Hypericum - St. John's Wort, Aaron's Beard, Gold Flower

[piano88]

It's January in Upstate New York and spring is only 3 months away. So, I need a diversion.

I am planning to expand ground cover in our backyard with hypericum. Would prefer never to mow a lawn again! So far this winter, the deer have not touched the bushes I planted last spring, and the beautiful yellow flowers bloomed twice last year; once during the summer and again in early fall.

 

[Goonie]

Our St. John's Wort bloomed, and bloomed, and bloomed some more this past year! It's a nice almost no-maintenance plant that keeps looking pretty good all season long.

I love plants that require very little care, and/or thrive on neglect! That's why I grow mostly native plants...they've survived on their own in nature, so they should survive fairly well on their own in my gardens! Ha!

First day of Spring is now only 61 days away!!! WooHoo!!!

 

[Orchidflower]

There was an old hippie-type/surfer dude who grew native Texas plants in his yard in Bellaire/Houston. Won alot of awards for it, too, and it was all "free."
He got his start doing this, heads up Hawaiians!, by bringing back some cuttings of native Hawaiian plants from his trip there and the hobby just took off from there.
Used to love going by his overgrown yard with his 2 foot plantings as it was so pretty.

 

[TromboneAl]

I'm not much of a gardener, but the two ground covers I like best are rosemary and heather. The rosemary has to be cut back now and then, but I have heather plants that have required zero maintenance, and have done well (zone 17).

 

[yakers]

Low maintenance, native plants:

 

[Goonie]

Low maintenance, native plants:

That's awesome landscaping, yakers!!! I REALLY like it!!!

 

[bruce1]

Not too much into ground cover but the native (Southern Ontario) seed mix I put into the flower bed last year was the best no work planting I ever did. More this year.

 

[Orchidflower]

TromboneAl's yard must smell divine! Wow!

 

[Lsbcal]

For spots of color, Salvia is a nice choice. Several varieties too and they can be low maintenance. Deer don't like some but like others .

 

[Urchina]

I'm getting to be a big fan of the Mexican feather grass, and of Mexican Sage (salvia leucanthus). The sage is tender, won't stand a hard freeze, but it's lovely, and the feather grass is stunning when backlit by the setting sun (plant it on the west side of the garden for this effect).

 

[Orchidflower]

Deer just love Portulaca and Moss Rose, which is such a beautiful ground cover with a wide variety of color. Trust me...they love it..and not in a good way either. They see those plants and they'll be pulled up the next day!

 

[Lsbcal]

I've had a few instances where deer stayed away from something they might have gone after because of some smelly plant right near it. They were eating the lantana but when a lavendar was planted by it they didn't eat the lantana. Ditto for planting flowering garlic next to salvia.