A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion Landscape trials and triumphs Gardening in the Shade help with shade ground cover

I live on a ravine with lots of shade and erosion. I need a good ground cover that tolerates clay soil, little sun and will help with the erosion. I live in zone 5. I would love any suggestions. Most of my backyard has moss where grass should be!

I like Ajuga, Bugleweed. I plant it here in zone 4/5 on shady banks and it spreads nicely, kinda like strawberries with runners and daughters. It blooms the most beautiful shade of royal blue in the mid/late spring.

Hi, and a hearty welcome, INGardener! Sounds like a good location for lily-of-the-valley and wild violets:

Aegopodium podagraria 'Variegatum' Bishop's weed; Snow-on-the-mountain
Alchemilla erythropoda Lady's Mantle, Dwarf
Asarum canadense Wild Ginger
Asarum virginica (Hexastylis) Virginia Heartleaf
Asplenium ebenoides Dragon Tail Fern
Asplenium trichomanes Maidenhair Spleenwort
Pigsqueak
Cornus canadensis Bunchberry
Corydalis 'Berry Exciting' Corydalis
Cymbalaria muralis Kenilworth Ivy
Epimedium g. 'Lilafee' Barrenwort
Galium odoratum Sweet Woodruff

for your zone try pachysandra or vinca minor

I have tried and tried to get lily-of-the-valley started and just can't

Here's a cute little native flourishing
in our backyard at the foot of a maple tree,
Trout lily, aka Dogtooth Violet. Violets and
lily-of-the-valley will soon follow:

I've been looking for LOTV. Any great buys on where to get from? Also - does it spread pretty fast over the years?

It's prolific to the point of invasive.

If you can't find them locally, this picture
links to a mailorder source I found on Google
which offers them in lots of 100:

I bought 10 LOTV roots at WalMart.. I haven't started them yet.. waiting til threat of frost is gone.. soon.. I hope.

my lotv are only in partial shade and they multiplied well last year. I got a set of them from a friend here on line. So you might want to check the seed and cutting exchange. My soil in that area has a high sand content which may have aided in their rapid expansion.

But don't add sand to clay you'll end up with cement. Mix in 50 percent compost instead. The results will be amazing. It really loosens up the soil well. After that you can add sand if you need to.