Mazus planted between stepping stones

Mazus reptans blooming at Mountain Valley Farms

 Mazus reptans is a semi-evergreen perennial with light green foliage, pale lavender flowers, and can tolerate sun to part shade. Growing to  3” tall, mazus is a vigorous spreader requiring moist soil. Often planted in-between stepping stones, mazus is a stepable perennial ground cover tolerating light to moderate foot traffic.

Mazus is under used in the landscape not often found in your typical garden supply or big box store. Mountain Valley Farms does have mazus available on a regular basis both online and at the nursery for pick up.

If you have any questions of Mazus or any other plant material, please contact one of the horticulturalists at mountainvalley@bellsouth.net

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4" Mazus reptans

Mazus reptans– Semi-evergreen perennial, light green foliage, pale lavender flowers, sun to part shade, 3” tall, vigorous spreader, needs moist soil, zones 4-9, suggested spacing 8”

$1.60

Flats of Liriope Big Blue at Mountain Valley Farms

‘Big Blue’ Liriope is one of the most common of ground covers you will find gardening. Known for it’s evergreen green foliage and clumping growth habit, Liriope muscari ‘Big Blue’ is an excellent choice of ground cover for lining planting beds, driveways, and walkways. It can also be used planted in mass in a landscape bed, as a low growing filler plant under large shrubs and trees. Some of it’s attributes include:

• Evergreen foliage
• Low maintenance
• Violet or light blue flower in the summer
• Contains itself within a bed area as the clump gets larger but does not spread as it’s cousin Liriope spicata

Trying to determine “how many do I need” is dependant on how Liriope muscari is being used. If it is being used as a border, we recommend 1 plant every 6″ of linear feet. For example, if you had a 100′ driveway to line, you will need 200 plants.

6" Spacing for big blue liriope along a pathway or driveway

Dwarf mondo grass is one of the best ground covers. It can be used in many different ways. Many people who’s yard is too shady for turf grass find that dwarf mondo gives them the look of turf, can tollerate the shade and an added bonus, it does not need to be mowed! Dwarf mondo can also be used as a low growing filler plant in shade container gardens. Tollerant of many different soil types, including granite sand used as a stepping stone base, there really is no soil type it will not grow.

Dwarf mondo in flats at Mountian Valley Farms Cumming GA

Here are some bullet points for dwarf mondo:

Dwarf Mondo spacing guide

• dense shade to part sun
• low water requirement
• light to moderate foot traffic (step-able plant)
• no maintenance
• diverse soil types
• low growing to only 2-3″

To calculate how many you need, Mountain Valley Farms reccomends 4 plants per square foot of 6″ on center staggered (see image right). Therefore, if you have 100 square foot, you will need 400 plants. If you are using them as filler plants between stepping stones, follow this link to an article on Blue Star Creeper and follow the instructions on calculating for stepping stones.

If you have any questions, please contact one of the horticulturalist at mountainvalley@bellsouth.net

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4" Dwarf Mondo

Dwarf Mondo/Ophiopogon japonica ‘Nana’– Evergreen, short, dark green foliage, blue berries, 2-3” tall, sun to shade, spreads by stolons, drought tolerant, deer resistant, zones 7-10, suggested spacing 6

$1.60

Liriope spicata, creeping lily turf at Mountian Valley Farms

Liriope spicata or creeping lily turf is a great low maintenance ground cover. Like it’s cousin, Liriope muscari, Liriope spicata has green grass like foliage and flowers in the summer. However, the spicata is a spreader not a clump type grower. It will spread underground completely filling in the bed area. It is used primarily in locations that have a defined bed space such as parking lot islands or for erosion control on banks. If you are looking to create a border with the liriope, Liriope muscari would be a better option because it will not spread outside your border.

Space Liriope spicata staggered from 6 to 18" from center to center.

Spacing for Liriope spicata ranges from 6-18″. It really just depends on how much of a finished look you would like to achieve when planted. Mountain Valley Farms reccomends planting Liriope spicata in a staggered pattern (see image). Depending on your spacing, to achieve complete fill in, it could take as little as 2 growing seasons (spring growth) or as many as 4-5 years. If you have any questions, please contact one of the horticulturalist at mountainvalley@bellsouth.net . You can also find more information on all of our ground covers and perennial plants at in other blog articles and our website.

