en masse

For the fifteenth or sixteenth time, I've lost count, I just re-landscaped the bed around my mailbox. I have tried everything from bulbs, annuals, perennials, shrubs, ground cover, you name it. Baring a tree, I've worked with every possible combination. The area is precarious due to my neighbor's Maple which loves it every time I amend the soil. With very dappled light and soil filled with tree roots, I am perpetually in search of the perfect plant to serve as one of the first introductions to our property. This week inspiration smacked me right in the face. I did my first installation this week for a friend. It was a small bed that enveloped two trees and was to serve as a sort of "natural area." While there I started to look around her property. She had a lot of mature plantings as they had lived there the better part of 30 years. It was an eclectic mix but reflected her personality beautifully. What I found most striking was a bed roughly 10' x 2' running beside her driveway that was nothing but liriope punctuated by a large sculptural boulder. Liriope. Monkey grass used in an innovative way. When I first moved here it became apparent that one of the staples of southern landscaping along with azaleas and pine needles for mulch, was using monkey grass to outline beds, or trees, or anything. A neat winding row of monkey grass instead of edging. But to use this very tolerant ground cover, en masse, and intentionally blew me away. I began running through my own landscape on the ride home and it hit me-the mailbox. With a little care the first few years, this will soon fill in. The beauty of this plant is that it is a spreader and requires little more than a haircut in early spring. It will produce purple flower spikes in summer which turn to black berries in the fall. So remember to look around you, inspiration can come from anywhere. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery I always say! Thank you Mieke.