Survivor Landscaping

August 13th, 2019

   Way back when I was a Cub Scout leader, we started the year by having the boys discuss what the pack’s rules should be.

Too many plants meet this fate.

   The 8-year-olds’ first suggestion was, “No killing.”

   I wouldn’t have thought of that, but it was definitely a good place to start.

   That also happens to be a good place to start with your planting/replanting plans.

   Unfortunately, we kill way too many plants.

   Many factors contribute to this botanical destruction.

   The leading problem is flat-out horrid “soil,” which in most yards is more like a clay-shale blend or subsoil left behind by earth-moving equipment.

   That can be mitigated by working 2 or 3 inches of compost or similar organic matter into the loosened top foot, which gives you slightly raised and more root-friendly beds.

Read George’s articles on rethinking how we plant, part one and part two

   The second killer is too-deep planting. Way too many trees and shrubs are buried rather than planted, which has the effect of suffocating roots.

Read George’s PennLive post on how to correctly plant a tree

   A third killer is water – or lack of it.

   Planting in poorly drained areas rots out many landscape plants. So does overwatering to the point of sogginess. That’s just as deadly as not watering enough.

   Packing on too much mulch (2 or 3 inches is plenty) or stacking it onto trunks is a fourth good way to kill plants.

   And those are just “operator-error” factors that don’t count killers such as deer-munching, ice slides off the roof, uprootings in wind storms, bug attacks, and assorted plant diseases.

   Yes, a lot can go wrong.

   That’s why I’m a disciple of the Mayhem School of Landscape Design. Its leading principle is to first select tough plants that are likely to survive abuse, then worry about color, texture, forms, bloom times, etc.

   After all, a dead plant is a bad plant (except possibly for a leafless Harry Lauder’s walking stick or a Japanese maple painted silver in an Ikebana arrangement).

   No matter how cool the plant looks in the pot or how common it is in garden centers, if it’s got a good chance of croaking, it’s not a great choice.

   Garden long enough and you’ll sort out the survivors from the wimps.

   Some plants have a low tolerance for conditions too unlike their natural habitat.

Poor soil, poor drainage, and too much mulch are combining to kill this pieris.

   Some adapt faster than others to the soil, sunlight, and wind in your yard vs. what they’ve been used to at the nursery.

   Some just don’t transplant very well at all. They object to handling or to root damage that’s inevitable when they’re unpotted and stuffed into your lousy clay.

   And even among plants that survive that critical first year or two in the ground, some are much more vulnerable to ensuing weather and pests than others.

   In my design travels, I got to see lots of yards in addition to how plants performed in my own yard (more test lab than landscape).

   I can tell you that five of the most-killed species are azaleas, rhododendrons, American dogwood, Japanese holly and hemlock.

   Pieris are often riddled by lacebugs, dwarf Alberta spruce ultimately brown out from spider-mite damage, euonymus often struggle from scale attack (little white shell-like bugs), and a majority of tea roses end up nearly naked from leaf drop caused by a fungal disease called black spot.

   Despite being our state’s official flower, healthy mountain laurels are a rare sight in anyone’s yard.

   In deer country, you might as well skip hostas, daylilies, tulips, eastern arborvitae, yews, and azaleas (to mention just a few four-legged favorites).

See George’s list of Bottom 10 Perennials

See George’s list of Bottom 10 Shrubs

See George’s list of Bottom 10 Trees

   This doesn’t mean you should never plant any of the above.

   It means you’re just going to have to pay more attention to how and where you plant them and probably give them more TLC than their tougher brethren.

   Most people have busy lives and don’t have the time or inclination to coddle their landscape. They want plants that roll with the punches.

Not much is likely to go wrong with fothergilla.

   Fortunately, there are plenty. They just happen not to be among the best known or most sold.

   Virginia sweetspire, fothergilla, ninebark, viburnum, hydrangea, spirea and shrub roses are among the most reliable, high-performing flowering shrubs I see in Pennsylvania yards.

   Most ornamental grasses do very well with no babying.

   Blue hollies, dwarf goldthread cypress, and Hinoki cypress are some of the toughest evergreens.

   Among perennial flowers, some of the top survivors are liriope, hardy geraniums, barrenwort, betony, coralbells, foamybells, sedum, salvia, catmint and lamium.

See George’s list of Top 10 Perennials

See George’s list of Top 10 Shrubs

See George’s list of Top 10 Small Trees

   In some circles, the tough stuff is called “sustainable plants.”

   I’ve developed four plant-selection resources to help Pennsylvania gardeners pick plants they’re least likely to kill.

   One is my 19-page, detailed plant list called “George’s Survivor Plants for Central Pa.” that’s available through the Buy Helpful Info section of my website as a $5.95 download (or $7.95 paper copy, plus shipping).

   Another is my 240-page “Pennsylvania Getting Started Garden Guide” Cool Springs Press book, available for $24.95 (plus shipping), also through the Buy Helpful Info section of my website. It focuses on what I think are the 170 best plants for Pennsylvania landscapes.

   The third is a free resource – profiles of some 300 excellent plants that are posted one by one with photos and care tips on the Plant Profiles section of my website.

   And the fourth is a pair of “Solution Gardening” lists that gives you specific plants that are good choices to use in 14 different landscape situations (i.e. wet soil, on slopes, plants that need little care, plants that deer don’t like, etc.)

   These are posted on PennLive. The first set of lists ran April 18, 2019, and the second set ran May 23, 2019.

   If you like lists, more of them that’ll help with your plant-selecting are free and posted on the George’s Handy Lists section of my website.

   Or just learn the old-fashioned trial-and-error way. You’ll kill some plants along the way and eventually figure out the good stuff.

   Never mind that you’d be violating my Cub Scout pack’s No. 1 rule.