Very durable plant for shady yard areas and dogs

I have been gradually putting down brick all throughout the back yard in attempt to make it 'barefoot' friendly, easy to 'clean up dog doo' and to decrease dirt/dust... as well as make the place look less messy and disorganized. I would like to grow something durable along the planter boxes and brick edges in areas like this that will get almost no direct sun ever. Moss doesnt' grow well here (summers kill it off). I need something with strong roots, so the dogs will be less like to dig it up (though some digging can't be avoided). I would prefer not to use grass, but if that's all that will work, I will try it out (grass was what was down, but pretty invasive. But at least survived, though never looked great. It rarely freezes here, but can get very hot (over 110 frequently). Any suggestions?

How about dwarf ophiopogon...very neat looking .. dogs can walk on it (and everything else).

I would put the giant or regular mondo grass there so it can fall over and soften the edges of the path. Of course it's a matter of aesthetics. I agree that it's what to put down. Lilirope is another alternative. And Japanese Forest Grass would be wonderful too although it's deciduous and might fall too much into the path. It grows to about 18" tall and wide. Don't buy the black mondo though. I find it very hard to get to grow at all. Here's the hakone grass. My dogs do like to eat it. Don't ask me why.
http://www.rainyside.com/features/plant_gallery/grasses/Hakonechloa_macraAureola.html
The other colorations are beautiful too.

Classy groundcovers has the mondo in large quantities at good prices although you can get it in flats at local nurseries
http://classygroundcovers.com/.



This message was edited Oct 20, 2006 4:01 PM

yes, I agree the longer ophiopogon would soften the edges....but the hakon grass would be too long....my thinking was that eventually the grass will go on between the bricks and the shorter would be something you could walk on like regular grass.

good ideas... thanks!

I was looking at your succulants and wondering if Hens and chickens wouldn't fill that bare space in nicely. My dogs don't mess with it and it's easy to maintain once established. it's will come over the edges of the brick but if it encroaches too much you can just pull off the extra and share with someone :)

Liriope was the first thing that came to mind for me too. You could even alternate with some variegated or use all variegated to brighten it up since you said it was pretty dense shade. Another thought might be sweet woodruff. It does get small flowers.

sweet woodruff would cover the bricks in three months

LOL Whoops! It doesn't here. :)

We have two large dogs (and two small ones), and NOTHING survives under the feet of the big dogs. They managed to kill off a lot of ground ivy, and that is really saying something. In fact, nothing grows in the path they run in, and it is a fairly large path.

I have the same problem. Hardly anything grows...except the cast iron close to the house and around a tree...and it's struggling too. Oh and the tall Mexican petunias get trampled but they keep popping up trying and a little monkey grass here and there. Long as it's pretty close to the fence she leaves it alone. I had beautiful ferns growing over there at one time. Occasionally, I still see one here and there amongst the holes she digs. I started building a greenhouse and reclaimed part of that yard in the last couple weeks. I might reclaim some more ... do some raised fenced beds and narrow her down to the brick path like yours palmbob.

I have my dogs on an electric fence and that is the only way I can have ANYTHING. They are kind of in a maze..LOL

Something else I've noticed is that if she SEES me digging a hole to plant something it's dug up the next time I look so I have tried to be sneaky when planting things along the fence. Could be that she wants to help or she might be curious to see what I have "buried"...?

IMHO I like the black mondo grass. It's slow growing but I haven't had a problem with it other than that. I think it would look great against your bricks.

Jeri

I like that also...it is expensive and a long wait to fill in however.