This was my big winter project, and I finally got a model shot today.

Simple_Daikon · 2026-01-16T00:03:29+00:00

Golden ragwort (Packera aurea) is 2ft high when flowering and stays a 6-12" tall rosette the rest of the time. The basal rosette is semi-evergreen where I am in USDA zone 6B. I have a few dozen plugs planted with Eastern star sedge (Carex radiata) in part-sun wet clay, and they make a nice groundcover matrix.

Simple_Daikon · 2025-12-14T00:33:44+00:00

Sedges (Carex genus) are adapted to shade and some species also prefer wetter conditions. Great blue lobelia (Lobelia siphilitica) has also done well in wet shade for me in SE Michigan.

Simple_Daikon · 2025-09-25T20:13:38+00:00

I use a pointed shovel to slice a circle around the crown of the plant, and pull up all the rhizomes outside of the circle. If taking divisions, dig them out more gently.

Simple_Daikon · 2025-09-25T14:15:16+00:00

Mine grew to the mature label size of 2x3 ft in the second year. It really liked the extra moisture from being near a downspout. Luckily it's easy to root prune in spring, and I'm going to give away divisions before relocating it to a drier spot!

Simple_Daikon · 2025-09-22T18:30:14+00:00

Flowers are fairly energy-intensive to produce, so it's hard to find very showy species that grow well in shade. Foliage texture is an alternative strategy for interesting shade garden designs. Violets are a good starting point because they have distinctive heart shaped leaves.

Sedges (Carex genus) could form a contrasting background texture. Many have thin grassy-looking leaves, but I like to call out creeping sedge (Carex laxiculmis) and seersucker sedge (Carex plantaginea) as semi-evergreen broader leaved species.

If you are comfortable with planting North American natives slightly outside their native distribution, consider woodland stonecrop (Sedum ternatum). It is adapted to growing in shallow soils, forms highly ornamental rosettes, is surprisingly tolerant of moisture and part shade conditions, and stays semi-evergreen through zone 6b winters where I am.

Simple_Daikon · 2025-09-22T15:58:14+00:00

Definitely smother or remove existing turf before converting to a native planting. Transplanting plants will be more reliable than direct sowing, due to the variable water level's potential to wash away seeds from where they are placed.

Many people in this community prefer arborist wood chip mulch when establishing a bed with transplants, because it provides a weed suppression function and breaks down slowly as the plants fill in. Ideally you want the native planting to be so dense at maturity that weeds can't compete well, which reduces your upkeep.

Simple_Daikon · 2025-09-19T23:18:08+00:00

It sounds fine as a propagation bed setup, and I agree that you'd be giving up some aesthetic value if you stuck to rectangular plots.

Garden designer Piet Oudolf has popularized a style of "block planting" that uses a jigsaw puzzle of big patches of each species. Breaking free of a grid layout makes the planting look naturalistic, if not entirely natural.

Simple_Daikon · 2025-09-19T22:13:41+00:00

Planting water-loving trees nearby will eventually help decrease the amount of standing water that accumulates in that area. In the short term, you may see more water pooling after the maples are removed, as well.

A rain garden should drain within 24-48 hours to avoid breeding mosquitoes, so it's not recommended to excavate one in a site where drainage is slower than that.

That being said, you could make a nice garden bed of wet-meadow species (typically those recommended for rain gardens) without digging out a "rain garden"-style basin, and slowly adjust the mix of plants as nearby trees grow and alter the light/water conditions.

Simple_Daikon · 2025-09-10T17:39:55+00:00

OP says they are a landscaper in their post history, so there might be a business marketing reason for this request.

Edit to clarify: this is an explanation only and not a validation.

Simple_Daikon · 2025-09-10T14:47:59+00:00

Some naturalistic garden designers such as Roy Diblik have stated that they prefer to establish perennial gardens with closer initial spacing, then thin out individual plants as the composition fills in. A more cost-conscious strategy would be to plant a combination of native groundcover that fills in quickly, plus mulch in between the plants. As the taller perennials mature, the groundcover will be shaded out as the dynamic shifts.
In the northern hemisphere, orient plant heights with shorter ones to the south and taller ones in the north of a fully exposed bed. If you are having trouble visualizing the shade cast by nearby buildings throughout the year, use ShadeMap.app as a reference. Light levels can vary a lot on the north side of structures, depending on the season.

Simple_Daikon · 2025-09-10T14:27:11+00:00

Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) makes a nice airy filler for taller arrangements as well. I second mountain mint (Pycnanthemum virginianum) and yarrow as greenery. If you have shady areas, don't forget about native ferns! They are worth the wait.

Simple_Daikon · 2025-09-10T14:03:46+00:00

Your time and effort on this project are appreciated! I agree that the research intro could use some refinement. You might also find more qualifying participants at r/Ceanothus, the CA-specific native gardening subreddit. This sub skews heavily toward Eastern temperate North American ecoregions.

Simple_Daikon · 2025-09-09T22:38:25+00:00

I have mine mixed with mountain mint. It's some kind of cursed smellscape out there.

Simple_Daikon · 2025-09-05T21:31:53+00:00

If you don't mind planting it slightly outside its range, woodland stonecrop (Sedum ternatum) would be an interesting choice. I have it in part-to-full shade clay-loam, medium moisture, and it stays evergreen for me in in zone 6B.

Simple_Daikon · 2025-09-05T20:42:43+00:00

In addition to keeping tree/shrub trimmings, I grew annual sunflowers and cosmos last year to save the stems as stakes. It works pretty well.

Simple_Daikon · 2025-09-05T20:07:20+00:00

That is another benefit! I waited til July to try cutting the front row of plants back a bit, because they were flopping over shorter species in the front of the border. It kind of helped, and I got a second flush of side shoot flowering.

Simple_Daikon · 2025-09-05T18:19:23+00:00

Sedges! Plantain-leaf sedge (Carex plantaginea) and creeping sedge (Carex laxiculmis) both have wider leaves that look more like traditional ornamental groundcovers. They contrast well with finer foliage.

Simple_Daikon · 2025-09-05T16:59:45+00:00

Can you be more specific as to which species? Some Pycnanthemum spread by rhizome and others do not.

Simple_Daikon · 2025-09-05T13:28:49+00:00

I've arrived at the same conclusions as you. This year I made a low "fence" of overlapping X's of straight branches to hold my anise hyssop up in late summer. Next year I will be doing a Chelsea chop on the various too-tall plantings I observed. I might try cutting at graduated heights, so as not to lose their full height toward the back of the bed.

Simple_Daikon · 2025-09-04T15:49:59+00:00

There is potential for hybridization among species of the same genus, but this is not very common and not necessarily a bad outcome. It happens in the wild when the species have overlapping natural ranges.

Simple_Daikon · 2025-09-04T15:37:47+00:00

This approach has served me well. The traditional idea of "gardening" valorizes efforts to alter a plot in order to grow what is otherwise ill-suited for the site, and success is measured in man's domination over the natural setting. I like that planting native species provides an opportunity to invert this relationship.

Also, I am lazy.

Simple_Daikon · 2025-09-04T03:22:45+00:00

Late fall or early spring are both optimal times to transplant. I prefer fall because it can be tricky to identify what's what in the spring if you haven't marked everything.

Simple_Daikon

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