1. We have a large creek bed to the North side of house. Some of it is more like a ravine. It does come up and meets the end of the mowed yard and theres extensive weeds between the yard and the creek. Since you can't spray for weed control due to EPA and hazards to wildlife I am looking for a way to find something to plant on the edge. I may try to take a picture and post it later this evening on this post so you can see what I am taking about. its kinda an eyesore and some of the weeds at 4-5 ft. tall. We don't want to put trees on the edge because we love the view of woods on other side
2. Our planting zone is 6a. I am curious to get suggestions for fall garden plants to put in. I have always planted my garlic in October but are there some other things I could plant this late?
3. On the SW side I have a garden shed area and it is pretty much total shade. I have blue hosts there but now that we have extended the driveway, we have another area near it....all shade , that hubby put all this fill dirt around and I don't want to do grass there. Wondering if any suggestions of some sort of fast growing ground cover? I started 3 packasandra plants and I have no clue if I spelled that right, lol. I am thinking about digging up some ferns from our woods over . But I would like a mix of ideas, please 
Have the twins today, so I will check in later and see if anyone has any ideas. I will also post a couple pics later of the areas I am talking about. Thanks ahead of time , gonna be a hot one here today. Near 90 
. Staying inside with girls and AC 
I just ran out and took the pics
Thanks, I may try that!
I would pull out as many weeds along the ravine as you can, and put some large rocks in between the plants to prevent erosion. I have an evergreen spruce/like groundcover that I like - don't remember it's name. It spreads relatively fast. I have about five varieties of ferns in my woodland garden - check online for hardy varieties. Be careful getting them out of the woods if you are allergic to Poison Ivy or Oak - the roots are also poisonous!! I do not recommend Vinca - it covers everything in its path and is VERY invasive ditto ground ivy!!! I LOVE my pachysandra. It was here when I bought this house under all the shrubs 3/4 around the house. It keeps the weeds pretty much out, and spreads fairly quickly. It will grow most anywhere. You will need flats of that, not just a few plants. It's not very expensive. For perennial shade, I also like Lenten roses - Hellebore. They have a variety of color blooms and come out REALLY early in the spring. The foliage stays mounded and pretty all summer. You might also plant some azaleas as a backdrop - they do well in shade. Sorry this is so disorganized.....train of thought isn't a straight line!!! I will add more as I think of it.
The fern roots aren't the problem - but any poison growing ANYWHERE in the vicinity can have roots near/under/around them. I only know because I have had two friends get the awful stuff when there was none visible above ground. Wear gloves/long sleeves....then peal them off (and pants, too) and put right in the washer with hot water. Wash arms and hands with yellow soap!
Monarda needs sun - but it is a HUGE hummingbird draw. You will almost never look on them and not see at least one. I had a whole center of a flower bed filled with them - but this winter, they died off. Very sad!!!!
