Another beautiful day, followed by a red sky, which means another nice day (or so they say). No cloud cover though, so the temps just plummeted as soon as the sun went down.
In the back of my house, behind my fence and in between the alley behind the house, I have about a 4-5′ wide and 25 yard wide strip of weeds and grass. It’s all under pine trees, so I’m assuming the soil is super acidic, but I’d like to put something in so it isn’t just weeds and crap I have to weed eat every now and then. I thought about just throwing in forsythia, but decided I didn’t want to trim it every six hours. Now, I’m just leaning towards plowing it all up and putting in pachysandra, but I can’t make up my mind. What do you all think?
lamh35
Just got home from Happy Hours with some friends and saw this video on Jezebel. I love the woman in the video.
Here’s the Charming Story Behind Obama’s ‘Fired Up’ Chant
ETA: Wish I could help Cole, but man gardening is so not my forte’. It’s one of my fears of living in a house rather than apartment. I just can’ timagine myself doing garden and lawn work. It would be like torture.
Shari
pachysandra works great. Have it under all my white pines. Gets a white flower.
General Stuck
The weather has been fairly good in SW NM, after a few days of winter returning. We need rain, though, as always in the desert southwest. I bought some potted perennial lilies today with big yellow flowers, to see if I can get some hummingbirds interested. Last year was such a hummer dud, I’m hoping this year is better. Reds won their opening day with Miami, so the Church of Baseball is now holding near daily services, and with any luck will be a great diversion from our insane politics in an election year.
Lojasmo
Blueberries require acid soil.
RossInDetroit
Baltic ivy. It’s drought tolerant, evergreen and smothers out all the weeds.
dr. bloor
Raised beds are always an option. We put in half a dozen of them in our backyard, filled them with fresh soil, and put crushed stone between them. Very low maintenance.
Bnut
Texts from Hillary. The Weiner one is pretty funny.
NotMax
Worst idea for an Easter basket ever?
Urine-soaked eggs a spring taste treat…
joel hanes
Lojasmo beat me to it.
Blueberries do well in rocky acid soil, love pine duff,
grow slowly, and never get very tall.
And you might get some fresh blueberry pancakes out of it.
lamh35
So I guess I missed alot of stuff today, I’m still trying to catch up.
So Romney has a Swiss Bank Account huh? What’s up with rich people and the Swiss bank?
Anne Laurie
Vinca does well for us under trees, and keeps down the weeds pretty effectively, and you get the wonderful explosion of blue-purple flowers every spring.
__
You might try a forsythia or two at the center of the strip, where they can shoot up & out without offending your Germanic sense of order, surrounded by vinca (or sweet woodruff, or even pachysandra, but for us the pachysandra hasn’t deterred weeds nearly as well as the vinca.)
__
The other thing to try in acidic soil is blueberry bushes. They’re pretty shade-tolerant, as long as they can get some sun during the afternoon, and even apart from the BLUEBERRIES, they have pretty white flowers in spring & red foliage in the fall. Of course, blueberry bushes will attract birds, rabbits, chipmunks, etc…. but Tunch would consider that a bonus too!
General Stuck
@efgoldman:
Sometimes, I just start chanting and shaking my love beads, and the fear goes away. Too many aging flower child’n around here for the nutters to stay long. Something like garlic cloves and holy water for them, I maybe think.
Quaker in a Basement
Salt.
hilts
Cato Institute gets its panties in a major wad over Obama’s social darwinism comment:
h/t cato-at-liberty.org/socialism-and-social-darwinism/
RD
Pachysandra is a wonderful evergreen groundcover.
Once it takes hold…you won’t have to worry.
mainmati
@Anne Laurie: Yes, I was just going to recommend blueberries, which like acid soils and don’t like full sun because their roots are shallow and dry out easily. We have a good location for our bushes but have to keep adding acidity to the soils since that location is a basically pH neutral. Don’t expect instant blueberries – takes a while but they are nice bushes and anything is better than boring old ivy.
