I am so happy to be helping the folks at the Melrose Diner with the garden in the front of the diner. It is a tricky spot as it is in shade most of the time. Some plants in the original design were an existing holly, large hostas, lime hostas, white wood asters, blue wood asters, ostrich ferns ansd wild ginger.
The design was changed because the holly was damaged to the point where it needed to be cut to the ground. Fortunately it is coming back nicely, like a flush cut often does. Since it was the center piece of the original design I put in a large bleeding heart to fill the void, which turned out to be quite beautiful,. There was no wild ginger to be had, I am hoping to aquire some native mayflower which is probably a better choice. I added some heuchera for in the mean time, and solomon seal between and behind the ostrich ferns for texture.
This is a pet project. I love the Melrose Diner! And this is a sweet spot for a garden, I will add plants as I can in the true “native garden” style, trying to find what works in this challenging spot. I started another garden along the back side of the parking lot, which appears to have been a garden long ago, with rose of sharon trees, hostas, and other random garden plants that are no being overrun by knotweed. I am hoping I can add pollinator plants from various seed mixes and plant rescues as they become available.