There is a small strip of earth between my house and the cement surrounding the pool. It’s full of rocks right now, which I don’t care for at all. Weeds grow in the gaps and it looks unkempt.
I’ve been thinking a lot about what plants I could put there. They need to tolerate full shade, and they need to be kind of tough – we don’t get much rain here.
I have a patchouli plant that has gone through two winters now, and it’s looking pretty good. It wouldn’t be good for the whole area though. It’s too tall.
I think houseplants might be just the thing. They’re generally pretty tough, since they grow in difficult conditions, and winters here are warm enough that they could survive outside. Syngoniums were my first thought. They are vines, and grow pretty vigorously. Then I saw a Chinese evergreen in the store, and thought maybe their bright colors would bring some color to the area. And yesterday, on a whim, I got some spikemoss. It’s low and fuzzy and a fresh green color.
I planted them all yesterday. We’ll see how they do over the winter:
Oh, that will be perfect! A little bit of joy and life to tend to. 🙂