317Grow Blog
Read . Grow . Thrive
Most grasses do not do well in shade, as anyone who has tried to grow a dense lawn on a wooded lot can confirm. There are, however, a few ornamental grasses and relatives of grasses that love the low light conditions of a wood edge or an airy forest. Japanese forest grass is one of these. It doesn't like dense shade, but in filtered light conditions it brings gorgeous texture and movement to the landscape.
Evergreen plants are the backbone of designs built to stun in all seasons. They provide the reliable structure to keep things from looking bare and help highlight the spots of color and texture that other plants like beautyberry and paperbark maple provide. We love to use boxwoods for this purpose. They do much better in our soils than a lot of other evergreens, and their ability to be sheared or grown naturally allow us to make all kinds of interesting artistic decisions with them.
The Ginkgo tree is a unique and fascinating tree. The species has been around since the time of the dinosaurs, so it is truly a living fossil. Ginkgo trees keep their leaves longer than most, but at some point (usually in November) the entire tree will turn a rich golden yellow practically overnight, and all its leaves will drop within a day or two in a beautiful golden shower. It is valued as a street tree and for home yards because it is long-lived, tolerant of harsh conditions, and it has a beautiful form.
Our favorite spring-blooming tree here at 317Grow is probably Serviceberry. The white flowers are a crowd-pleaser, the dark red berries are delicious, the fall color is unbeatable, and it's a native species for Indiana. It's hard to get much better than that. There are a few different species of Serviceberry growing in North America. The Canadian Serviceberry sticks closer to the east coast, while the Allegheny Serviceberry extends inland all the way to Minnesota and Iowa.
Flowering Quince starts blooming in shades of pink, salmon, white, and red in March before the leaves emerge. The flowers continue to shine as the foliage comes in, and then they develop into small, edible fruits with a tart taste. The shrub develops into a low, relaxed shape as it ages with an airy structure. Flowering Quince is a gorgeous addition to the spring landscape, but it is not for the low-maintenance garden. Root suckers need to be pruned back, leaf fungus can be a problem in wet seasons, and plants should be checked for fire blight from time to time.
Few things bring a smile to my face in late winter like the sight of a clump of snowdrops popping out of the ground! They're a welcome reminder that warmer weather is just around the corner. These harbingers of spring are excellent for naturalizing in flower beds and they naturally spread by bulbs underground. Since their leaves die back to the ground by mid spring, it's easy to plant over them with summer blooming plants to keep your flower beds exciting all year long.
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