Snow in Summer as lawn replacement under old maples Qs

Im not sure how this is going to work in fall when I need to rake all those maple leaves off the Snow in Summer! I envision pulling the mat off the ground with the rake. Does anyone have a lawn replanted under trees with SiS - how do you work that?

Hoping this works - Ive redone my lawn under the trees twice now and it always ends up looking awfully ratty in a year or so after the trees have sucked the life out of the grass. Its partially shaded and dry.

Thx

Keep in mind that that in nature, no one rakes up the leaves and plants emerge just fine.

Use a blower.

Thanks guys for your ideas :)

#1 Im reading that SIS will die off if leaves are not removed in spring (too wet for SIS).

#2 A blower is too noisy in my neighborhood and I hate them.

I think I might try to mow over the mat of SIS and mulch the leaves and hope they blow away. Think so?

Hard to believe anything would kill Cerastium tomentosum but if your area is much wetter than the northern prairies, then it may well be so. Light raking with a leaf rake should work fine... if you pull off bits of the cerastium, don't panic. It will look better for having some of last year's growth removed.

I grow Snow in Summer on a wall going up steps but the type of raking you are talking about will not be tolerated by this plant, as tough as it can be, raking will drag too much top growth out and it wont have time to recover for the following flowering period.

I find it hard to believe that a blower USED PROPERLY, is not tolerated in your neighbourhood and assume that you are not talking about miles of leaf drop to be blown aside so you can gather them up. Like you, I hate these Machines too, but I also hate lawnmowers when the person using them forget to put the choke back in after starting the darn thing and the mower roars and pulsates for hours on a nice calm sunny day, a blower can be as loud or as quiet as you want it it be as long as you don't roar the motor, hold the nozzle in the right place and no need for this machine to roar. Anyway it's all a matter of needs must, leaves are only falling a short time NOT all year round, heaven help your neighbourhood if air-planes pass over eh !!!!

I would be inclined to search for a more suitable plant and there will be many more, the S,I,S. is too soft in the type of leaf and the stems are brittle like matchsticks therefore snap if tugged, I would guess you need something that will flower all summer but die down over Autumn / Winter, so maybe spreading Annual seeds like Sun flowers, Alyssum, Anemone, Digitalis, Arabis, Dwarf Salix, Saxifraga. Calendula and many other low growing plants, you could scatter the seeds in drifts for a better effect.

Hope this helps a little and you get the results you are looking for,
Good luck and best regards. WeeNel.

WeeNel, I cut back the straggly foliage that's left from the previous year every spring - it has plenty of time to "recover" and bloom even in our comparatively very short season. I don't believe that it is normally considered to be a delicate plant in any way in North America, and is even considered an invasive weed in some provinces and states:
http://plants.usda.gov/java/nameSearch

This message was edited Apr 21, 2013 4:24 PM

Sorry, the USDA Plants search didn't post properly. Here's a map of where this plant has escaped into the wild:

Thanks for the map Altagardener, nature sure has a way of getting around eh !!, I did say this was quite a tough plant Not tender at all, but to rake leaves from the top of it, then I would not expect my plant to tolerate that type of pulling and dragging but hey, maybe we use different tools or something like that,
I also remove as much dead foliage from my S.I.S. but don't even have to cut it, the stems are so brittle that they just snap in handful's of dead foliage, mine grows OVER a wall and not flat on the ground, it gets to about foot half long.
I find the way it spreads is by animals, humans ect trailing tiny bits trapped on shoes / boots or animals get pieces trapped on their fur and low behold, when it falls off it just roots where it landed. easy to understand how it has spread all over the place where you are.
I still would not plant it where it was to be bashed about with a rake but choose a better plant for the site in shade.
best Regards, Weenel.