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Help with selecting plants for my shady lawn/meadow

 
pollinator
Posts: 701
Location: Sierra Nevada Foothills, Zone 7b
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Hi everybody,

Happy Thanksgiving!

I have X Goals:

#1. Looking to have a lawnish area in my "backyard" for a gathering space. It's about 2500 sqft.

#2 Looking to be able to mow/chop all  down for compost a few times a year. I have next to zero greens available for my compost aside from the end of season stuff out of my small garden.

#3 I'd like it to be diverse. Meadow  > lawn.

#3 I'd like it to be hardy. It's cold and dark there in the winter and hot as hell in the summer. Close to the worst soil imaginable. Zone 7b.

Any help would be appreciated. I have a source for local wildflowers to intersperse but I need some help with the bulk.

Thanks!
 
steward
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Dan, I have looked at your post several times in the last 3 days while it has been in the "zero replies".

I just don't see a solution.

Meadows are not usually shady so what grows in a meadow most likely will not grow for you.

Though meadows are diverse in that many of them have lots of different plants.

I could name some plants that like shade but might not like to be chopped and dropped several times a year.

What grows in your yard now?  What weeds do you have?

#1. Looking to have a lawnish area in my "backyard" for a gathering space. It's about 2500 sqft.



For this area, I would go with the native grass in your area.  If you having a "gathering" your guests probably might prefer a traditional lawn rather than lots of different plants.
 
Dan Fish
pollinator
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Location: Sierra Nevada Foothills, Zone 7b
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I think you are right...

Nothing really grows in the yard now, just because it was scraped down to subsoil before we bought the place. But there are weeds in the area for sure. Nothing too good for a "lawn" unfortunately.

But really I think the part about guests and a weed farm makes the most sense. I am gonna have to think on this.
 
master steward
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Dan Fish wrote:Nothing really grows in the yard now, just because it was scraped down to subsoil before we bought the place. But there are weeds in the area for sure. Nothing too good for a "lawn" unfortunately.
But really I think the part about guests and a weed farm makes the most sense. I am gonna have to think on this.

It sounds like your "dirt" has been abused - badly!
1. Have your heard of worm tubes?  You dig a post-hole sort of hole 1 to 3 feet deep (deep is good, but in my rocky subsoil/glacial remnants, 1 foot is often as good as it gets) and then fill it with all sorts of goodies that worms like - weeds, woodchips, biochar, compost - in an effort to give worms a home and hope that they'll spread their poop all around the tube.
2. I would encourage  anything that will grow so you can chop and drop it. Weeds that you can harvest seed heads from, weeds that you can transplant and let spread, weeds that are known for harvesting certain minerals (bracken accumulates potassium for example, and it's not too hard in my climate to eliminate once it's done its job).

My point is, that if you want your grass to do well, step one is to give it a good foundation of decent soil. I personally still wouldn't grow it as a mono-culture. I have English daisies, dandelion and its relatives, crocus for spring colour, and numerous other plants and fungi in my lawn areas. I don't pay enough attention to know what some of the shade tolerant ones are called, and they've mostly died back due to our heavy rain, but I'd check out local road-sides and vacant lots to get ideas from.
 
Dan Fish
pollinator
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Thanks Jay,

I appreciate all the solid advice!
 
Jay Angler
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You're welcome, Dan! If you want another questionable suggestion... when we moved to our current home, the lawn over our septic tank suffered badly in the seasonal drought and had been sustained on far more water than I had the patience to give it.

From the start - I'd already adjusted my lawn mower with new holes and larger wheels so it cut at 3 inches (we eventually went to 4 inches but that required a friend to weld on a reinforcing plate.) It's amazing how much better 4 inches shades and protects the soil, but it looks more like a shag rug than a golf course and some people can't handle that. However, it's not too tall to still be "lawn" that can be used for sunbathing on.

However, later on it got a great boost from my "Front Lawn Fertilization Committee" - 2 ducks and a drake in a 4x8' lightweight, bottomless shelter that moved in an orderly pattern around and around that lawn for the entire growing season. They were rescue birds, but they laid fine and had a happy life here. They were too skittish to free-range and were given both some chicken feed and soaked wheat to supplement the grass and bugs, and Eloise, a tiny runner duck was thrilled to eat the ginormous West Coast slugs that I was sure would choke her, and the duckweed the former owners ornamental pond grew. It's amazing how interested the local worms are in fresh duck shit. I saw far more worm castings on the surface of the soil after the ducks came to live here. The key to doing this well is to build a *really* lightweight shelter. Most "portable" shelters I see, end up stationary because they're just too much trouble to move.
 
pollinator
Posts: 221
Location: South Shore of Lake Superior
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You couldn't do a "wall-to-wall carpeting" type of lawn with either of these, but here a couple of grasses that should do well in those conditions, can be whacked down for compost (once a year at least) and are commercially available.  
https://calscape.org/Melica-imperfecta-(Small-Flowered-Melica)
or
https://calscape.org/Melica-californica-()

This looks like an awesome little ground cover, if it'll work in your location - not going to produce compost material but looks like it asks very little of you once established and could be nice to fill in among things that do grow taller that you want to chop down.
https://calscape.org/search/loc-California/Ceanothus-prostratus-(Pinemat)?srchcr=sc61a43002d9c19
 
Marisa Lee
pollinator
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Hmm, okay. I guess those links don't work, but you can see the names of the plants within the link text. Melica imperfecta, Melica californica, and Ceanothus prostratus.
 
pollinator
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Hello,

I will start you off with your first plant then,

Desert vetch!

who`s next?