Libby's person
Consider planting native species there, Cole, and enjoy the birds and butterflies that show up. Native species are easy to grow (they belong there, after all!) – put them in the ground and leave them alone. I can’t grow anything, but the natives I’ve planted are going strong and spreading happily Many are spectacularly beautiful, they are good for the native animal species, and a native species garden doesn’t look like every other yard in the eastern half of the US.
Here’s a few web references to get you started:
The Manada Conservancy
George Weigel’s blog
“Native Plants for Wildlife Habitat and Conservation Landscaping”
Audubon Society of Western PA plant guide
When we lived in Pittsburgh, we had great luck with berries – wineberries (not natives, unfortunately), raspberries, and blackberries. And we had a great Montmorency sour cherry tree, and I made wonderful pies; I miss that tree!
mainmati
@hilts: I think the Cato Institute people should look up the definition or history of Social Darwinism. If they did, they would probably say: “Oh, never mind, Obama’s right.”
cg
Rhubarb? Currants? Both grow well in my boreal forest yard.
BerkeleyMom
We found some lovely variegated pachysandra that has white on the leaves and brightens up a shady area. Vinca, Soloman’s Seal and lungwort (there are some with pretty silvery leaves and small flowers) also grew well under our trees.
Tonal Crow
Dang greenhouse effect! Republicans tell me it doesn’t exist!
AliceBlue
I’m not a knowledgable gardener, so I can’t offer any suggestions. I do want to thank you for turning us on to Wiley Cash’s upcoming novel. I read an excerpt and I can’t wait!
JR
Azaleas.
TaMara (BHF)
John if you do put in blueberry bushes, can we come over for blueberry pancakes?
Otherwise, I love forsythia.
TaMara (BHF)
@AliceBlue: I know, wasn’t it amazing? Can’t wait to read the rest of it.
Dork
Bury a body or two back there. Great fertilizer.
MikeJ
@hilts: Shouldn’t the kochwhores shut the fuck up? That’s as civil as I care to be to them.
NineJean
Well, I’m most of a continent away from you (like somewhere in the Cascades) — but for this sort of environment I’d go with azaleas and hardy fuchsias. Easy to care for, hummers love them.
Leadpipe
I’ve had good results with Japonica. I have the same type of area and live in a hardiness zone 9b.
Although the weather has been getting “harder” both ways. I’m not sure why though?
burnspbesq
@efgoldman:
Maybe it’s more a matter of BC really being that good.
Also too: rhododendrons!
Joel
Bill O’Reillys appearance today might mark the nadir of the post-Kilborne TDS.
buskertype
blueberries
Fluke bucket
Azaleas would work under pines if West Virginia weather allows. I try to avoid plowing. Too much damn work
SarahT
@Joel: Yeah you right. Too many times lately have had to turn off Jon Stewart. So hoping Stepehn Colbert doesn’t go the same route. Sigh…
Hill Dweller
@Joel: The entire show was pretty awful. Bourdain is always funny, but he had to do all the heavy lifting in that interview.
Colbert’s first segment on the manatees was hilarious.
SarahT
@SarahT: @Hill Dweller: Would probably stop watching TDS altogether but still really love the correspondents, especially Wyatt Cenac. And yeah, now I MUST have a Manatee !
Mnemosyne
Last night, I dreamed that I took my new bike out for a beautiful ride, but when I stopped at a store, I realized that I had forgotten to lock it up. I ran outside but it was gone.
Woke me up in a cold sweat.
suzanne
So my coworkers and I participated in Canstruction this year, which is an annual event in which companies make sculptures out of canned food, which subsequently gets donated to a local food bank. I’d sure appreciate it if you voted for ours as “People’s Choice”….. if you have a Facebook account, go to this page to vote. Ours is the third one on the top, and it’s a see-through Arizona flag.