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4" Creeping Lily-turf, Liriope

Creeping Lily-turf/Liriope spicata– Evergreen foliage, pale lavender flower spikes, sun to shade, 10-16” tall, vigorous spreader, drought tolerant, zones 4-10, suggested spacing 12”

$1.60

Blue Star Creeper blooming at Mountain Valley Farms Cumming GA

I can’t say enough about Blue Star Creeper. This small, blue flowering ground cover is just what you need in a tight space. Often used as filler plants between stepping stones in garden pathways, Blue Star Creeper easily handles light to moderate foot traffic. In addition to light blue flowers in the spring, Blue Star Creeper is evergreen. The care could not be easier. Planted in moderate sunlight, 6 hours of morning to early afternoon or filtered light all day, all you need to do is make sure the roots stay moist. It can tollerate a wide range of soils including granite dust, often used as a base layer for stepping stones.

Blue Star Creeper planted between stepping stones

So how many do you need? Well as mentioned earlier, Blue Star Creeper is often used as filler plants between stepping stones. Mountain Valley Farms recommends planting no further than 6″ apart. A simple way of calculating for a long path, is to count how many plants will fit in 1 foot of your pathway for the entire width in several locations along the path, take an average, and then multiply by the total length of your path.  For example: if your path is 6 feet wide, count how many plants will fit in 1 foot of the path, 6 feet wide in 4 locations along the path. Keep in mind, large stones are often used at the end of the pathways so take your measurements along the interior of the path. If you come up with the following numbers: 15, 19, 21, 13; your average is 17 plants per 1 linear foot. If your path is 100 feet long, you will need approximately 1700 plants! Follow this link to see how to plant in mass.

If you have any questions or comments, please contact us at www.mvfarms.com 

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4" Bluestar Creeper

Blue Star Creeper/Laurentia fluviatilis– Semi-evergreen perennial, tiny green leaves form flat carpet, prolific tiny blue/white star-shaped flowers May-Sept, sun to part shade, 2” tall, spreading/mat forming, tolerates light foot traffice, needs moist soil, zones 6-9, suggested spacing 6”

$1.60

I just wanted to take a moment to let you know what new material we have now and coming up down the road. We have added the availablility today 4″ Holly Ferns, Cinnamon Ferns, Digitalis (foxglove) and Veronica GA Blue. In spring of 2012 we will have some new varieties of Hosta; June, Great Expectations, Blue Angel, Krousa Regal, and Wide Brim. We will also have new varieties of Heuchera available this winter and early spring; Caramel, Citronelle, and Miracle.

Holly Ferns are a great evergreen fern and Cinnamon Fern is a great deciduous fern. They are available for a limited time in 4″ containers. Either would be a great addition to your landscape. Digitalis or foxglove is one of the 1st bloomers in the spring usually around February or March. Beautiful tube shaped flowers with spotted throats would look good in a shadier landscape. Veronica GA Blue is an award winning perennial. Blue flowers cover a low growing, spreading perennial during the summer months.

And later this fall or next spring, we will have Hosta June. It’s a small yellow/gold center almost to the edge with a thin band of green on the margin. In addition, we will have Hosta Great Expectations, a large green margin with a yellow/gold center. Blue Angel is a larger blue foliage hosta. Krousa Regal is an upright vase shaped blue green hosta. Finnaly, Wide Brim Hosta is another variety we will have next spring. It is a large leaf variety with a thin yellow margin and a green center.

Finnaly, this winter and early spring we will have the following varieties of Heuchera| Caramel, a light orange to caramel color; citronelle, a bright yellow color; and miracle, a copper colored foliage. All are great colorful additions to your shade garden.

I hope you can use this information to plan your purchases for this upcoming season. Also , keep us in mind for Christmas gift ideas for those gardeners on your Christmas list!

Mass planting of Asiatic Jasmine at Mountain Valley Farms Cumming GA

One of the more popular ground covers, Asiatic Jasmine is a fantastic choice for a dense, evergreen ground cover. It has small green and bronze leaves with a growth habit of a small mounding shrub. Planted in mass, this evergreen ground cover will completely fill in an area without the problem of climbing up the tree or side of the building.

 Attributes for the Asiatic Jasmine include:

•  Evergreen foliage
  

  How to space Asiatic Jasmine

•  Non-invasive growth habit
•  Excellent bronze/purple fall color

How many would you need for your yard? Mountain Valley Farms recommends spacing of 6” from center to center of each plant, staggering your rows like a standard brick pattern. At 6” centers, each square foot will contain 4 plants. To figure the number of plants needed in your landscape, calculate your square footage and multiply by 4. For example: If you had 25 square feet to plant, you will need 100 plants (25’ x 4).

