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sarah_heiss61

Ajuga as a yard alternative???

4 years ago

Should I use ajuga (bungle weed) as a yard alternative in my full shade back yard?

Have you? If so, could you share pictures.
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I bought my first house a few years ago in the winter in zone 5 New England. Rookie mistake I didn’t consider the dense shade the trees would create.

The yard in the summer is full shade with a slight slope. The dirt is silty. There are huge patches of dirt. Where there is coverage it is thin grass, moss, and creeping Charlie that doesn’t come in for the first month of two of the season. The yard was/is ugly and my kids tracked a ton of dirt into my house.

I have tried to plant dense shade grass multiple summers with no success after the initial summer.

Last year, I decided to give up on grass and create rock gardens to distract from the dirt patches and reduce the dirt coming into my house. It’s worked! (Anywhere there is currently rock in the pictures means there used to be plain dirt- there are more dirt patches in the yard, but I don’t have pics posted), but the soil is so poor even as I slow runoff and amend, only the hostas have thrived. I planted a some patch of ajuga last fall…. And apparently it loves these conditions. It completely filled the garden space by the tree. It is the first plant to love these conditions.

It’s important to know that I don’t care about having a neat grass yard. I just need dirt coverage.

Question: If the ajuga is happy and I need a ground cover, should I let it take over as a ground cover?

Pros: it’s happy, rapid spreading, soft, non-toxic, with stand up to foot traffic, and evergreen.

Cons: once it starts it won’t stop if I don’t like it.

there is another way - I’ll tell you in the comments
no- dirt is better than ajuga
yes - let the ajuga take over

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