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In the backyard, Nina Stark-Slapnik and Elaine Hope are moving among the beds, making an inventory and calling out what they see: ajuga, stokesia, spirea, pulmonaria, epimedium .

A few years ago, we replaced the grass there with “plantings” — juniper, ajuga, phlox — so I wouldn’t have to risk death and dismemberment from mowing the steep landscape.

One of my favorite garden-making techniques is to establish a mixed tapestry of compatible ground covers: Think ajuga, creeping thyme and ground-hugging sedum in sun, or Corsican mint, creeping jenny, and Scotch or Irish moss in shade.

Here, rows of forced plants sit next to small ferns, ajuga and eucharis that are among the 100 plants she will bring to the show.

I hadn’t grown ajuga or bugleweed for many years, seeing it as a bit coarse, but I discovered that I just wasn’t looking hard enough.