When I say this area receives no maintenance , I mean NONE. I don't water even in drought years, I never cut anything back in spring or fall, I don't tidy up, I don't thin or move things around, I've never fertilized. I rarely find a weed because there's no where for them to grow. In addition, this area is kind of my dumping ground for anything organic I don't want to put in the compost bin. Fallen tree branches, trimmings from shrubs, the extremely thorny and deadly canes from my climbing rose all get tossed in here. Somewhere in there are a couple of Christmas tree trunks. The last time I saw one, it was covered in moss with seedlings growing out of the rotting wood. In addition, he entire area gets buried in about 18 inches of leaves every fall from the yard raking. Come spring, everything manages to poke through. Eventually, all this "stuff" gets swallowed up by the garden.

Here's a list of everything (in no particular order) I've identified growing here :
Asarum canadense
Uvularia grandiflora
Anemone canadensis
Podophyllum pelatum
Sanguinaria canadensis
Aruncus dioicus
Smilacina racemosa
Mertensia virginica
Convallaria majalis 'Fortin's Giant'
Cimicifuga (unknown species)
Athyrium felix-femina
Arisaema triphyllum
Unkown violets (surprise, surprise)
Geranium macrorrhizum
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Anemone canadensis & Podophyllum peltatum fighting it out. It's hard to believe I started out with one tiny plant of each. The Podophyllum now covers about 7 feet of the area. The Anemone has woven its way throughout the garden. I may have to do something about the Podophyllum at some point in time, Lord, is that stuff aggressive! Despite it's almost weedy nature, the Anemone is quite lovely when it blooms in a few weeks with its single, white flowers.

Believe it or not, there is an edging material the length of this garden

Originally I used brick, but it looked too formal, so I replaced it with a informal stacking of logs, branches, twigs etc. This is the only section you can still see. The rest has been swallowed up by the plants and is slowing rotting away which is exactly what I wanted to accomplish.

Cimicifuga, Aruncus and little bit of Uvularia and Smilacina. The Cimicifuga will tower about 6 feet tall when it blooms.

Athyrium felix-femina

Some of the rotting logs scattered throughout. The bare spot had a large stand of Dame's Rocket, but it seemed to have died out in last years drought. It will be interesting to see what takes its place. I haven't totally given up on the Dames Rocket, however. I bet there are some seedling in there somewhere, so maybe it will make an appearance again.

Arisaema triphyllum. My original plant disappeared a long time ago. It wasn't until a few years later I noticed another colony had self sown in another part of the garden. Love how that happens!

Arisaema triphyllum seedlings coming through the leaf litter.

The decay process with wood always starts with moss.

I realize I could make this garden better. It's too green and could benefit with some contrasting leaf colors and flowers other than white. I'm simply not motivated to do so. There's something very gratifying about having a garden area where I am simply an observer and not much of an active participant.

Kevin

I bet there's a toad and maybe a salamander or two living in there.

One concern - from someone who's been dealing with the issue for years - is the wood so close to the house. Aren't you concerned about carpenter ants or termites?

Dee

Kevin, when you have time you could put in some variegated Polygonatum to address leaf colour and a corydalis lutea and or a ligularia to get a yellow shade flower. (The ligularia would give a different foliage height to your garden which I find visually appealing).

Yes, I could add some other plants and the suggestions were good ones, but I'm still very content to not do anything. Maybe that notion will change with time, but so far the desire to do so hasn't hit me.

rouge said:
"Kevin, when you have time you could put in some variegated Polygonatum...."
Actually, there is a planting of that on the other side of the azalea which you can't see in the photo. I divided and moved a bunch of that last fall and only kept a limited amount. I threw away buckets of that stuff, so it's going to be a few years before my patch is large enough to divide again.

Dee - No, I'm not concerned about the carpenter ants. I had those years and years ago long before this garden was created and haven't had a problem since treating for them back then.

As to the possible problems with the Podophyllum, I admit that will be an interesting situation to deal with. I did dig some a few years ago and found that it comes out of the ground very easily, with a garden fork. I don't think I'll try to dig it out however. What I'll probably do is just cut sections of it down early in the spring and keep at it if it re-sprouts. If a plant can't photosynthesize because the leaves and stems are gone, it will eventually die. I had that problem with wild, white violets at one point in time and that technique worked on them.

Kevin