Bought a house from a perennial addict!!

11 years ago

Hi Guys!!
I am also a very new gardener! I moved into a house with huge and beautiful perennial gardens, also a now over grown veggie garden! I have read books, brought friends and neighbours over to help , and be friended an AWSOME local nursery owner ! They helped identify what I haveÃ¢ÂÂ¦.how to keep them alive and what to feed, ect.
Now I have the BUG!! I am trying Winter sowing for the Veggies, and some other common perennials!
I have this area that is over grown and an eye sore! We have a turnabout in the north part of the house, It is under 4 huge pine trees, it gets some afternoon sun, 4 hours or so, the pines are bare on the bottom so I do get enough sun light, I know that the soil will be acidic and that is fine, there is a huge HUGE beautiful hosta there that I will leave, but there is nothing else, any suggestions????
Zone 5
Thanks for any help

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Comments (8)

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
11 years ago
more hosta??? .. duh??? .. lol .. sorry.. to be completely enabled.. check into the hosta forum ...

and any companion plant to hosta ... truly.. you have your yardstick already there ....

the issue with the big trees.. will be competition for water... and getting water out there for new stuff ... w/o driving over your hose all the time ....

and are you talking about the strip??... heat generated by the blacktop might make it tricky ... if you arent on top of watering new transplants ...

ken
freki
11 years ago
things I know will grow under pines: periwinkle, lily of the valley, ferns. All of those spread, but you have it surrounded, so you should be safe
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tsugajunkie z5 SE WI ♱
11 years ago
"I know that the soil will be acidic"

It is a common myth to think pine needles make the soil acidic, if that is why you said that.

Epimediums would work well there as would solomon's seal, lamium, brunnera, and those already mentioned.

tj
prairiemoon2 z6b MA
11 years ago
You might consider native plants. Not sure what those might be in Ontario, but easy enough to google it. Here in Massachusetts, I've tried Arctostaphylos uva-ursi. Very happy I did. It has turned out to be a carefree groundcover that spreads at a very comfortable pace. In an area near the roots of trees that I found difficult to grow other plants.

Congratulations on your new home! And welcome to the forum. :-)
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
11 years ago
BTW... junkies list..

IS EVERYTHING HE GROWS WITH HIS HOSTA ...

which is repetitive to my suggestion ....

ken
tsugajunkie z5 SE WI ♱
11 years ago
Well, not everything I grow with hosta, just the ones I think will fit in that strip. ;-) But, yes, all those are growing with hosta and under mature Austrian Pines.

tj
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
11 years ago
and junkie.. water is the key ... right ...

that .. IMHO ... is the FIRST thing to figure out.. after that.. the sky is the limit, as to plants ...

the second thing.. under mature trees.. is the soil ... and how 'used up' it is under very mature trees ...

just try things.. water the heck out of them.. and GO FOR IT ...

you have nothing to lose .. except some plants.. and some exercise.

BTW.. if you have lots of mature perennials around the yard.. a FREE way to TRY things.. is to divide what you have .. and just start moving things out there... then you lose just the exercise.. rather than money ...

i can see along string of post on how to divide a given plant ..

good luck

ken
Hailey99
Original Author
11 years ago
Thanks everyone!! Very very good and advice, thanks for your patience !!