Something you could try is Saxifraga urbium [London Pride] It'll grow in shade - wet or dry, and will spread if happy. It forms rosettes of foliage with little spires of flowers, and spreads readily when happy. Good ground cover, and easy to pull out if it gets ahead of itself. I have some in a corner beside/below the conifer at the back of the garden. You could add some hardy geraniums to go along with it
We have London Pride in a bit of a rockery and it has survived many years of neglect, but it doesn’t look very healthy or happy and I have a strange prejudice against it, as I also have for Rose of Sharon, which also creeps in everywhere. Sharon even lost the battle against the vinca, which is depressing. I wouldn’t mind the vinca quite so much if it flowered, but it gave that up years ago. Maybe I have rejuvenated it by pulling it out and it’ll be better when it comes back…
I would just run a strimmer/brushcutter over the Vinca every two or three years. It'll rejuvenate it, make it look fresher and greener, and keep it in its place.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I would just run a strimmer/brushcutter over the Vinca every two or three years. It'll rejuvenate it, make it look fresher and greener, and keep it in its place.
That’s an idea. I will have to get one. I’ve heard that chopping it up just spreads it further, but if it’s there already, I guess there’s nothing to be lost.
You'll need it to be sharp ... otherwise it'll just get wound around it ... or if the area's not too large a sharp pair of shears would do the job. Just chop it back to the crown of each plant, rake it up and get rid of it. The crowns will grow again a lovely fresh green rather than the rather dark holly colour of the old leaves.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
You’re making me a little more reconciled to its inevitable return. The area is more than 15 square metres. We had just given up on it and then I got struck with the gardening bug and started to renovate the garden. This is the last bit to tackle and it’s so thrilling to see it all empty and so depressing to know it’s just waiting to come back. I am awaiting the delivery of some Japanese anemones, which I’d planned to put in, but have now read how invasive they are, so they will go into pots instead and I will just leave the plot empty until spring while I try to get on top of the vinca.
We had a lot of Vinca major here when we moved in ... we now confine it to the area around the roots of the big ash tree (the small patch we call 'The Wilderness' )... we just turned the tables on it, encroaching into its space by digging over it's 'boundary' and forcing it to retreat by couple of feet per year ... whenever it sends out those long whippy runners (usually sometime around now) chop them off . When we got to the area where the tree roots were too many to dig the area over we decided that was the area we would designate for the Vinca. Give it a mulch occasionally, and a bit of a feed once every three years or so and the lovely blue flowers will shine out on a grim day and make you smile.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Gosh, I'd love to be made to smile by it. It has enjoyed the 25 years we have lived here (we didn't plant it) in a wilderness of its own, but unfortunately that wilderness is the very front of the front garden, under a listed tree which we cannot touch (and don't want to) and I desperately want to make something better from the plot. I have no gardening skills to speak of, although I am willing and able to learn, and there's a massive difference between a wilderness created artistically by someone like yourself, who knows what's what, and one created by me which is just a neglected mess! It's a sad irony that many plants one dearly loves have a short life, whilst the survivors have an apparently limitless lifespan, but that's Darwinism for you! I will try to eradicate it, but if that fails, I will treat it kindly, as you suggest, and make the best of it. Should I continue with my aim of leaving the plot bare until spring or, by accepting the inevitable, can I get on with the fun part of planting what I'm aiming to be a nice white shade garden?
There's relatively little that thrives in the dry shade under trees. Personally I don't find the white Anenome japonica Honorine Jobert particularly invasive, but it may be more thuggy in moister, richer conditions.
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
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Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.