Mid-Atlantic Gardening: Spring is in the Air and the Dirt , 1 by happy_macomb

happy_macomb wrote:
Ok, here you go. I didn't clean up for you! This picture is of an area to the left of our garage. The fence on the left is between our house and the neighbors'. Our property continues behind the fence in the back, which is there to keep the dogs from running into the street.

Until last year, the hill was just a sheet of ivy. But my step son cleared all the ivy out, and I am slowly planting my way up the hill. The row of bags demarcates how far I have gotten in amending the soil. There are a lot of heuchera, astilbe, bulbs and the like at the bottom. I was thinking of hostas (of which I have a lot) and aruncus and maybe ligularia (though that takes more watering than we might give) in the middle and then shrubs in the back and along the fence (which is barely standing but isn't on the schedule for replacement for a while). I don't know if you can tell but the hill is quite steep. And when the trees leaf out, there is a lot of shade. I'd like to get some light colored shrubs in there -- variegated plants, and gold plants -- to focus the eye a bit. I'd really like some flowers, but it is so dark up there. It looks bright now, but that is because the trees haven't leafed out.

This area isn't going to get a lot of TLC, because it is a pain to walk up the hill, and it gets so little sun that it doesn't get me excited, so I need relatively tough plants. I really love the azalea that is blooming there now (you can barely see it to the right, hidden behind another azalea), and I've managed to root some stems, so I may put them around and about. And I've done the same thing with a white spirea that I love (maybe bridal wreath? but doesn't look quite like the photos of that -- it is more delicate).

Anyway, my challenge now is to pick out the shrubs for the perimeter.