Full-sun near water garden suggestions...
Michael McIntyre
climbing variegated evergreen thingie on it. All of these did poorly last
year because my tiny butterfly bush matured into a gigantic butterfly bush
in just two seasons, shading everything out.
I moved it, and decided to finally grant my wife's wish to put in one of
those smallish pond things in the now-vacant area.
I did a good job with it, and then I surrounded it with dozens of native
rocks that I pilfered from an on-going highway project near my house. It
looks about as natural as a black plastic molded rock pond/waterfall thing
is ever going to look, and the hours of back-breaking labor really paid
off.
However, it's a bit odd having the mulched vine area jump directly into all
those rocks. I've hidden the edges of the plastic quite well, but I'd like
to soften them further with plants.
Most of the plants I associate with moist, watery places would not do well
in full sun. It would be a perfect place for, say, maidenhair ferns, but
I'm not sure they could take the heat and light of a full, unshaded
southern exposure.
I put it there because it seemed more practical in terms of giving the
water plants the sun they require, and that site is well away from the
willow and pine trees which would be constantly dropping stuff into the
water. Plus, truth be known, it's one less blasted thing to mow around.
I've planted about 30 trees and shrubs in the last three years, and I've
decided that it would have to be a special case indeed to convince me to
create yet another obstacle.
I like what I've done with it (especially the waterfall portion, which I
lined with smooth, potato-shaped rocks that I've been digging out of my
flower beds and saving for years), but I'm really not sure what would do
well along the edges of the thing. I'd really like something ferny, if not
actual ferns. Beyond that, I don't have any good ideas, save that whatever
I plant needs to stay under 12" or so, so as not to over-shade the clematis
again.
I'd rather not re-arrange all those enormous rocks, so if I could just dump
some topsoil into the crannies and stuff plants into them, that would be a
bonus too.
Um... The soil there will be exposed to a variety of potentially weird
things. Most of the rocks are limestone, and a few smallers ones are from
what I presume to be the source of portland cement. The regular driveway
gravel type limestone is hard, dark and laced with veins of quartz, but
these other rocks are gray, and if thrown at something hard they'll explode
into powder. Veeeery soft, and obviously leaching limestone into the soil.
I tried to avoid those, but my kids picked some up, and well... you know
how that is. :)
Other rocks are of an unknown type, but whatever they are, they have a lot
of iron in them. Cleaved rock faces rust after a rain (at least it sure
looks like rust.) They look really cool, but I'm not sure what effect that
could have on soil Ph.
So limestone plus iron, heavy unamended clay soil that will be wet most of
the time because the rock mulch above will hold in soil moisture... Full
sun... Less than 12" Green and leafy, hardy in zone 6a, and flowers are
optional... Stuff that would mingle around the edges and dip into the
water would be interesting. Maybe soften them that last little bit and
make it that much less obvious that the pond is just a chunk of black
plastic.
Any ideas?
---
Michael McIntyre | mmci...@swva.net | USDA zone 6a in sw VA
Silvan Pagan Dragon -=UDIC=-
d+ e- N+ T+ Om+++ U123456!7!S!8!9! u++ uC++ uF- uG uLB- uA++ nC+ nH+ nP+ nI nPT nS++++ nT+ wM---- wC--- wS---- o--- oE---- y+ a28
Linda
crawl around and over rocks. Linda
Kay Cangemi
<mmci...@swva.net> wrote:
>
> Most of the plants I associate with moist, watery places would not do well
> in full sun. It would be a perfect place for, say, maidenhair ferns, but
> I'm not sure they could take the heat and light of a full, unshaded
> southern exposure.
>
Most swamp plants are full sun plants. About the only truly native eastern
wildflowers fall into this category since swamps are too wet for trees.
Yellow and blue flag iris are possibilities, as is chelone. They get to
more than 12 inches, more like 24, but that should be Ok for a clematis.
There are also full sun ferns. I don't know the name since they just sort
of are out there, but they do exist. I've heard of miniature cattails,
but I don't know how small they really are.
--
Kay Cangemi
A chiel 's amang ye takin' notes - Burns
New York, USDA zone 5
http://www.ulster.net/~cangemi
Jessie
>
> So limestone plus iron, heavy unamended clay soil that will be wet most of
> the time because the rock mulch above will hold in soil moisture... Full
> sun... Less than 12" Green and leafy, hardy in zone 6a, and flowers are
> optional... Stuff that would mingle around the edges and dip into the
> water would be interesting. Maybe soften them that last little bit and
> make it that much less obvious that the pond is just a chunk of black
> plastic.
>
> Any ideas?
Moist sun. That's a tough nut. You'll have to give up on
the idea of ferns -- between the sun and the clay it's not
going to happen. Here are some things you could try:
Daylily -- nice foliage can hang over the pond side
Geranium (real Geranium, i.e., Cranesbill -- not the
Pelargoniums that garden centers sell under the name of
geranium) "John's Blue" is a nice one and, if you want pink
flowers, G. sanguineum is excellent.
Phlox subulata (Creeping Phlox) is another plant that will
do well in full sun with moisture and will creep around and
hang over nicely
Liriope -- fills in nicely and there are variegated
cultivars
Houttouynia -- add a bit of foliage color
Ajuga -- good ground cover with nice blue flower
Astilbe -- should do okay in full sun if moist and has the
"ferny" look that you would like
--
Jessie
ex-PA (z.7), ex-NYC (z.6), now MN (z.4, brrrrr!)
entwold at att dot net
"Thoreau never mentioned the icky little bugs." - City Boy