Sorry, but planting in between stones is beautiful
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I am in the deep south/Houston zone 9 a/b
I studied this and studied plants for placing between stones. Did not find anything that drew my eye or could handle the climate
I bought a Dichondra Silver/put in a pot
The plant cascaded over the tall pot and began to cover the ground. Loved it/the color,
Then I left the other stones open and seeds from deep blue lobellia and also purple/white Sweet alyssum fell into the path/sprouted and the entire scene was lovely.
None of it was accomplished by me. There is another Hand in my yard.
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Slightly off-topic, but tomorrow morning I get my cervical disc replacement surgery, thanks to this patio. I don’t regret it (yet), but would definitely advise anyone else who decides to do something similar to keep good posture when pounding with the tamper and mallet, and hauling the stones back and forth!
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Best of luck to you @swincher. I’m the one who commented that I had a laminectomy done within 6 months of doing my patio with similar stones. That was about a year ago. I say ditto to everything you have said.
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I will be re-working mine slightly to accommodate more seating around the fire ring this spring. I’ll keep these words of caution in mind.
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You might try some wood sorrel in the lower trampled areas… around the edges. It is my fav wild edible “green weed” dainty clover like yellow flowers and sharp spicey flavor.
You can probably find some growing nearby and transplant.
Good luck !
TNHunter
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Great suggestion! I used to love grazing on wood sorrel on hikes when I lived out east, but oddly I don’t recall seeing it anywhere since I moved to Seattle. I wonder if its range stops at the Cascades or something.
edit: I didn’t realize there are actually a few different species, with the “creeping” one being probably best for this usage:
This is the “common” one:
https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/plant-of-the-week/oxalis_stricta.shtml
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If your garden center has OXALIS … even the purpleaf beauties…and they’re hardy outdoors in your ‘neck of the woods’ you can use them…no need to hunt the world over for “wood sorrell”.
Are they just as tasty/edible? I know some species have higher levels of oxalic acid so can get toxic in small amounts, but having trouble figuring out which ones have the lowest levels
I’ve never tried eating more than a couple dozen at any once time, so I do not know at what level would be ‘too much’…but a couple for a snack or a salad garnish I’ve done
numerous occasions over 50-something years.
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Does anyone recognize this plant? I found it growing on a friend’s gravel driveway in the fall and put it in the cracks on my patio, just noticed today that it’s flowering:
Seems pretty happy so far. I’ve also planted two types of creeping thyme, one type of elfin thyme, and rupturewort, in addition to transplanting many types of grass and all sorts of interesting looking volunteers, like this one (also flowering):
Thanks again for all the suggestions and input! I’m sure I’ll revisit this thread regularly as I try to fill all the cracks with desirable stuff and remove any difficult weeds.
sedum for the first pic.
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nice looking patio! and cool idea to plant things you want in the cracks instead of waiting for things you don’t want to show up.
I hope your back feels better now.
When reading the topic i could think of
-creeping thyme. Lots of people have already suggested that. There is also a smaller orange/citrus thyme that might be nice.
-Purslane (i think the 3e and 4th picture actually are purslane. Probably take the winter purslane.
-some types of moss
-somthing from the Saxifraga - Wikipedia family
-Chamaemelum nobile - Wikipedia
-a super small leaved perrenial clover (turf clover micro clover. aberace S184 etc)
-https://www.google.com/search?q=Asplenium+trichomanes&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved= for the edgews. I find it really beautiful. but it can’t handle trafic so maybe plant at the edges
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I was thinking about suggesting it. I have it growing in multiple places. It does need water, but is lush and self spreading. It turns a beautiful gold in the fall.
It sure does look similar, thanks for the suggestion. Looks like there are quite a few similar looking species in Claytonia, too, including in this region and where the crushed rock and patio stones were likely quarried. So it could be a relative, or maybe just C. perfoliata barely surviving getting trampled regularly. I may transplant it to a crack in a damp out-of-the-way corner of the patio instead of the high traffic area it landed in.
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Miners Lettuce and purslane are the same plant i think.
You have different versions of purslane though. The summer or just “purslane” is usualy larger and tougher to eat. (want to cook it)
The winter version that also flowers on the leaf, like on your photo. Is more of a lettuce style plant. That you eat raw. They are quite tasty. And readily sow themselfs out.
i am looking for the seeds of Claytonia sibirica - Wikipedia for a while. They’r usualy sold out/unavailable. But it handles heat badly. so not sure it’s of much use to you. Although it does have a nice pink flower and is/can be more of a perrenial purslane
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Some of the wild/volunteer patio crack inhabitants have begun to flower. Not sure what either of these are (second one looks clover-ish), but they are pretty enough and don’t seem to mind getting trampled, so I’ll let them stay I think:
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I was just reading Wild Plants of Greater Seattle and noticed that one of the 21 “habitats” listed is sidewalk cracks, so I’ll have to do a little more reading on each of these since they do well in this habitat in our climate:
It looks like the yellow clover in my last post is probably T. dubium, the little hop-clover.
And the one with the pretty little pink flowers is Spergularia rubra:
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