Ground cover/living mulch ideas for front strip

Hello all, this is my first post here. I wasn't sure if this should go in the urban section or the mulch...since it's about mulching in suburbia.

I live in New England, in the suburbs of CT, aka the Land of Lawn, and am trying in my own small way to manage our 0.4 acres in town along permaculture lines. We've only been here two years and have inherited standard suburban landscaping.

First project has been a strip of land between a holly hedge and the road. Between 5 and 7 feet deep, 25 ft long. No sidewalk, it ends in a retaining wall and then the shoulder of Main Street. It's very visible, and my husband really wants it to look "tidy" - meaning intentional and cared for. I'm less sensitive to public opinion about weeds, but I figure it's an advertising opportunity - gardens can be pretty without chemicals! It was originally very sad grass, I seeded it to an annual wildflower mix last year, and this spring planted some mostly native perennials. The wildflowers were lovely but not quite formal enough for the spot. I tried to choose plants that were hardy and drought tolerant, so once they are established we can turn off the irrigation system up there.

I left the spaces between the plants lightly mulched, both because they will all grow significantly bigger, and because I want some kind of groundcover/living mulch to grow between them. For the very front of the strip along the retaining wall I'm trying to get creeping phlox going, and plan to put in daffodils this fall.

I want the living mulch to be:
1) reasonably ornamental and decorative, so that it looks intentional
2) able to thrive near the road
3) able to thrive in full sun
4) things I could purchase and establish this season
5) ideally native to support a wide range of insect life (in order to support the birds, and everything else), but anything good for a wide range of insects/animals is fair game. The lawns in this area are so sterile!
6) less than 12" high so it doesn't block our view as we turn out of our driveway.

My concerns are:
1) the plants I think will work are nearly impossible to find except as seeds. I don't have a ton of experience raising them plants like this from seed, and I really want this plot established and declared a success so I can work on more interesting parts of the yard. I'm considering pussytoes and pearly everlasting, but could use some more ideas.

2) The creeping phlox is not establishing or spreading as well as I hoped, and one or two plants have had significant chunks broken off during weeding and mulching, so even though on paper is seems like the right plant for the spot I'm not sure.

3) This is the big one, the area was coming up all in quackgrass/crabgrass and looked like a vacant lot. (fascinating lesson in bare soil, by the way. As I was weeding it I realized it really was just holding the soil in place, and cooling it from the sun by shading it. I came remarkably close to anthropomorphizing the crabgrass - it was doing it's best!) So we put down a layer of compost for mulch topped by cedar chips - the cedar chips are to help protect the holly and boxwood bushes because all the wet weather is causing a lot of blight, and there's some local research showing this kind of mulch prevents the blight from spreading. Trying to prevent the bare soil, and it also looks very suburban tidy (which I can live with if it's temporary, it doesn't actually make me happy). I do think the thick mulch will help develop healthier soil for the plants getting established.

So now that it's covered, how can plant something that will grow through it? I'm not even sure the creeping phlox will be able to creep very effectively, since the bark mulch is in the way. How do I transition from this temporary cover mulch to a living mulch, and what plants could I try and where could I get them? I'm worried if I scrape it out of the way weeds will overwhelm whatever I'm trying to plant.

I would love success stories from similar situations, too, even if you don't have specific suggestions. I know part of the solution is patience, but it's hard to wait.

Welcome!
I haven't lived in that area in quite a while, so my suggestions would probably not be super helpful, but there are some cool efforts for native plants in CT. I wonder if some of the links, lists, or phone numbers here might be helpful?
https://portal.ct.gov/DEEP/Plants/DEEPs-Native-Garden-Project

(plant people are usually pretty cool with having someone call out of the blue asking if they know where to find something. check out page 122 of this ENORMOUS slideshow about planting natives in CT  https://portal.ct.gov/-/media/DEEP/wildlife/pdf_files/outreach/NativeLandscapingpdf.pdf )

Hi Tereza,
Thanks for the suggestions! I had not thought of just calling up the plant people, I will definitely do that. I might even try to plan a field trip out to the biggest nursery, but my recent baby HATES her carseat so I'm wary of any long trips.

In the meantime I'm experimenting with starting seeds. I've never cold stratified anything in the fridge before - it's a good biology lesson that makes me miss homeschooling.

Ground covers seems to be tricky in this area - but at least the soil isn't bare and the plants do look happier.

I've found some of the heartier, flowering herbs work in these kinds of spots. Bee balm is very pretty, native and a tough competitor. Sage and lavender hold their own very well and lavender seems to love being neglected in a hard and sunny spot. An added bonus is people tend to recognize it as a bedding flower. Oregano is a bit less invasive than mint, in my experience and the pollinators love it. Assorted thymes will make a great cover but they may take a few years to fill in.

These are often available in the most basic garden centres and might even be marked down right now. If you can score some marked down annuals, I'd use them as fillers for now, just to fight the weeds and dress it up. ( pots of basil tend to have tons of individual plants in them)

You don't need to plan to use the herbs but they at least look deliberately planted.

Plants like Barren Strawberry (Waldsteinia fragarioides) and Golden Groundsel (Packera aurea) are excellent native choices but I think they require a bit too much moisture to really thrive in the spot you mentioned, I'll let you be the final judge on that. However, Green-and-Gold (Chrysogonum virginianum) is an excellent mat-forming groundcover, the main problem with this would be obtaining seeds/plugs for this plant.

Native Violets (Viola) would also be a good choice but again dependent on plant availability and moisture levels. While I have used native violets extensively, I have not had the opportunity to use any of the native groundcovers but I wanted to put them on your radar.

Hope this helps,
Eric S.

Thank you for the suggestions! The Golden Groundseal is new to me and could work. And I think creeping thyme and other herbs could help fill in some gaps beautifully.

