I don't know anyone named Myrtle and am offering my apologies in advance to any of my faithful readers who have that name. I think it is one of my least favorite names, along with Gertrude and Mable. So let's talk about Periwinkle, a far more attractive name for Vinca minor than myrtle. When planted in protective shade this evergreen ground cover forms a handsome carpet of shiny green like the one pictured above. It is an ideal choice when used in the dense shade of a maple tree where grass won't grow.
Back in the days when I was known as the lady of Low Cost Hill, pinching pennies in just about every garden project I tackled, I discovered a patch of periwinkle growing wild in the woods beyond the local cemetery. I'd previously priced buying flats of this ground cover at the nurseries and quickly decided I couldn't afford to plant any on Locust Hill. Ah, but snitching a bit from behind the cemetery was another story.
Actually, I found out who owned that section of woodland and was given permission to take as much as I needed. The picture above is located on a back road in Canaan, but is one of many stands of periwinkle growing wild, as this groundcover has been busy escaping from gardens for years. It can often be found around old cellar holes in the woods, or if you know some friends or neighbors with a bed of periwinkle, I bet they'd let you take a clump here and there since the holes you leave behind will disappear very quickly.
Planting the tangled clumps of leaves and roots of this perennial instead of buying tidy, well-rooted flats from a nursery is a bit like making lasagna from scratch instead of using Stauffer's ready-made, but if you're pinching pennies it's not only worth the effort but also very satisfying.
The first step in making a bed of periwinkle is to prepare the soil. The plants aren't particularly fussy, but prefer acid rather than limey soil. If the area is not in deep shade it is extremely important to make sure to eliminate all grass. Periwinkle cannot compete with grass in a sunny area. I speak from first-hand experience. My first bed was on a bank too steep to mow, but I prepared the area in a rather slipshod manner. As a result there was soon more grass than periwinkle.
If you think it's difficult to get a teenager out of bed on Monday morning, just try getting grass out of a periwinkle bed! The myrtle roots (so much easier to write than periwinkle) get so crisscrossed that they form an impenetrable grid, making it impossible to pull out the grass roots lurking below them. I tried suffocating them with pine needles, poisoning them with "Grass-be-gone", planting evergreen shrubs for shade protection, but I never got rid of the grass in that myrtle bed. I may have had the heart of a murderer, but I didn't seem to have the skill.
When you dig up your greenery, don't worry about bringing home a lot of soil. You'll learn why in a minute. Untangle a dozen stems of foliage, cut off the dead and blackened parts with a scissors, then gather all that greenery into a bouquet. Take the dangling roots and wrap them around the base, then plant the bouquet in a 4-inch deep hole. Space your holes about 10 inches apart. The graceful stems of this ground cover will re-root at their tips to thicken and fill in the bed.
Mulch the bed well with pine needles or oak leaves. If you're doing this project in the fall, add some daffodil bulbs so that when that sea of green is filled with little lavender stars come spring, it will also have a compliment of yellow trumpets.
