Hello! I have this "dead" area by the walkway leading to my front door that nothing seems to grow in. I've come to the conclusion that alot of the problem is probably the soil. Not so much that's it's red clay, but it's very hard. The light is partial shade, but due to the Fringe Tree losing leaves, it's mostly full sun in the winter. I'm hoping for something that is low-maintenance (since I have enough to do in my main garden areas!) and evergreen because of it's prominent location. So far I've tried to grow "Pink Panda" strawberry, and "Chocolate Chip" ajuga. Both of these did fine at first and survived the winter, but in the summer ended up getting some sort of fungus I guess. The leaves on the ajuga would get wilty, like they needed water, even though they didn't. Then eventually they'd turn black and entire clumps of it would just die. You can still see two areas hanging on in the picture. I also have bulbs in this area, but mostly it's empty. This fall I plan to till the area and add some amendment. Can anyone recommend something that is easy to grow, evergreen, and relatively fast-growing? I have tons of creeping raspberry by the street, so I don't want that. And I certainly don't want ivy! I was thinking pachysandra (sp?) but not sure it's shady enough. Thanks for any ideas!