I know, I know, Arizona is batshit, but some of us here are trying to keep it real.
Canvassing for David Schapira for Congress next weekend.
Mnemosyne
Also, for those who despair for the future of this country, keep in mind that the kids are alright.
GG
Be careful of trying to grow shallow-rooted things like azaleas with pines, because pines are also shallow-rooted and they Will win.
Azaleas are lovely, but unless climate change is ever further along than I think (our Kentucky house used to be in zone 6, and it’s pretty clearly 7 now) only deciduous azaleas and rhodies are going to be reliably hardy in West Virginia for the next decade or so. The native mountain rhodies are quite nice though, and you won’t be frustrated when year after year the coldest temp of the season is just when your azaleas are in bud.
And unless you’ve tested the soil, don’t assume it’s acid just because you’ve got pines growing. Been there, done that, nope, it wasn’t acid at all.
Second the reccie for Solomon’s Seal if you go for low-growing plants. We’ve also got a colony of Twin Leaf (Jeffersonia) in a woodland area. V. nice and an early bloomer, but they self-sow, but do take some years to establish.
For plant it and forget it, Nandina domestica did the trick for us under massive pine trees, but we were looking for something tallish for privacy.
wag
Mint. For your mojito fix
Studly Pantload, the emotionally unavailable unicorn
If this is a smart people’s blog (which I believe it is, low-rent trolls notwithstanding), we should be having “Community” open threads. Tonight’s Ken Burns-esque ep was out-of-the-park hilarious genius.
GG
If your soil IS acidic enough, you might want to check out Fothergilla. V. cool.
Or some of the Mahonias. We kept one for years, and it had a nice low, spreading habit. It finally gave up when we said, Screw it, we’re not feeding acid plants any more.
Kerria Japonica is a great acid-liker. We never fed it, and still got wonderful golden blooms, sometimes twice a year.
Oh, and I was nearly forgetting those super great shrubs, the Witchhazels. Native, although the cultivars ‘Arnold Promise’ and ‘Diane’ have showier flowers. They bloom earlier than forsythia, aren’t bothered by sudden drops to sub-freezing while in bloom, the leaves persist most of the winter (some decent fall color but nothing spectacular), and are virtually maintenance-free.
Sorry to get carried away here. Well, maybe not. I’ve spent the last 3 years trying to learn a whole new universe of plants in California, with only moderate success. it was fun to revisit a more familiar ecosystem.
Joshua Norton
Reblooming day lilies. You can’t kill them with a gun once they get growing and they spread like crazy.
HRA
Day lilies under almost all of my trees. I never have to water them or doing anything except pull the dry stems from the long gone flowers late in the summer or early in autumn.
FlipYrWhig
@SarahT: That was a very John Stossel kind of story. I half expected Jon Stewart to say, “but wait a minute, I’m confused.”
mai naem
We have a pine tree and keep in mind this is Arizona, but I have had zero luck with anything under the tree. I have given up. We’ve tried azaleas but you can’t do that directly under the tree, they still need light. We tried vincas which didn’t work. Good luck.
Bmaccnm
@Lojasmo: I was gonna say blueberries, dang it. Nicely shaped bushes with red twigs in the winter, fragrant white flowers in the spring, good fruit that is good for you in the summer, pretty red leaves in the fall. Blueberries are a star in my garden. I also get enough to share with all the neighbors.
Dan
Can’t find the mobile site on phone; trying a post from phone to see if mobile site will magically appear after posting.
Any hints or tips welcome!
Carry on.
Dan
No damn luck with the posting. Still no luck having the mobile site show up on my phone.
Gretchen
Pachysandra involves a lot of weeding. If you dont want to trim forsythias, you really don’t want to be on your hands and knees weeding pachysandra. But why would you trim forsythia? It makes me nuts that people try to trim forsythia into neat ball shapes. Forsythia blooms on old wood, so the next spring, instead of having gorgeous arching, flowing cascades of vivid flowers, they have this stupid ball of twigs with a few yellow flowers inside it.
