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Ground Covers

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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:

Table 1: Ground cover plants for full sun.
Plant Name Height (in) Remarks
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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Table 2: Ground cover plants for shade.
Plant Name Height (in) Remarks
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.






Annuals and Perennials

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What are Annual, Perennial and Biennial plants?

The difference between annuals, biennials and perennials relates to the life cycles of the plants.

Annuals grow from seed to full maturity within one growing season. Marigolds, ageratums, and zinnias are typical annuals. They flower, set seed and die, all within a single year.

Biennials such as Canterbury bells and some foxgloves, complete their life cycles over two years, sometimes producing a few flowers in the first season, but most often just making foliage growth and establishing their root systems.

Perennials live longer than two seasons and may outlive many shrubs. In fact, strictly speaking, shrubs and trees are perennials, but when gardeners talk of perennials they generally mean plants that don’t develop permanent woody stems.

Perennials occur in several types. Some, such as Acanthus, are evergreen and don’t have a period of total dormancy, though few flower continually except in very mild climates.

Herbaceous perennials – those most common in temperate climate gardens – usually have a period of dormancy when they die back to a permanent rootstock. Most commonly this is during winter, but plants from hot dry areas many be dormant in summer or during periods of very low rainfall.

Some herbaceous perennials have developed the ability to use their roots or stems as food storage organs to enable them to survive extended periods of dormancy. Known as rhizomes and tubers, these storage roots can often be separated from the parent plant and grown on as new plants, in much the same way as bulbs and corms. Dahlias and alstroemerias are well-known tuberous plants, while bearded irises are probably the most widely grown rhizomatous plants. Some plants have specialized rhizomes known as stolons, which spread across the surface of the ground, or just below the surface, taking root as they spread.

Some perennials are treated as annuals, either because they cease to be attractive as they age, or because they are incapable of surviving cold winters. Petunias and impatiens, for example, may live for several seasons if protected from frost, but they become leggy and untidy, so they are usually replaced annually.

It is not uncommon for a genus to contain both annual and perennial species, such as the annual and perennial cosmos, or species with differing growth habits, like the fibrous and tuberous rooted irises and begonias.

In cultivation, the differences between annuals, biennials and the various types of perennials tend to become blurred. The important thing is how you use the plants, and with annuals and perennials you can give free rein to your imagination.

No longer Neglected

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My poor garden, it hasn’t been getting the level of care that I normally give it this year. I’ve been so ill that I’ve been barely getting outside to work in the garden with the exception of watering it a couple of times a week. Thankfully it’s been raining often enough that I don’t have to be out there everyday watering.

Yesterday afternoon and evening I made an effort towards getting the garden under control again. All of the plants are growing beautifully with little help from me. The roses have been blooming their pretty little heads off, the Holyhocks are beginning to bloom and so on. However, without my assistance some of the plants were leaning on to others, crowding them out and making the garden look more than a little bit sloppy.

I spent several hours yesterday putting some stakes around floppy plants, tying them up with garden tape and just straightening them out. It looks amazing!

Today I plan to distribute the contents of my compost pile around all the plants and add some coffee grounds that we picked up from a local coffee shop to a new batch of compost. Then I’m going to put some red cedar mulch on all my flower beds. I’m a bit late in doing this but they say that if you have problems with slugs, and I do, you shouldn’t mulch until at least mid-June, and you should turn the soil a few times prior to that to keep kill the slug eggs. Better late than never. It looks so nice when the mulch is fresh. I’ll take some pictures.

My arms are, of course, a mess again after tangling with several rose bushes. Oh well, they’ve all been tamed now so they won’t get me as badly for the rest of the year.

Later, I’m going to make some alfalfa tea for my garden. No, the garden and I aren’t going to sit and relax over a hot cup of steaming herbal tea. Uh huh, this is a special organic fertilizer that I make several times each year, let it ferment, and then pour it on my garden when all the neighbors are asleep since it smells so god awful bad! Really, it smells so nasty but works so well. I put it on my garden at least 5 times last summer and I think that’s why I have giant roses, abundant blooms and a more than slightly over grown garden this year.

I’ll write up the alfalfa tea recipe later and make a post about it’s magical work.

In other news – As you know this site is still in it’s infancy. If you actually been reading this post I’d like some suggestions as to what you might like to see me write about.

I’m thinking about make a weekly or perhaps if I’m really ambitious a daily feature in which I write about a particular plant’s profile. The write ups would include photos of the plant, hardiness and care data, when it usually blooms if it blooms and planting advice.

Would you like to see plant profiles on this site? If you would, give me some suggestions as to what plants you want me to begin talking about. See my Whats Growing page for an idea of the kind of plants I’m familiar with.

Don’t forget that tomorrow is Green Thumb Sunday. If you’d like to participate by posting a garden, plant or nature photo on your site tomorrow let me know and I’ll send you the bl0groll code and add you to the roll.

Ok, got to get back to the garden. Hey isn’t that a song? LOL

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