Groundcover Plants

They may be slow or quick growers, depending on the variety. Selecting an appropriate groundcover plant that fills a specific need can make our gardens more harmonious and our landscapes low-maintenance.

These plants offer a variety of size, color, texture, and leaf shape, and many bear flowers.

What are Groundcover Plants?

Groundcovers are plants that maintain a low profile and spread to cover large areas. They help control erosion in areas where the soil has not been planted and are often planted in sloped areas that cannot retain water.

Whether you want to fill the spaces between stepping stones in a walk or replace a large section of grass, there are groundcovers to suite your needs. As with any plant, the climate and growing conditions will determine the correct groundcover.

Groundcovers for Shade

Areas that don't get much sun, as under trees and shrubs, are difficult to plant. These areas are usually also dry, as large trees and shrubs absorb most of the water, leaving little for smaller plants.

Perennial groundcovers like bishop's weed (Aegopodium podagraria), blue fescue (Festuca caesia), periwinkle (Vinca) and lily-of-the-valley (convallaria majalis) do well in these dry, shady areas.

Bethlehem sage (Pulmonaria saccharata) has shallow roots that work well under large trees. These range in size from creeping ground huggers to less than two feet tall.

Groundcovers for Slopes

If your landscape includes a sloped area, mowing can be a struggle. Avoid mowing by planting erosion controlling groundcovers like Yarrow (Achillea), with deep roots that take hold quickly to anchor the soil.

Also consider crown vetch (Coronilla varia), stonecrops (Sedum), St. John's wort (Hypericum calycinum) and bracken (Pteridium aquilinum) for sloped areas.

Consider the height of the plants and choose one in scale to the slope and your landscape. These groundcover plants can grow from ground huggers to three feet tall.

Groundcovers for Wet Areas

The advantage to using groundcovers in wet areas is that you can create a wetland garden by mixing low growers with two-foot tall drifts of flowering plants.

Lady's mantle (alchemilla mollis) creates a beautiful mound with large frilly leaves and delicate foot-tall white flowers, while hosta (Hosta) offers a wide range of sizes and colors of leaves and four-foot tall shoots of purple flowers.

They can also hide spring blooming flowers that have passed their peak, without damaging them. Others to consider are sweet woodruff (Galium odoratum), primroses (Primula) and lungworts (Pulmonaria).

Whether selecting them to fill in, tie together, or replace large areas of lawn, groundcover plants are an important part of garden design. Plant and maintain them where they are well suited and enjoy these helpful additions to the garden.

Stepable Groundcovers

Stepable groundcovers are great idea for lawn alternative or to cover bare area in your garden. You don’t need to mow your lawn anymore when you replace it with stepable groundcovers and they inhibit the growth of weeds in your garden as mulch does. You can plant them around the tree, in between step or rock garden.

There are many choices for stepable groundcovers to consider depends on what are you looking for? Corsican mint (Mentha requienii), iris moss (Sagina subulata), scotch moss (Sagina subulata 'Aurea'), magic carpet thyme (Thymus serpyllum 'Magic Carpet'), highland cream thyme (Thymus praecox 'Highland Cream'), baby’s tears (Soleirolia soleirolii) are just the names of few stepable groundcovers.

More Groundcovers