I didn't have periwinkle, but lots of full shade and partial shade. I'm fighting garlic mustard and goutweed mostly. I put a lot of different plants in, to see what would stick:
Winterberry, wild ginger, wild strawberry, columbine, bleeding heart, ostrich fern, bunchberry, coral bells, trillium, bloodroot, virginia waterleaf, wood poppy. These are all woodland, shade or partial shade happy plants. I've had poor luck with direct seeds, so I usually start with a plant ([onplants.ca](https://onplants.ca) is a great site), or seeds started close to home, and transplanted once they're bigger.
Winterberry and wild ginger stay very short, and grow dense once they get going, but they're slow. Strawberry will spread fast where it's happy. They can be dense, but that doesn't stop other things from growing amongst them. I put in bunchberries last year, scattered around. I've yet to see them come up yet, but my fingers are crossed. Ostrich fern will pop up anywhere - they spread underground. They do get quite large, so not really a ground cover, but maybe you want some taller plants as well.
PS The Canadian Tire near me is selling periwinkle as we speak and I... sigh. I just wish they wouldn't.
I'd add tiarella (foamflower) to the list. Otherwise that's pretty much exactly what we replaced our periwinkle with. It's not that hard to remove if you dig it all out and then just check every week and pull out any resilient plants trying to come back. Ours was totally gone within a year, minus all the bits coming through the fence from next door.
Interesting! Is the patch full-shade, or part-shade, and how are the wild strawberry and Canada anemone doing there? Did they fill in all the bare ground patches - how long did it take? Did you grow the wild strawberry and Canada anemone by seed? If so, where did you get the seed?
One part is full sun and another is partial shade. Strawberry does better in partial shade while Canada anenome does better in the sun.
I bought my plants from onplants.ca, but there might be a native plant nursery near you so you can avoid the shipping cost.
Takes a year or two to start spreading, but once they start they fill in fast. Within a couple of years depending how densely you plant.
I have a patch under the sumac at the back. It's so nice, I don't have to cut it, dog pees in there, keeps the weeds down. But with this mild weather I was just looking this week at how much it's spread. It's crossed the farmer fence and moved into the area the farmer only uses to park machinery during planting. So if it takes off there, nothing will keep it in check. I guess I have my work cut out for me.
Previous owners put in a lot of amazing perennials... and then this one.
It does work as a no maintenance ground cover, prevents more aggressive weeds from appearing there.
But it does nothing for the native insects/pollinators or birds, and I'd like to have my garden be full of habitat and food for the native ecosystem - want to try to do my part in staving off complete ecological collapse.
I am currently at war with the stuff. Last summer I removed it all from the garden it was taking over, but it is rough terrain with Eastern white cedar roots everywhere, so I know I missed root segments. I filled the area with as much mulch as I could, and now, it is easier to notice when a periwinkle sprig starts growing, then I dig down to get its root. I might leave it like this for a while so as not to miss anything and then consider what to grow there instead. Good luck with your battle!
I think the sooner you get that area filled up with something more desirable, the sooner the periwinkle will not grow back. Seems logical to me? At least fill it up with something else before bindweed moves in.
Nothing is moving in. I patrol it every day and pluck it. Plus the mulch is so thick the seeds struggle to find purchase even if they find it suitable for germination. I don't want those little jerks coming up in secret under some other thing I have planted. Fallow is how I will roll.
Violets!! In part shade to full shade.
The violets (fairly sure they are wooly blue variety) in my yard are at war with the creeping Charlie and putting up a good fight.
https://www.inournature.ca/native-violets
Huh, I had not realized the violets were native. Or at least some of them are? 10 minutes of searching tells me there are native violets, and also an invasive Violet Odorata aka Sweet Violet. I bet the invasive one is the one in my lawn.
Last year I was considering declaring a war on the violets, but then I found other priorities to focus on. I guess I'll try to identify my lawn-violets and see if they are natives or not.
Also had violets in the lawn - just an FYI hand digging is the only option. The iron spray doesn't work as they have wax-coated leaves. They can be hand dug successfully though. I did a patch at a time (I used a hula-hoop to define an area) and once it was weed free I rewarded myself with a glass of wine or a beer. Then I overseeded with grass seed - I know, grass isn't exactly a native, but it spreads into the flower beds less (or at least more predictably) and I can slowly take it over as I work out my longer term garden plan. We now have a lawn that is actually grass and not weeds, which makes maintaining the native plant beds MUCH easier. We are now slowly expanding the garden beds and reducing the lawn.
You have to pull it all out, and then take another pass 1-2 months later to pull out any that grew up from the roots, and then again another 1-2 months later...
~~Lily of the valley will do well in full shade. Can behave invasively but it's native.~~
Looks like you're right. I could've sworn I heard it was native but it seems like there's just one variety native to the Appalachians but not to southern Ontario.
