Background: I live in Cincinnati OH, and I have tried and failed for two years to grow grass along my fence line. I think creating a mulch bed that lines the fence will elevate my yard and eliminate the huge patchy spots. The soil in this area is extremely hard, and the yard slopes a bit. I plan on creating the mulch bed, loosening the soil before I plant anything, and then covering w mulch. Does anyone have any suggestions on what plants would do best in a shady area like this? I would like to stay away from big grass plants. Also would like some filler flowers if possible! Thanks so much in advance, I truly have such limited knowledge of all things landscaping/gardening so any advice is appreciated.
by IRunChinaTown
6 Comments
You’ve got 100+ great options to consider. I would really recommend going over to your nearest native plant nursery and seeing what they have in stock. They can give you an idea of how many plants to buy to fill up the space, and you can choose those that you like the most.
Here’s a list of most garden suitable plants native to Cincinnati:
[https://easyscape.com/categories/all_plants?address=cincinnati-ohio&filter=native](https://easyscape.com/categories/all_plants?address=cincinnati-ohio&filter=native)
You can filter the list to your site conditions in the search tab and explore the species pages to get more info and see which nurseries near you sell them:
https://preview.redd.it/utxkpmwmotpg1.png?width=1896&format=png&auto=webp&s=68401b373575a5c0c85edcf8821cb668f8fb3d09
I’m gonna guess you’ve been removing leaves from this yard. Shade and compacted clay soil is a tough thing, and you’ll want those leaves decomposing with the mulch to improve the soil. With that help and some extra water, heuchera should do well, as well as most ferns and sedges.
The Civic Garden Center is a fantastic resource. They have several upcoming events on native plant gardening. Their spring native plant sale is May 2.
https://www.civicgardencenter.org/events
The Cincinnati Zoo’s native plant sale is at Bowyer Farm in Mason on April 18, May 2 and May 16
I’ve had more success with these locally grown natives than buying at retailers. The best results for me (North Cincy suburbs) has been planting natives that are best suited to clay and not overwatering. You’ll need to make sure you understand how much sun and water these plants will need. It’s hard to tell from this photo but it looks like you have a good amount of shading from trees – probably why lawn grass isn’t doing so well. I would look for part-sun to shade native understory shrubs as the backbone – arrowhead or Blackhaw viburnum, cohosh, elderberry, chokeberry and serviceberry.
Putting a mulch bed around the border is a great idea. Honestly it doesn’t take much knowledge, just go ahead and do it! Plant some natives that’s all you need to do!
Personally, I would try to plug those holes in the fence ASAP. Erosion may be slow but it’s still loss of soil, and if you plan on digging it will get worse from the loose soil. Nothing crazy, just some border log to set against it (leveled) along the fence. This would become the most fertile area over time.
You could terrace this if you wanted to invest into it. Otherwise, to fix the soil you really want some type of tree or shrub on top of the hill to hold things together. Trees are usually the go to for slopes like this.
Consider how the water moves next time you get a storm. Maybe set some obstacles to slow it down in the meantime. I have a large yard that is slowly eroding away and have started putting tree branches flat around the yard to mark borders for future beds and hopefully use the storms to help make the yard how I want it.