We have a small cottage on Keats Island in Howe Sound, on the north side. There's a large quantity of blackberry that's smothered much of whatever used to be there. As a long-term project we want to get rid of as much of the blackberry as we can and replace with appropriate native shrubs and ground cover plants. Which plants would you suggest? The slope is fairly steep in parts. I have lots of smilacina racemosa from my house and could easily transplant the extras, but it's a bit of a thug and I'm wary of introducing another problem (not that it would be as bad as the blackberry).
What roles do you want your new plants to play, laurendw? Do you want them to give shade, screening, privacy... what? Do you have anything in mind in terms of desired height, growth rate, and so forth? I know places on Keats Island where Thimbleberry used to grow quite happily. That's a pleasant bush, and the berries are both edible and pretty. Here's a page from the Royal BC Museum on Thimbleberry (Rubus parviflorus). You might also consider Snowberry, Salmonberry, and Ocean Spray. And do you like salal? It would be happy to cover your slope. Oregon Grape is one obvious choices in terms of ground covers. Does that help at all?
Hi Gabriolan, thanks for the reply! There is lots of salal there already; one of the few things that seems to fight successfully against the blackberry. The others are good ideas, especially the thimbleberry. We have privacy and lots of shade with cedar, hemlock, and douglas fir trees, so it really is a matter for me of trying to restore some of what might have been there before the blackberry took over, and helping to keep the blackberry in check. For the areas we walk on I guess I'll use ordinary grass (fighting the creeping buttercup), unless there's a native ground cover you can recommend for occasional foot traffic? We're there most weekends in the summer, but less often in other seasons.
I would avoid grass if I were planting on your behalf. Who wants to mow the lawn when you could be enjoying the island? Who wants to come back to the island after weeks away to find knee-high grass? I planted clover instead, which is beautiful, low-growing, and provides food for bees. You never have to cut clover if you don't want to, and if you do cut it, it grows back happily. My clover did just fine in hot summer weather when local lawns died. It is certainly one easy option, and is, in my opinion, better than grass. (It is not, however, a native plant.) More, and possibly better options, are offered by West Coast Seeds - they've got a seed mixture they call Coastal Revegetation Mix. Another one is Alternative Lawn Wildflower Blend. If you're seriously interested in native plants, you could see which of the plants in those mixes are native to coastal BC. Now on to more native alternatives. I know mossy woodland meadows that have groundcovers of moss and wood violets. Beautiful. Would that suit? Don't have to mow moss. If you don't plan to walk on the whole area, you could designate paths and plant something like vanilla leaf on the non-path areas. Maybe you'd like some little native strawberries in there, even. Do you have huckleberries on your property? I forget whether I mentioned those in my previous reply. They're not a groundcover, but a bush that yields delicious red berries.
All great ideas, thank you very much! I much prefer using native plants if possible so will look into those mixes, moss, and vanilla leaf.