Here's a picture of what it looks like now - Trying to figure out how to do images.

The first picture shows two kinds of asters (one fall, one summer), false indigo, and virginia rose. The second picture shows the same rose bush, my super-spreading coneflower (those were all divided from another bed), and a bush honeysuckle (native, not an invasive vine). There are small clumps of creeping phlox that will is establishing but not yet creeping (some landscapers killed two clumps weeding roughly =(.

Past the very small bush honeysuckle is crotoneaster that I plan to replace with mountain mint and bee balm. It used to be full of English Ivy. Despite the enormous maple, this area faces west and gets a lot of sun. The maple is very tall.

I think that maple tree is the most beautiful thing on our property, makes me happy every time I look at it.

You can see how the mulch makes it very tidy, but it's hard to plant seeds or small starts/cuttings. I'm currently just trying to grow the seeds/starts big enough to plant in September.

Here's one way to go about it.

1 - remove the Cedar chips and compost them elsewhere, replacing them with a fungi friendly wood chip layer as thick as possible. Free chips from a local tree surgeon.

2 - inoculate the new chips with a local wild mushroom slurry from a variety that appeases your visual taste.

3 - build a greenhouse and start learning how to grow plants from seeds and propagate them while the mushroom turns the wood chips into rich compost.

4 - design a multilayer "English" garden with a variety of native flowers of increasing height, nitrogen fixers, herbs and grassy patches leaving the entire 1/4 width for a tidy wild strawberry (Fragaria virginiana) ground cover to contrast with the 3/4 English garden. This could be a straight horizontal line from end to end or a more organic curve shaping the first 1/4 width of this beautiful garden and leaving no doubt it was carefully planned.

5 - transfer successful greenhouse seedlings into fertility holes in the wood chip area following the design placement of plants until the area is full of plants.

Looks neat 100% of the time.
2 years from start to finish.
Grows organically vs suddenly plunked there from imported plants.
Cost of a greenhouse, compost, trays and seeds.

Rachelerin Horsting wrote:First project has been a strip of land between a holly hedge and the road. Between 5 and 7 feet deep, 25 ft long. No sidewalk, it ends in a retaining wall and then the shoulder of Main Street. It's very visible, and my husband really wants it to look "tidy" - meaning intentional and cared for.

Here is an idea. Instead of Perennials how about 1 or 2 rows of bush beans down through that strip? You would be amazed at the amount of beans you could harvest from just one row. Would they look 'pretty'? Probably not to city dwellers, but they would be uniform and neat! And they would provide you with some fresh food.

Your neighbors might react in one of two ways.
    1. They could be totally disgusted that you would actually have beneficial plants there.
    2. They might be tempted to pick up on your 'new' idea for growing some of your own food.

I grew up in a small shoreline town in central Ct in a house built in the 1740s. It was downtown on the Boston Post Road in the historical village area. I could not kill mints or keep them from spreading, same with chives, garlic chives and borage which is a self-seeding annual with lovely lavender flowers both edible and medicinal. The escaping mints and chives made mowing the yard an uplifting experience! I did not try to kill them, they simply thrive on neglect in poor soil while retaining the soil.

The front yard was poor soil but plantain and dandelions were also super-survivors. You can make a great salve from both which helps soothe leaf raking blisters! They bloom at raking times, such a wonderful buddy system!

The foundation garden boasted copious varieties of daffodil. Paper whites, grape hyacinth and hellebore - all bulbs and all multiply so you can save money dividing them and brightening up other spots around the property. There is nothing like the scent of lily of the valley with pretty white bell flowers! These will also spread in poor soil. Poppies will also multiply and adore sunny, poor soil areas. Day Lillies are prolific bloomers and deer resistant. You’ll notice them blooming along many roads, so they are getting zero care in poor soil and they also multiply!

Impatiens are super annual color pops in shady areas as are violets. They’re great set it and forget it annuals. The more delicately sized violas can take the full sun and will also spread into the lawn areas giving you great patches of pale colors and less to mow. When the flowers quit, you get green, green, green! These are all generally available in local nurseries.

The backyard had been grazed by cows long ago who were kind enough to distribute fertilizer. Make friends with a local farmer. They’d likely be happy to share the abundance of good stuff, the management of same is a chore for them. Look for local CSAs. They may have cows!

We were near enough to a tidal river and the house had been built atop a 3,000 year old kitchen midden. Oyster shells worked their way up so there was no need to spread lime.

You could go to about any seafood restaurant and ask for oyster and clam shells. A word of caution - they are stinky. A neighbor decided to pave his driveway with oyster shells and though he told me they’d been cleaned, my eyes practically bled for 3 weeks. A reasonable approximation of the stink duration.

Many of the above bloom before the trees leaf out and the leaves raked into the beds are home to many pollinator precursors over the winter.

The master gardener classes offered by the UConn Ag Extension centers are the bomb! They also have master gardeners on tap to troubleshoot horticultural issues.

I often traveled with a plant-rustling kit. I could help myself to what grew abundantly in poor conditions, practically thriving on abuse and neglect. If you keep your eyes open and notice what is blooming when along the roads, you’ll see evidence of what grows well in the space you want to spruce up. (see what I did there 😎)

We never bothered with a compost pile. Instead, we made direct deposits of scraps straight into the ground and developed a robust soil system. We let the bugs, bacteria and rhizomes do the heavy lifting.

My rule of thumb is to observe light, shadow and whatever is already growing for a year before making any big changes. Your patience will be rewarded handsomely!

In MA, we have had luck with violets but less with lavender - cold spells killed 2 of our 3 plants, and lavender gets “leggy” unless you prune it annually.

An awkward place.  Invasive bamboo.