I'd like to grow a plant to cover my fence. What are some suggestions for plants that can climb widely and are low maintenance and pleasant on the eyes?
Honeysuckle is a prolific grower if the fence is in full sun. However, it will completely cover your fence, never to be seen again. This is fine, if you don't mind not seeding your fence. Try for a native variety. Passionflower is nice as well and although prolific, slightly less-so than honeysuckle. It has pretty foliage. It's can be tender in winters so you want to make sure you're in zone 6 or warmer. A fun plant to grow along a fence if you want to have your fence covered and eat it too: pole beans (there are many types but make sure they're climbers as some are 'bush' beans). Types include green and lima. You can also try miniature gourds, cucumbers (gherkins are fun) and even larger gourds.Sweet Autumn Clematis is prolific and blooms white in the fall. It's the most abundant grower of the clematis'. You may want to also include clematis 'Jackmanii'.Morning glories are nice and bloom all summer long but the seeds will spread this plant in other places throughout your yard, so better be committed to them before planting.Avoid wisteria and trumpet vine. Once established, they will probably be waaay to heavy for the fence and cause it to collapse.
What are the best low maintenance house plants for warm climates?
The outdoor climate isn’t very much of a factor when considering indoor plants. The reason is that, by definition, “indoors” describes a warm environment. Now, while it’s true that for some people, the indoor temperature may be in the 60’sF (15C), up to the 90’s F (32C), that variation is perfectly acceptable to house plants, which are by nature tropical shade plants. As long as the indoor temperature doesn’t fall below 40F (4.5C), the plants will be good.What is important is the amount of light the indoor environment gets. That’s what determines what are the best house plants to use - best meaning easiest to care for while living the longest and looking the best. Marlie Graves's answer to How much light do houseplants need?So to know what would be the best low maintenance house plants for you, I would need to know the light level or levels in your home.For low light areas, try snake plant, pothos, Chinese evergreen, corn plant, parlor palm. Add a little more light, (the lower light plants will do well in higher light, but the higher light ones won’t work in lower light spots,) you could add to the above group hoya, philodendron, peace lily, Janet Craig, bamboo palm. Moving on up to medium light, you could add pachyra, dragon tree, ponytail palm, ficus alii, areca palm, kentia palm, dwarf umbrella tree; with more light you might use fiddle leaf fig, umbrella tree; with high light, you could add ficus benjamina, lady palm, fishtail palm. There are others, but those are what pop into my mind as probably the easiest for you to find.
What are some low-growing ground cover plants to effectively replace a lawn?
Jan and Maureen gave terrific answers so no point covering the same ideas again, other than to say I second the motion. I'm a huge fan of ground covers and wouldn't mow at all if I had the time and money to develop and maintain a ground cover lawn.A couple of things to be aware of:Ground covers will be different heights and will change seasonally as well. Take Bugleweed for instance - most of the year it lays almost flat on the ground. But when in bloom, the florets shoot up as much as eight inches high.The other consideration is that there will be weeds. My side yard is densely covered in three varieties of moss. Absolutely charming. But we still have to mow it because grass and other tall weeds manage to live among the clumps of moss. I long to have a free month to dig all those weeds out so my moss will be perfect.Things like Ivy and pachysandra will nearly eliminate the need for weeding, but they will also take over the world if given a chance and will eventually kill any tree the are allowed to climb. .I think one of the most creative no-mow yards I've seen was a combination of various fairly invasive covers of Ivy, pacysandra, periwinkle and various flowers planted right into the midst of them all, with slate stepping stone paths meandering throughout. There were also tons of spring bulbs so that the lawn changed with the season.
What's the best ground cover to plant to stop weeds from growing?
It really depends on how you want your garden to look. Mulch is the way to go but you can put down gravel to stop weeds (so long as you dig up a few inches, lay some sand and stamp down everything.Most people use pine bark mulch, around three inches, to stop weeds and give things a clean look. The mulch will break down, dust will blow in and you will have weeds growing in the mulch.Some people use fabric to block out weeds but you still have the same issue with breakdown and blown in dirt leaving you with no choice but to pull the fabric up.If you don’t care about aesthetics, the best ground cover I have used was grass clippings. They are free every time you cut the grass and the smell of cut grass attracts bug eaters to keeps the pests away.
Any ideas for low cost and low maintenance landscaping in Michigan?
How about using a hard core killer on the trumpet vine to get rid of it. That will work on the vine. As far as keeping weeds out, use newspaper wetted down to keep in place and then a light covering of mulch over that. As far as bushes, try something like a lilac bush that will add color as well as you can trim into a low tree rather than a bush as it grows. Any bush will really do for now but go for some of the flowering ones. We have a mock orange bush that is overgrown but puts out the most fragrant flowers around the end of june. You can also do something like a Bleeding heart plant that grows back every year but when they get more established they get bigger but die back every fall unlike a bush. Think of the bushes as you get them that you will be able to take care of them since you are starting from new. Also most bushes are not going to grow that much per year until they are older as well so by the time they are established you should have the time to trim them. Try planting some cheap rose bushes as well, that will brighten up your yard also. A nice groundcover is the ajuga plant or bugleweed. It can take some walking on and you don't have to mow it. Pots are great and can be kept light to be able to move by using the foam peanuts in the bottom under the soil. Use a good soil mix like Miracle grow to help keep moisture in and feed the plants in the pots. Keep your yard small for now so that it doesn't get hard and then when the kids get older you can take on a new garden option each year. I know as I have kids 10, 9 and 6 and started trying to do too much when the kids were too young. Hope this helps you!!
What are some lawn substitute ground cover plants suitable for the SF Bay Area?
Micro Clover would be a great option! Requires very little maintenance and handles drought and heat very well. Here's a blog post with info on Micro Clover.Kick Gas Lawn CareIf you can't find the seeds locally you can order them online.Hope this helps :)
What fast growing ground cover should I use?
there is a company that specializes in just the type of thing you are looking for called steppables. their site gives a lot of suggestions for walkable groundcovers, some traditional and some new to the market. http://www.stepables.com/ i have barren strawberry and potentilla mixed with wild violets in an large area that is very walkable and has a lot of great mud-pie ingredients to boot! have fun with it!
What are alternative ground cover options to consider instead of a lawn that are drought resistant, can be grown with minimum maintenance in a hot and arid climate and also be comfortable to walk on/lie on?
Hi,Thanks for the ask to answer!Not sure about their availability in your area, but look for these,Although some are drought tolerant- most will look better with some irrigation.Archer's Thyme:bressingham thyme:chamomile nobile t.Artemesia, or wormwoodDymondia silver carpet:Hope this helps!