

4. bigroot cranesbill (geranium macrorrhizum) - this gorgeous and fragrant evergreen perennial groundcover gets about a foot high and is highly adaptable, which hopefully means it will thrive on my shady clay hill. it should help keep out unwanted weeds with its dense foliage and roots that creep along the surface and navigate tree roots and poor soil with ease.

bigroot geranium

5. false blue indigo - for the sunny side of the clearing i planted this drought-tolerant plant that should give some nice cut flowers in summer.

false blue indigo

6. kerria japonica - japanese rose is my only hope thus far for our muddiest corner. its a loose rambling thing that will put out suckers if it likes my clay mud but i wouldn't mind if it spreads quite a bit. this is a woodland garden afterall! i love the yellow flowers and hope they bloom all summer long. the branches stay green in the winter.

kerria japonica in back corner, with geum avens, foamflower and coral bells 'green spice' in foreground 

here's the result, complete with george-deterring fences and a pine bark path around the dogwood so i can water the lenten roses without getting muddy....

mint was growing wild around the peonies -  sprayed round up, smothered with paper bags and topped with pine bark mulch

 after a long day, i made a few little bouquets from my gardens and sat down in the screen porch with a mint julep. heaven!

top left: columbine, foamflower, bleeding hearts, iceland poppies, geum avens, euphorbia; top right: pansies and candytuft; bottom left: dianthus, euphorbia, candytuft, sage; bottom right: lilies and euphorbia

loving my 'tree for all seasons' coasters from etsy