I've had a couple of people ask about native landscaping, and I've agreed to do research on a possible project: a woodland shade garden.
The proposed site is currently full of pines and American sweetgum, with a few scattered Chinese tallows, winged elms, redbuds, and American beautyberry. The site is best described as part shade with variable moisture, which is nice because it should allow for a variety of different plants.
I found a very informative blog post by Carolyn of Carolyn's Shade Gardens (https://carolynsshadegardens.com/2012/04/02/your-native-woodland-if-you-build-it-they-will-come/). I will provide a few important quotations I extracted (for more information, read her wonderful post), then I will make my own list of grasses, ferns, flowers, and shrubs that should thrive in that area.
"It is really quite simple. All you do is take one woodland area, mix with generous amounts of compost, add the appropriate native plants, and wait a few years. The key is knowing which plants to use....
"I started with the worst possible soil in the worst possible conditions. Not only were the beds composed of the hard baked clay and rocks prevalent in our area, but they were filled with roots from 100-year-old London plane and—hold onto your hats—black walnut trees. Add to that, years of trash, including roofing slate and coal furnace shovelings, dumped in the woods before municipal collection came along and construction debris from the 1960s....
"Nature does not dot the landscape with precious collectibles but “designs” with large sweeps of single types of plants, and that is what I have done in my woods To create a woodland like mine, all you do is plant at least five but preferably seven and ideally nine [species] amended with generous amounts of compost, mulch heavily with ground leaves, and stand back and wait."
To see what she has done in her woods, I have copied and pasted one of her pictures. Please view her blog post to see the other beautiful pictures she included.
Here is a list of good plants to use, from my own research inspired by Carolyn's list. They are all deer resistant, can stand a variety of light conditions, and grow best in medium/moist/wet soils.
- Blue Wood Sedge (Carex flaccosperma).
Moisture loving yet drought tolerant, this 6-10" tall evergreen sedge boasts a beautiful blue hue in shade, forming large, decorative clumps. (Source: Missouri Botanical Garden). It already occurs naturally in the area, so it obviously would perform well.
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| North Creek Nurseries, https://www.northcreeknurseries.com/plantName/Carex-flaccosperma-. |
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| Image mine. |
2. Inland Sea Oats (Chasmanthium latifolium).
Like the blue wood sedge, the leaves of inland sea oats possess a bluish tint. Unlike blue wood sedge, it is known for lovely, ivory seedheads that are often used in flower arrangements. It also forms large clumps (2-4') of bamboo-like foliage which turn to yellow-gold in fall. It is "very popular as a low-maintenance shade grass," and should require no care after planting (it can be transplanted or grown from seeds). It has the potential to expand aggressively in the right conditions--but would be an unlikely lawn weed. (Source: Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center.)
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| Sally and Andy Wasowski, https://www.wildflower.org/gallery/result.php?id_image=21916. |
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| Smaller specimens I (gasp) wild dug. Image mine. |
A fern that enjoys full or partial sun in wet soil, this deer resistant fern is a great all around plant. It is a great groundcover for open woodlands like the suggested area, spreading via rhizomes. (Source: Prairie Nursery.)
4. Wild Ginger (Asarum canadense).
A great native for the swathing designs Carolyn espouses, six inch wide leaves and a dense root network allow Wild Ginger to form a solid groundcover in three-ish years when planted one foot apart. It can thrive in many different types of soil, but you have to get close to said soil in order to see its pretty, dark red flower, which originates at the base of the plant. (Source: Prairie Nursery.)
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| Above images from Prairie Nursery. https://www.prairienursery.com/store/groundcover-plants/wild-ginger-asarum-canadense#.XQuY5VVKjX4. |
5. Golden Groundsel (Senecio aureus). This is one of Carolyn's favorite woodland plants. A hardy, adaptable plant that can endure anything from full sun to full shade, evergreen leaves, purple March buds, and dazzling flowers that last from April and May. (Source: Carolyn's shade garden.)
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| Image from Prairie Nursery. |
Prairie Nursery also sings its praise: "A glowing patch of Golden Groundsel is a cheerful presence in the early summer landscape. This easy-to-grow perennial is valued for its long and profuse bloom and ability to naturalize rapidly. The basal foliage is showy as well, with dense rosettes of heart shaped leaves with purple undersides. The central stalk is mostly bare, and lends a strong vertical line to massed plants."
6. Virginia Bluebells (Mertensia virginica).
Virginia Bluebells are missing one critical criterion for this list: they are not deer resistant. However, their beauty more than makes up for that unfortunate characteristic, and they are rabbit and black walnut resistant.
"Pendulous, trumpet-shaped [1-inch] blue flowers" top a 1-2' mass of blue-green leaves. Before they bloom in early spring, pink buds dot the ovulate leaves. However, like many native spring bloomers, Virginia Bluebells go dormant in summer--hey, at least it protects them from deer damage! (Source: Prairie Nursery.)
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| Above Image from Prairie Nursery. |
7. And finally, Jacob's ladder!
Endowed with fern-like summer-green leaves, Jacob's ladder has some advantages to Virginia Bluebells. It is mildly deer resistant and has similar flowers (although they bloom for a slightly shorter period of time). (Source: Prairie Nursery.)
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| Image from Prairie Nursery |
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| Image from Prairie Nursery |
Additionally, oakleaf hydrangeas, asters, goldenrods, ephemerals, and shootingstars could be added for more year-round color.
Another great idea would be planting Quercus spp. (oaks) and Prunus spp. (plums, cherries, and peaches are common examples), as these provide food for most common birds in the southeast. For instance, a single family of chickadees requires 6000-9000 caterpillars to successfully raise their young in the spring (they don't feed them any nuts or berries). As most birds are larger than chickadees, they require more food--and they typically need at least twenty different species of caterpillar within a fifty-yard range in order for a population to survive more than a few years. So it is important to plant trees like oaks (which are hosts to more than 500 different species) and Prunus spp. (hosts to around 200 species). (Source: Doug Tallamy, "Hope for the Wild 2019."
I hope this was informative! I encourage everyone to begin preserving nature through beautiful, ecosystem-minded landscaping.
