A South Charlotte homeowner, with an interest in native plants, asked us to add a variety of native flowers/color to the open but shady beds bordering her back entrance path and patio. She wanted a garden that supported wildlife and had different flowers blooming throughout the year. Fortunately, deer were not an issue in her yard. We started with a groundcover mix of Leavenworth’s sedge, Slender Wood Oats and Christmas fern to add evergreen color and texture. Additionally, these would act as a green mulch and help with weed suppression, lower soil temperatures, and create year round habitat. We then added a repeating mix of part shade tolerant perennials (and 1 shrub) to add pops of color throughout the year. The overall mix came to ~50/50 groundcover vs flowers with an average spacing of 12-18” between each plant. For the plant sizes, used a mix of smaller sized plugs, bare root, pint and quart size plants to keep the cost down and due to their faster establishment relative to larger gallon size perennials.

• Spring

  • Columbine (Aquilegia canadensis)

  • Indian Pink (Spigelia marilandica)

  • Golden Alexander (Zizia aurea)

  • Eastern Bluestar (Amsonia tabernaemontana)

  • Foxglove Beardtongue (Penstemon digitalis)

  • Eastern Beebalm (Monarda bradburiana)

  • Mouse Eared Coreopsis (Coreopsis auriculata ‘Nana’)

  • Blue Eyed Grass (Sisyrinchium angustifolium)

• Summer

  • Carolina Phlox (Phlox carolina)

  • Hummingbird Dwarf Sweet Pepperbush (Clethra alnifolia ‘Hummingbird’)

  • Narrow Leaved Mountain Mint (Pycnanthemum tenuifolium)

  • Blue Mistflower (Conoclinium coelestinum)

• Fall

  • Bluestem Goldenrod (Solidago caesia)

  • Whitewood Aster (Eurybia divaricata)

• Groundcover - evergreen

  • Leavnworth’s Sedge (Carex leavenworthii)

  • Slender Wood Oats (Chasmanthium laxum)

  • Christmas Fern (Polystichum acrosticoides)

  Most of the plants are currently dormant. The advantage of doing a mid to late winter installation is that nature will take care of most of the watering needs during the first 3 months, which is the time when plants are most sensitive to a lack of water. My guess is that our client won’t have to do any watering until mid April or early May. We will be back at the 1 and 2 month points to monitor how the plants are looking and to do any weeding that is required. As always, we are excited to see how this project will turn out and evolve over time.