green, tough, winter hardy and easy to
grow is called Christmas Fern (Polystichum
acrostichoides). A common sight in the
woods east of the Mississippi, it grows to a
height and spread of 2 to 3 feet, and keeps
its leaves, although it lays flat, under the
snow, in winter. Easily available in the
nursery trade, it tolerates drought, wet feet,
part sun and full shade.
Propagation of ferns can be by division
of large ferns, or by sora, a fern's version of
tiny spore-like seeds. Ferns take a long
time to grow from sora, so you may want
to buy in small plants. Because they are
coming up from very small, ferns can be
bought as small or large plugs, 4-inch pots
or gallons.
Ferns have only one edible phase in
their life cycle — fiddleheads, which are
the young fronds when they first shoot up
in spring. Steamed with butter they are
tender and delicious. Mature fern fronds
are unpalatable even to deer (large swaths
of forest can become dominated by ferns
when the deer have eaten everything else).
A few ferns have been used historically for
www.landscapeirrigation.com
medicinal purposes, but
nothing salient in the
modern herbal or medicinal chest.
Ferns and Mondo
Grass can be used in
most locations, except
the tropics. They not
only thrive in the Northeast, but western and
southern states as well.
In selecting plants for
green walls, I strongly
recommend that designMondo Grass. Photo by Melanie Cook.
ers look at existing walls
and how they are faring,
and have backup water sources just in
and how much maintenance is done to
LI
case.
keep them that way. Keeping a line on
availability for green wall plant replaceMarguerite Wells is the owner of Motherments is also important. When plants die
plants.
on a wall, the owners generally want replacement asap, since walls are showcases
Article courtesy of Green Roofs for Healthy
in most places. Not all plants are available
Cities (GRHC), and was originally published
everywhere all the time — plan for this.
in GRHC's Living Architecture Monitor:
And, as always with green walls, it's all
www.livingarchitecturemonitor.com.
about the water; keep the water flowing,
Landscape and Irrigation 13
