A Plant Experiment

The brick planter in front of the living room window has been bare dirt for a long time, maybe since I moved in. It is never in the sun. It occurred to me to try transplanting some of the nice variegated ground cover I have by the front walk and see how it does. Everything seems to grow easily here.

Turns out, the stuff near the walk is all mixed in with the grasses--I couldn't simply extract a nice clump for replanting. I tried, though. I turned the soil over and broke it up (just at the west end of the planter), moved over some of the grass and cuttings, and gave it some water.

Then I decided to try the nursery approach in parallel. We'll see if anything lives or thrives. Swanson's Nursery had a number of plants labeled "Ground Cover - Shade," and I liked the look of Sweet Woodruff.

Sweet Woodruff (Galium odoratum) is deer resistant, fragrant, trailing habit and "may naturalize." I'm not sure what the last two are, but I think it means that I could see Sweet Woodruff showing up elsewhere in the yard.

"In spring, dainty white flowers bloom profusely above whorled foliage in spring. It makes a superb low growing, spreading groundcover for shade." H: 6-12", W: 12-18", Zone 4: -30 to -20 degrees. Grown by Blooming Nursery of Cornelius, OR.

These little plastic 3x3x3 tubs were $4.99, so I bought three. We'll keep an eye on them, starting with this post so that I can remember when I bought and planted them.