Help with Ground Cover for Slopped, Rocky, Compacted Soil in Full Shade

Hello Ashley,

It certainly looks like you have a very tough site there to work with.  I really hate stones for landscaping, once they're down, they are a pain to do anything with if you want a change.  I won't use them, they are durable but they can get dirty and cluttered and even weedy so you still have to do some maintenance on them to keep them looking fresh.

But what to do now. Three plants that come to mind for me are: hostas, ferns and vinca minor (periwinkle). There are really large selections to pick from on the ferns and hostas. These would be easy to open up areas in the rock cover and plant them right in the ground. The Vinca is a low growing perennial with evergreen leaves and very pretty blue flowers, it spreads pretty easily and covers the ground. It blooms mostly in the spring but does flower occasionally throughout the summer. I have it growing in fairly dense shade under 70 year old norweigian and blue spruce trees and it does really well. It doesn't like to get too dry though.  I'm not sure how it would do on the stone. The plants would need to be rooted in the ground initially but the runners may be ably to handle taking hold in a thick layer of mulch. 

Ferns and Hostas. When I was young I really didn't care for hostas. They seemed to be a rather boring plant. But as I got older (62 now but I refuse to believe I could really be that old so soon) I started to appreciate their place in shady areas that other plants didn't do well in. That and that there have been so many new and interesting varieties developed over the years. They are hardy and require very little care. The only thing I've noticed that bothers them is slugs, slugs are especially fond of the varigated plants. 

Ferns are also a good choice for shade.  I have several varieties growing some are well behaved and stay as nice specimen plants and others tend to run under ground and pop up all over really fast. You'll have to check them out on the internet.

A couple of other plants that grow good for me in the shade are; bleeding heart (only flowers once, usually cut the plants all the way down when they start looking too ratty), the old fashioned white "snow ball" hydrangeas, solomon's seal, false solomon's seal  (a wild plant) and black cohosh (snake root) has some herbal benefits.

Well that should give you something to think about. If it were me I would probably try to remove some or all of that stone and get back to the soil. Maybe you could just move some of it around and make like pathways with it, leaving larger areas of dirt exposed and have Islands of different plants in there. That might make for a very interesting effect. The stones would help keep the plants in their areas and you would have little garden patches, or rooms,  that you could create in.

As for watering, I think a regular sprinkler in there would work OK. Or if you like soaker hoses and can keep them kind of hidden they would be more water efficient.

Mark

P.S. I live in Wisconsin, zone 4-5 and all these plants winter over just fine. 

I would highly recommend periwinkle, aka vinca. I have had much quicker coverage with the large-leaved varieties, particularly the darker green with gold variagation. The periwinkle blue flowers in the spring are quite lovely and as someone said they will flower sporadically throughout the summer.

Here is a method for you to consider: Buy a flat of periwinkle plugs or whatever plant you choose. (Liriope would also be good or large sweeps of both.) Remove rocks in a spot 5" or so in diameter and plant a plug in this bare spot. Now do this in staggered rows with the plants spaced an equal distance apart. The closer spaced they are, the quicker they will form a solid mat obviously. In your zone 7, planting this fall would be ideal. Plan to keep it watered regularly the first year. Next summer you may want to remove a few more rocks in between the plants to make it easier for the new growth to send down roots into new soil.

I started with a small pot my old neighbor shared with me. I had complete coverage of a bank that is roughly 12' x 12' in about 3-4 years in my supposed zone 6 garden. Yours should grow even faster. Alas, I used to live in zone 7. It can and will try to go further than you might want it to eventually but it is fairly easy to pull up any unwanted sections. Best of luck!