Blueberries is a good idea, as is daylilies. I got an assortment of daylilies from White Flower Farms a few years ago. As another commenter said, you couldnt kill it with a gun. It gives me lovely cut flowers for a good part of the summer, and comes back every year without fuss. And I have a terrible time with most perennials because the rabbits and groundhogs eat them all.
Gretchen
Hostas are also great for a shady area. They’re un-killable, they shade out the weeds so you don’t need to be on your hands and knees weeding, and they’re easy to divide so once you have some you soon have lots more. White Flower Farms also has hosta collections and shade collections, unless you have friends with hostas. Then you can just go over to their house with a shovel and take a corner off of each emerging hosta crown.
pat
HOSTAS!
Available in an incredible variety of sizes and colors of leaves and flowers. I have lots, and if they are in a visible spot I dispose of the leaves in the fall or spring, and if they are on the north side of the house, I let the new ones come through the old dead leaves.
BUT: those dead leaves are really unattractive. Better to go with some evergreen ground cover if you want it care-free.
Oh, and be careful digging around the roots of the trees. If they are shallow, you don’t want to disturb them.
Hit the garden centers and read all the little tags in the pots to find something that will grow.
Have fun!
Rainy Day
You might want to consider Hosta. They grow anywhere. They have huge, beautiful leaves and pretty blooms. There are many varieties, and I recommend planting an assortment. They grow very quickly; they spread very quickly; they require Zero maintenance. They make any area look VERY lush. A single hosta leaf with any flower makes a beautiful flower arrangement.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Dan:
Clear your browser cache (or “history”), then reload. You should get the mobile site by default.
EIGRP
@Lojasmo: Blueberries would be great. We got a bunch of different varieties that ripen at different times throughout the summer from Miller’s Nurseries. They come as bare root so you they have a little size to them.
You’re supposed to pinch back the flower buds the first year so more of the energy in the plant goes to growing. You probably want to make sure you have some sun on them too.
Eric
chaucer
bamboo; you don’t have to put in but a few and they will spread to take over the whole area.
JPL
@chaucer: Since I spent months ridding my yard of bamboo last year, I would suggest something less invasive. Bamboo should be outlawed.
Raven
@JPL: My 8,000 sq ft of fescue is comin up!~
kdaug
@Dork:
@MikeJ:
Dork, meet MikeJ. MikeJ, this is Dork.
Montarvillois
Pachysandra is a great plant for crowding out the weeds and remains good looking throughout the year.
JPL
@Raven: My blueberry bushes are covered. They are not ripe yet but should be soon.
Shouldn’t the fescue be dying back in the heat?
tt crews
Shrubs: Bayberry. Easy to find and to grow and forms a dense colony over the years. It can get a bit tall and is semi evergreen; mahonia nervosa or manhonia repens which are both low growing, everygreen shrubs very suitable for shade and tolerate dry conditions.
Perennials: Dry/shade is a tough combination for perennials. Eupatorium will grow there, but it is very aggressive. If you’re willing to run a soaker hose there, you could try ferns which are very, very low maintenance and generally won’t spread out of the shade or wild ginger.
sal
Trilliums and ferns
sherparick
@mainmati: It is amazing how few of these folks in MSM have never heard of “Google” and “Wikipedia.” Here is a quote from the Wikipedia article on Herbert Spencer:
“…Only in this way would individuals have the incentives required to work on self-improvement and thus to hand an improved moral constitution to their descendants. Hence anything that interfered with the ‘natural’ relationship of conduct and consequence was to be resisted and this included the use of the coercive power of the state to relieve poverty, to provide public education, or to require compulsory vaccination. Although charitable giving was to be encouraged even it had to be limited by the consideration that suffering was frequently the result of individuals receiving the consequences of their actions. Hence too much individual benevolence directed to the ‘undeserving poor’ would break the link between conduct and consequence that Spencer considered fundamental to ensuring that humanity continued to evolve to a higher level of development…” Sounds right out Paul Ryan’s, Cato’s, and AEI playbook to me.