Regards,
Alex
 
Dan Fish
pollinator
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Keep 'em coming, hahaha.

I don't know why those links don't work. I duckduckgo'd (hahaha I am making it a thing...) melica and the first site was calscape. Very cool suggestions! I am leaning strongly towards at least growing these grasses on a test basis.

I didn't find desert vetch but I did find "Deseret milk-vetch" (Astragalus desereticus). Same plant?

Oh, and also Jay, a chicken or duck tractor is my dream. But we just have so much predator pressure right now that I have to get some other things established first. Just got 2 beautiful pups a few weeks ago that ought to help. Dogs I can keep out of the birds, it's the bears and lions and all the rest I worry about. I think our road has lost 200 birds of all kinds in the last year.
 
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What does your precipitation/irrigation situation look like? Sierra foothills are pretty dry in the summer, right?

Cover crop mixes are my favorite way to throw a hundred things at a tricky plot of land and see what sticks. I like green cover's mixes for this: https://greencover.com/shop-category/mix/
 
Dan Fish
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Yep, super dry.

 
Alex Mowbray
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Dan Fish wrote:Keep 'em coming, hahaha.

I don't know why those links don't work. I duckduckgo'd (hahaha I am making it a thing...) melica and the first site was calscape. Very cool suggestions! I am leaning strongly towards at least growing these grasses on a test basis.

I didn't find desert vetch but I did find "Deseret milk-vetch" (Astragalus desereticus). Same plant?

Oh, and also Jay, a chicken or duck tractor is my dream. But we just have so much predator pressure right now that I have to get some other things established first. Just got 2 beautiful pups a few weeks ago that ought to help. Dogs I can keep out of the birds, it's the bears and lions and all the rest I worry about. I think our road has lost 200 birds of all kinds in the last year.



I gave a general answer many varieties exist, you mentioned one above. https://nvnps.org/

I found a website called the Nevada native plant society.

Where I quickly found many options!

It seams to have alot of knowledge about plants of your area maybe worth a look!

 
pioneer
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Larner seeds has a shady wildflower mix of western natives. They also sell a lot of different species on their website.

Theodore Payne foundation is based in southern California, so it has a lot of good drought tolerant species.

I like browsing seed stores for organizations that specialize in native plants, they help me learn about species I wouldn't otherwise hear about.

A species you might consider is Fragaria chiloensis (wild pacific strawberries). It does pretty well in shade and is fairly drought tolerant, although it might not be able to handle being as inland as you are. I don't know where you would buy it, though.

Plants in shade tend to grow slower, so chopping and dropping multiple times a year might not work.

 
Posts: 17
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I hope your endeavors go well!

We have been hoarding cardboard (well I have, my wife must think I'm going to build the 4th pig house for the big bad wolf) and The "Plan" is to cover the lawn we have full of weeds in the next week or so, with cardboard after we mow. From what I gather it's going to take about 3 to 4 weeks to "kill" the grass and then set up for seeding. Something something 50 pound bag of "rice hulls" mixed in with the native seeds I bought and hopefully we can get ourselves a little bee meadow. I personally want to plant native plants that I can forage. I think the joys of drying the flowers outside for tea later are absolutely worth the time it's going to take to get it online. My goal is to have something to write about in three months.

My only issue is probably the same one you have. My front lawn (where the magic is taking place) is COVERED with an olive tree and the looming addition my neighbor constructed. So there isn't much sunlight to be had. I think a solution for me is to maybe trim the tree a bit in key spots? without hurting it of course? enough to get the sunlight through for the first year. I plan to really pay attention to the sunlight patterns and I might just have to bite the bullet and plant only shade-loving plants. Which shouldn't be too big of a deal. I have a spot in the backyard for the sunny sun loving ones I guess.

Thank you for reading this ramble.
 
Jøhn Kaltenbrüner
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Malek Beitinjan wrote:Larner seeds has a shady wildflower mix of western natives. They also sell a lot of different species on their website.

Theodore Payne foundation is based in southern California, so it has a lot of good drought tolerant species.

I like browsing seed stores for organizations that specialize in native plants, they help me learn about species I wouldn't otherwise hear about.

A species you might consider is Fragaria chiloensis (wild pacific strawberries). It does pretty well in shade and is fairly drought tolerant, although it might not be able to handle being as inland as you are. I don't know where you would buy it, though.

Plants in shade tend to grow slower, so chopping and dropping multiple times a year might not work.



Your input is a literal goldmine. I've been looking into "Fragaria chiloensis" and I think That's going to be a very likely addition to our place. Thank you!
 
Dan Fish
pollinator
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Thanks for sharing your ideas John. I still haven't even started on mine... But, there are a lot more weeds growing there than in previous years so I have hope! I look forward to your 3-month update!
 
gardener
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Dan Fish wrote:Keep 'em coming, hahaha.

Oh, and also Jay, a chicken or duck tractor is my dream. But we just have so much predator pressure right now that I have to get some other things established first. Just got 2 beautiful pups a few weeks ago that ought to help. Dogs I can keep out of the birds, it's the bears and lions and all the rest I worry about. I think our road has lost 200 birds of all kinds in the last year.



Our ducks has a baby pool instead of a pond. The water from that pond is a great fertilizer, so that might work too. The pool is small enough that it’s easy to deal with, but still large enough for our ducks to have fun.
 
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