Easy 'welcome home' garden

Ground cover and ferns create a simple, soothing entryway. 

|
Lee Reich/AP
Underside of fronds from a hay-scented fern. (Dennstaedtia Punctilobula).

Looking for something different from the typical foundation plantings, but not interested in becoming an expert gardener? Got a brown thumb? Want something low or almost no maintenance?

First, the bad news: There’s no such thing as a no-maintenance garden. And no matter how low maintenance the garden ultimately becomes, it will still need some help (watering, weeding, fertilizing, perhaps some light pruning) during its first few years.

Now the good news. Anyone can create an attractive, soothing front dooryard garden that says, “welcome home,” without draining his or her wallet or energy. 

Rule No. 1: Think big. Some of the most frequent mistakes novice gardeners make are choosing plants that are too small, planting them too far apart, and using too much mulch.

Yes, when you’re down at a chipmunk’s eye level, the plants look bigger; yes, the plants will grow; and yes, the mulch makes the beds (temporarily) look tidy. But for the front entryway, you want something that looks full and finished, and you want it fast.

Rule No. 2: Nothing will kick-start that process quicker than installing large masses of a single plant. Ferns are one deer-
resistant choice that can grow in sun or shade (depending on which ones you choose), and offer a wide variety of heights, textures, and shades of green – from the black-green of the evergreen Christmas fern (Polystichium acrostichoides) to the bright chartreuse of the deciduous hay-scented fern (Dennstaedtia punctilobula).

Combine the ferns with an evergreen ground cover such as periwinkle (Vinca minor), pachysandra (Pachysandra terminalis), or bugleweed (Ajuga reptans) to serve double duty by covering up the ankles of the ferns in summer and hiding their tatty foliage in winter. (Ask your local nursery for other suggestions for appropriate ferns or ground covers.)

Ground covers are, by nature, aggressive spreaders, so do keep an eye out and trim off the runners before they become invasive. This doesn’t take much time, if it’s done consistently. A word of caution: Dump, don’t home-compost, the trimmings, or you’ll find your ground cover sprouting up everywhere.

Folks in warmer climates can achieve the same effect by substituting low-growing succulents such as sedum or hardy ice plant (Delosperma) for the ground cover and upright or spiky plants, such as agave, nolina, or yucca, for the ferns. The principle is the same: a low carpet interspersed with a medium-size plant that is visually striking.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Easy 'welcome home' garden
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/The-Home-Forum/2015/0930/Easy-welcome-home-garden
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe