We have been working on a new house in Kent, CT . The goal of my clients was to create a landscape that would blend in and compliment the surrounding landscape. When it came to their backyard, a substitute for the typical lawn was evident. The plan was to look what was currently on the forest edge and expand on that. The typical lawn was not important to my clients, so we substituted the maintenance of a lawn for ferns. A mass of Hayscented Fern were planted along with a handful of native, flowering shrubs to give this backyard a natural feel that will be low maintenance. As this fern installation fills in, it will hopefully look like it was always there.
Here is another natural fern planting we installed in a similar fashion, taken about 5 years after installation. In my opinion, Hay Scented Fern isn’t the prettiest native fern but is a great choice for covering ground. This fern, once established, takes off and does a reasonable job at controlling the ground plane from invading plants.
