By Pat Dray
The Garden Spot
Pat Dray
A garden club member recently asked me to recommend some native perennial plants that would do well on her sloped, woodland border. She wants to eliminate the pachysandra that’s growing there and replace it with natives.
I love this question, since it leads us to what I call the first principle of successful gardening: “right plant in the right place.”
The first issue is how to eliminate pachysandra, a non-native. And why? It does have some good characteristics since it is deer resistant, low growing for erosion protection and grows in poor soil and deep shade. It’s also invasive and aggressive, overtaking native plants and supporting very few pollinators. Unfortunately, since it spreads via underground roots it’s difficult to eliminate, so you should be prepared to hand dig it out.
Dispose of the plants and roots properly. Don’t put them in your compost pile unless you want a new bed of invasives. You’ll need to do close monitoring of the area to be sure new plants don’t pop up from a missed root or two.
Now onto right plant for the right place. We need to think about light, water and soil requirements. Since this is for a woodland border, we know that full sun plants will not do well – we need to look for partial and full shade lovers. The new plants will be on a sloped area, and because water falling on sloped land runs off more quickly and infiltrates less, we will want plants that can handle a bit of “dry feet.” We also know that this woodland border has had leaf debris falling and decomposing for many years, so that we have some compost rich soil which may be slightly acidic. You can do a quick soil test for pH to confirm this.
Now we know that we want a partial/full shade native perennial that doesn’t require too much water and likes rich, slightly acidic soil. Let the search begin.
Two readily available perennials that would do well in this woodland border are Christmas fern (Polystichum acrostichoisdes) and columbine (Aquilegia canadensis). The ferns have beautiful, deer resistant foliage that will be attractive all year, providing some winter interest. Just keep an eye on the weather, and if it’s been a week without any rain and they look a little droopy you’ll need to water them. The columbine is a very versatile wildflower that will thrive in the shade and likes well drained soil like that on a slope. It produces small gold and red flowers to give a little pop of color in the border.
If you have a plant question, stop by the Master Gardener Plant Clinics in Milford on Saturday mornings between 8:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. (except for Aug. 17) at Wasson Field, or Thursday afternoons between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. at the Walnut Beach Rotary Pavilion.
Pat Dray is a past president of the Garden Club of Orange and a master gardener.