sherparick
Reference the plants, It sounds like you want some bushe and gournd cover. For bushes, rhododendron and Mountain Laurel may be good for your neck of the wood, along the blueberries that others have suggested. They are growing wild in our back hard under the oaks, pines, and hickories. I am looking for a shade, acid loving ground cover myself. I found out about “Canby Pachistima” doing this search for you. ehow.com/list_7642349_plants-grow-acidic-soil-shade.html
The native rhododendron in your region has the common name: “Rhodora”
Her is another nice little list of native plants.
plantnative.org/rpl-nen.htm
Svensker
@BerkeleyMom:
Yes, and topped with some azaleas and blueberry bushes.
keestadoll
Hydrangeas?
Poopyman
I can’t believe it took until #34 when Burnsie recommended rhododendron, and sherparick added Mt Laurel. Look to your native species in your forests! Those 2 will do great under the pines.
And pachysandra is so overused. Look around for something better.
Poopyman
Damn! And now you’ve got me thinking about my college days of yore, and spring trips to Bear Meadows and Alan Seeger
WaterGirl
@TaMara (BHF): Link?
Shinobi
John, I have some peonies doing very well in the acidic soil under my giant pine, with limited sun. I actually need to thin them out and re plant them somewhere else urgently. I also had a friend suggest azaleas for under pine trees.
Horrendo Slapp (formerly Jimperson Zibb, Duncan Dönitz, Otto Graf von Pfmidtnöchtler-Pízsmőgy, Mumphrey, et al.)
I believe blueberries like to grow where there’s lots of acid in the dirt.
Jennifer
Hostas, ferns, irises, daylilies, daffodils, and coneflowers. Some acanthus might be nice, too.
beergoggles
If it’s ground cover, you might want to investigate using climbers as groundcover. Japanese purple honeysuckle smells amazing and makes a great shade groundcover – also the leaves are green on top and purple underneath. Another great vining groundcover is Moonlight Hydrangea which is a ‘fake’ hydrangea that has blue/green leaves and stark white flower clusters.
You can intersperse them with hostas and if ur getting azaleas – make sure u pick up the evergreen and encore kinds.
Jay S
Shade tolerant rhododendrons do well under our evergreens.
ZaftigAmazon
20+ years ago, a book called Noah’s Garden advocated using native plants, and gardening for wildlife. Depending on how fast Tunch is, it may provide him with more exercise (and presents for you) than you want. Despite this,gardening for wildlife usually means plant it and forget it. You might look at National Wildlife Federation’s website for more detailed information.
Jay S
@Jay S: You might look at huckleberries as a lower maintenance alternative to blueberries. Although I find blueberries are more likely to get picked for eating.
ETA As ZafigAmazon says. Huckleberries are native in my area.
John Weiss
What about a nice Azalea ‘Coral Bells’ hedge?
kindness
Throw some cannabis seeds out there. That’ll grow anywhere AND you’ll get to meet the nicest policepersons in town.
dww44
I vote for azaleas adapted to the West Virginia climate zone. They require very little maintenance. Hydrangeas as well as they will not likely get zapped by a springtime freeze. They are deciduous though. However, I should caveat that deer much on my hydrangeas and deer munch on my sister-in-law’s azaleas. She lives in Northern Va. not to far from WV. Also deer LOVE hostas. They eat my hostas and my impatiens, unless I keep them sprayed with Deer Repellant
vanpatrick
I’d try Hellebores, a.k.a Lenten Roses. They are often the first thing blooming in late Winter/early Spring. The foliage is evergreenthey are drought-tolerant and almost zero maintenance.
Jamey
flowering myrtle.