Garden Buzz – Page 69

If you have a small area of lawn like I do, or if you are tired of cutting the grass once or twice every week have you ever thought of putting in ground cover instead? You could carpet the ground entirely with low growing, easy care plants, known, naturally enough as ground covers.

You can use annuals as temporary ground cover – nasturtiums are excellent – but the best ground covers are spreading evergreen perennials or dense, low growing shrubs. Flowers are a feature of many, but far more important is the ability to make a carpet dense enough to smother weeds without growing too tall – ankle height is about right.

A good ground cover needs to be presentable all year; to need little in the way of trimming or spraying; and to be easy to propagate to cut down on cost. It is possible to weave patterns with several species, but the stronger will tend to crowd out the weaker, and simplicity usually looks better anyway. Ground covers cannot be walked on.

Prepare your ground cover bed as thoroughly as for any other plant, plant at the appropriate season, and mulch at once. The last thing you want is weeds getting in between the young plants. If you like, you can plant some low growing annuals between your permanent plants – and they will remind you to water and fertilize. Ground covers may be low, low maintenance when they are established, but when young they need care.

Here are some ground covers for both sun and shade:

Plant Name	Height (in)	Remarks
Table 1: Ground cover plants for full sun.
Achillea tomentosa Woolly yarrow	2-4	Grayish foliage in low mats.
Antennaria spp. Pussytoes	1-2	Persistent gray-green foliage in dense mats; excellent for rocky slopes.
Artemisia spp. Sage	10-15	Silvery foliage; A. schmidtiana (silver mound sage) most common.
Atriplex corrugata Mat saltbush	4-6	Evergreen; foliage greenish-white; for salty soils.
Centaurea montana (perennial bachelor button) Mountain bluet	15-18	Grayish foliage; blue flowers.
Cerastium tomentosum Snow-in-summer	6	Gray foliage; white flowers; very aggressive.
Cytisus decumbens Creeping broom	4-8	Green stems with tiny leaves; yellow, pea-like flowers in May.
Delosperma nubigenum Yellow ice plant	1-2	Succulent, light-green foliage; yellow flowers.
Duchesnea indica Mock strawberry	4-6	Aggressive creeper; looks much like strawberry; yellow flowers; inedible, red fruit.
Eriogonum umbellatum Sulphur flower	3-6	Showy flower stalk to 8 inches tall; foliage in low mat.
Euphorbia epithymoides (polychroma) Cushion spurge	12-18	Mounds of foliage that change from reddish to green in spring, then scarlet in fall.
Euphorbia marginata Snow-on-the-mountain	4-8	Green and white foliage; very aggressive.
Festuca ovina glauca Blue fescue	6-8	Tufts of grayish, grassy foliage.
Juniperus horizontalis Creeping juniper Some common clones include: ‘Bar Harbor’ ‘Blue Chip’ ‘Hughes’ ‘Webberi’ ‘Wiltoni’ (‘Blue Rug’)	10 10 10 4 4	Perhaps the best year-round cover; many clones and foliage hues available. Blue-green; purplish winter color. Bluish foliage year-round. Silvery-blue; distinct radial branching. Very low mat; fine texture. Very low; silver-blue; purplish tinge in winter.
Penstemon pinifolius Pineleaf penstemon	6-10	Has needle-like leaves and orange-red flowers; takes heat well.
Phlox subulata Moss pink or creeping phlox	6-8	Reddish, white or lavender flowers; moss-like foliage.
Polygonum affine Himalayan border jewel	12-18	Red, showy flowers late in season; excellent ground cover for dry areas.
Potentilla verna Creeping potentilla	1/2-1	Very low mat with yellow, showy flowers; aggressive.
Ranunculus repens Creeping buttercup	1-2	Yellow, showy flowers on creeping runners up to 2 feet long.
Santolina chamaecyparissus Lavender-cotton	10-12	Blue-gray, persistent foliage in dense mats.
Sedum spp. Stonecrop (sedum)	1-15	Many forms available; not usually competitive with weeds.
Sempervivum spp. Houseleek, hen and chicks	2-4	Forms dense, evergreen mats; grows in very poor soils.
Thymus serpyllum Mother-of-thyme	3-6	Low, mat-forming herb with tiny leaves; purple flowers; related species, woolly thyme, has gray-green foliage.
Veronica prostrata Prostrate speedwell	1-2	Dark green foliage; deep blue flowers in short spikes.

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Plant Name	Height (in)	Remarks
Table 2: Ground cover plants for shade.
Aegopodium podagraria ‘variegatum’ Bishop’s weed	10-12	Variegated, green and white foliage; aggressive.
Arctostaphylos uva-ursi Kinnikinnick	4-6	Evergreen; red, edible berries; use beneath established evergreens in acid soils.
Campanula carpatica Carpathian harebell	6-14	Can be aggressive; blue or white flowers.
Convallaria majalis Lily-of-the-valley	6-10	Fragrant, white flowers in May-June; inedible, red berries; aggressive.
Galium odorata Sweet woodruff	6-8	Very aggressive; one of the best covers under shrubs; white, fragrant flowers in May-June.
Lonicera japonica ‘Halliana’ Hall’s Japanese honeysuckle	6-12	Will also grow in full sun, but forms denser mats in shade.
Mahonia repens Creeping Oregon grape	6-12	Evergreen; yellow flowers in spring; holly-like foliage.
Penstemon caespitosus Creeping or mat penstemon	1-2	Very prostrate mat of tiny narrow leaves; flowers in May-June; purplish.
P. strictus Rocky Mountain penstemon	1-2	Blue flowers in June-July.
Vinca minor Periwinkle	4-6	Semievergreen; white or purple flowers in spring.

I hope that this article helps you decide on the correct ground cover for your garden if you choose to cover an area with these practical plants.

I’m writing this post to record our first frost. Well I think it’s the first. it’s -2 c outside right now and I believe that’s the first time it’s dipped below zero. Brrrrr Well at least all the silly roses in my garden will hopefully get the message that it’s time to shut down and stop blooming. Yes – my roses are still blooming. They always seem to bloom into mid November or so.

I guess it’s time for me to get outside – not now, it’s cold – and clean up the garden and start putting it to bed. I always mound some compost or peat around the roses to protect the roots. I buried the root ball several inches below the soil level when I planted the roses but the mounds that I put around the base of the roses in the fall give them further protection in the winter.

We don’t tend to get a lot of snow here. Yes it does snow and sometimes we get quite a lot but it melts away fairly quickly. The air however stays very cold. The temps can fall to more than -20 c and worse with the wind factored in. If my garden doesn’t have a good snow cover or a cover that I’ve created with my mounds of compost and piles of leaves the plants will be more suceptable to freeze damage.

I’m not looking foward to putting the garden to bed this year. It’s a big job what with us having 60 roses plus all the other plants. We’ll manage to get it done though.

Have you used your garden for a wedding?

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