If a mostly flat area, try ajuga. Deadnettle, Lamium maculatum, is actually an excellent GC for a dry shade area but its cousin, yellow archangel (Lamiastrum galeobdolon) is a noxious weed.

And there are the usual native choices - salal, low Oregon grape.

Keep in mind neither one of these will completely prevent blackberries from coming back. If they are in the neighborhood, birds will plant more plus dormant seeds from existing or removed vines can germinate for several years. You will just need to keep on top of things to keep the "weeds" under control and allow the GC's to take off. And mulching helps as well.

We have stinging nettles & blackberries, too.

I've found that you must remove the roots to eradicate. It's not enough to cut the canes/stems though that does reduce vigor. The nettle roots are yellow & go out in all directions, so not too deep. Pull by hand every few weeks when the soil is moist.

What you don't want to do is cultivate or let them go to seed. Every bit of root resprouts.

In one spot this winter we've spread wood chips 6" deep after pulling what we could since last spring. Now what sprouts is easy to pull out because the soil is loose & moist. It's not long enough to be done patrolling, but at least we can use the area without being hurt by thorns or stinging nettles because they're just little sprouts coming up.

My son has moved rocks out there for a RC rock crawling course. It's over our septic drainfield, so eventually we'll plant some groundcovers to supplement the native plants that emerge ---- minus the nettles & blackberries or trees conifers, alder, & big leaf maple.

For now I'm happy with the look of the wood chips especially since I broke my ankle a week ago & am in a non weight bearing cast.

The guy at the garden shop told me to put cardboard on top of the weed area, then weed barrier, add mulch if I don't just want the weed barrier showing otherwise skip it. Leave it for a year and that soil would be sterilized and ready for planting. Maybe something to look in to if you aren't in a hurry.

Corrine, :( I am 7 months post broken leg and I can tell ya the non weight bearing time was the worst! Have you ever been through something like this before? For support I use a net site, mybrokenleg.com, a group of people going through the same thing and it helps tremendously. Hope you are doing well!

Big perennial weeds like these will soon overwhelm low plants like ajuga etc. - for good weed control you MUST clear the bed of all weed parts completely before planting, AND rely on comparatively tall ground covers like (well-established) salal or junipers. Even then some woody weeds like blackberries, ivy and red alder will often seed in here and there periodically and have to be wiggled out, throughout the life of the planting.

The late Dennis Thompson used to say while teaching horticulture at Edmonds Community College during the 1970s that the most common ground cover here was the Douglas fir. Establishing and maintaining control of a patch of ground with plantings is all about height and density.

And starting with clean ground.

Here is a link that might be useful: The Myth of Paper-based Sheet Mulch

This post was edited by bboy on Sat, May 3, 14 at 13:55

agree with all the above, but when ready to plant, consider many of the saxifrages:
some can be a bit aggressive when happy but VERY easy (compared to some other groundcovers) to pull out if when ( hopefully) wandering too far.
saxifrage x geum is particularly good for dry shade.

I like to use the hardy Geraniums. They're evergreen, they bloom, and spread slowly. Easy to control and tall enough, to about a foot, to discourage most weeds. I noticed a blackberry shoot coming out of one of my plantings of geranium today. It was an easy pull. They do reseed, but it doesn't seem to be a problem so far after many years.

Makes for a nice border too.
Mike

MIke is showing Geranium macrorrhizum.

Thanks bboy....You helped me out again.
I received a start years ago from a guy from Bulgaria. He said it was from there and really rare. LOL I didn't know whether to believe him or not. That was in the early 80s.
Last year I obtained some different varieties and am trialing them now.
Most of my soil is pretty good and Creeping Buttercup (Ranunculus repens) is a bit of a problem. Spotting it before it blooms and removing it from the Hardy Geranium is a pain. The leaves are very similar. Thankfully the bright yellow blossom gives it away. The Creeping Buttercup likes the wetter part of the garden and is not a problem where it is drier.
Mike