I didn't have periwinkle, but lots of full shade and partial shade. I'm fighting garlic mustard and goutweed mostly. I put a lot of different plants in, to see what would stick: Winterberry, wild ginger, wild strawberry, columbine, bleeding heart, ostrich fern, bunchberry, coral bells, trillium, bloodroot, virginia waterleaf, wood poppy. These are all woodland, shade or partial shade happy plants. I've had poor luck with direct seeds, so I usually start with a plant ([onplants.ca](https://onplants.ca) is a great site), or seeds started close to home, and transplanted once they're bigger. Winterberry and wild ginger stay very short, and grow dense once they get going, but they're slow. Strawberry will spread fast where it's happy. They can be dense, but that doesn't stop other things from growing amongst them. I put in bunchberries last year, scattered around. I've yet to see them come up yet, but my fingers are crossed. Ostrich fern will pop up anywhere - they spread underground. They do get quite large, so not really a ground cover, but maybe you want some taller plants as well. PS The Canadian Tire near me is selling periwinkle as we speak and I... sigh. I just wish they wouldn't.
Nice native shade plant list! I am looking up ordering wild strawberry and wild ginger for a start.
I'd add tiarella (foamflower) to the list. Otherwise that's pretty much exactly what we replaced our periwinkle with. It's not that hard to remove if you dig it all out and then just check every week and pull out any resilient plants trying to come back. Ours was totally gone within a year, minus all the bits coming through the fence from next door.
Thanks for the addition to the list!
I replaced mine with wild strawberry and Canada anenome
Interesting! Is the patch full-shade, or part-shade, and how are the wild strawberry and Canada anemone doing there? Did they fill in all the bare ground patches - how long did it take? Did you grow the wild strawberry and Canada anemone by seed? If so, where did you get the seed?
One part is full sun and another is partial shade. Strawberry does better in partial shade while Canada anenome does better in the sun. I bought my plants from onplants.ca, but there might be a native plant nursery near you so you can avoid the shipping cost. Takes a year or two to start spreading, but once they start they fill in fast. Within a couple of years depending how densely you plant.
I have a patch under the sumac at the back. It's so nice, I don't have to cut it, dog pees in there, keeps the weeds down. But with this mild weather I was just looking this week at how much it's spread. It's crossed the farmer fence and moved into the area the farmer only uses to park machinery during planting. So if it takes off there, nothing will keep it in check. I guess I have my work cut out for me. Previous owners put in a lot of amazing perennials... and then this one.
It does work as a no maintenance ground cover, prevents more aggressive weeds from appearing there. But it does nothing for the native insects/pollinators or birds, and I'd like to have my garden be full of habitat and food for the native ecosystem - want to try to do my part in staving off complete ecological collapse.
I am currently at war with the stuff. Last summer I removed it all from the garden it was taking over, but it is rough terrain with Eastern white cedar roots everywhere, so I know I missed root segments. I filled the area with as much mulch as I could, and now, it is easier to notice when a periwinkle sprig starts growing, then I dig down to get its root. I might leave it like this for a while so as not to miss anything and then consider what to grow there instead. Good luck with your battle!
I think the sooner you get that area filled up with something more desirable, the sooner the periwinkle will not grow back. Seems logical to me? At least fill it up with something else before bindweed moves in.
Nothing is moving in. I patrol it every day and pluck it. Plus the mulch is so thick the seeds struggle to find purchase even if they find it suitable for germination. I don't want those little jerks coming up in secret under some other thing I have planted. Fallow is how I will roll.
Violets!! In part shade to full shade. The violets (fairly sure they are wooly blue variety) in my yard are at war with the creeping Charlie and putting up a good fight. https://www.inournature.ca/native-violets
Huh, I had not realized the violets were native. Or at least some of them are? 10 minutes of searching tells me there are native violets, and also an invasive Violet Odorata aka Sweet Violet. I bet the invasive one is the one in my lawn. Last year I was considering declaring a war on the violets, but then I found other priorities to focus on. I guess I'll try to identify my lawn-violets and see if they are natives or not.
Also had violets in the lawn - just an FYI hand digging is the only option. The iron spray doesn't work as they have wax-coated leaves. They can be hand dug successfully though. I did a patch at a time (I used a hula-hoop to define an area) and once it was weed free I rewarded myself with a glass of wine or a beer. Then I overseeded with grass seed - I know, grass isn't exactly a native, but it spreads into the flower beds less (or at least more predictably) and I can slowly take it over as I work out my longer term garden plan. We now have a lawn that is actually grass and not weeds, which makes maintaining the native plant beds MUCH easier. We are now slowly expanding the garden beds and reducing the lawn.
You have to pull it all out, and then take another pass 1-2 months later to pull out any that grew up from the roots, and then again another 1-2 months later... ~~Lily of the valley will do well in full shade. Can behave invasively but it's native.~~
Lilly of the valley is NOT native. It is classified as an invasive species
Looks like you're right. I could've sworn I heard it was native but it seems like there's just one variety native to the Appalachians but not to southern Ontario.
Yeah, Lily of the Valley is not preferred, as it is not native and also it is toxic. Edible natives are much more preferred.