If you have any questions about Asiatic Jasmine or any other ground covers or perennials, please do not hesitate to contact us at mountainvalley@bellsouth.net for a quick response from one of the horticulturalits at Mountain Valley Farms.

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4" Asiatic Jasmine

Asiatic Jasmine/Trachelospermum asiaticum- dark broadleaf foliage, spreading ground cover to 3 foot, zones 7-10, suggested spacing 6"

$1.60

For everyone out there anxious for spring, I have good news. It’s just weeks away. Here in GA we have had a mild winter and the outlook is to have above average temperatures for the remaining weeks of winter. Although we like to have seasons, as growers we love to have the mild winters. Our production is moving right along and we should be in great shape for this spring.

What can you do in preparation for spring planting? As we get closer to that magical time of the year, develop a plan for your landscape. Being a perennial and ground cover grower, we of course recommend working into your landscape sustainable perennials that do not need to be replaced every year and ground covers that can be used as borders or as a mass planting. Mass plantings of perennials look best. In stead of planting 25 different plants in one area, consider planting 25 of one type or 12 + 13 of two types of perennials. They will really pop in the landscape. Things to consider when pairing plants includes flower color, bloom time, foliage contrasts, color contrast, height and width of plants as well as what plants you like.

Here is a photo of a recent landscape project one of our customers submited. It shows Carex ‘Evergold’ planted in mass as a border. Contrast of color and planting in mass really makes this new addition pop.

If you have photos of your perennial beds, please submit them to this blog. For questions and comments, either comment to this blog or visit our “Ask the Experts” section of the website.

Sunset at Mountain Valley Farms

The Popularity of Gardening in Atlanta

For the past 50 years, Atlanta has been known for its attractive landscapes. Local garden centers have grown in popularity during this time providing information and interesting plant choices to the general public leading to the rise of the avid do-it yourself gardener. The large box stores, seeing this rise in gardening interest, have devoted much of their resources to grab a piece of the landscape pie. Many of these box stores’ largest sales department is the Gardening Department. So why do we Atlantans love our gardens so much? The popularity of gardening in Atlanta is due, but not limited to weather, personal therapy, and the desire to beautify ones surroundings.

Weather in Atlanta has a great deal to do with the popularity of gardening in Atlanta. I love the weather here. We acutally have seasons that are not too hard on people or plants. Our winters are usually mild and we can plant all year long. Our summers are hot and humid, but it’s not a detriment to planting. I think of our neighbors to the North and the hard winters they have. I can’t imagine being kept out of the landscape from November to April. Half the year lost to weather!

Another reason for the popularity of gardening in Atlanta is it’s theraputic effects on those who participate. There is something to be said for leaving your technology in the house and taking some time to recharge the batteries in the garden. Trees, shrubs, perennial flowers, the birds chirping, the feel of the grass under your feet, and yes the occasional use of power tools can be very theraputic in todays world. Just the simple fact of enjoying God’s creation is reason enough to enjoy our gardening.

My final thought on why gardening has become so popular here in Atlanta, is that I think it’s hard-wired into each of us to beautify our surroundings. Once we see how nice landscapes can look, with such little effort, we want nice looking landscapes everywhere in daily lives. At home, at the office, along the interstates and shopping centers we desire to surround ourselves with as much beauty as we can. We are willing to pay for such beauty because it just appeals to our core.

I would love to hear your thoughts as to why you enjoy your gardens.

I had a conversation with a good friend last week. We were talking about our work and I commented that we we getting busy as fall approached. This was surprising to him. Why was a nursery getting busy in the fall? People work in their yards during the spring and summer he told me. He thought we would be winding down our season when in fact we are ramping up for the fall season. I explained to him the reasons and thought I would share with you also because if he thought this, perhaps others think this as well.

In the Southeast United States, established plants do thrive in spring and summer. The key for their success is they have established a deep and vibrant root system. Planting in the spring and summer is common, but it takes much more care and water that 1st summer for the plant to grow and get established. The reason, its hot in the summer! However, planting in September or October gives the plant the maximum time to establish a root system before it gets hot again in the summer. For example, planting October 1st will give you 8 months of root development before June 1st and all that heat.

What about the winter? No worries, ground temperature in the Southeast United States rarely gets cold enough to inhibit root development. Your plants will continue getting established in you garden all winter long.

I hope this encourages you to get those gardens into shape this fall. You will be very glad you did next spring and summer.