Garden Groundcovers
No matter what style of garden you have it can be enhanced, and your
work made easier, by the inclusion of groundcovers. So what makes a good
groundcover? True groundcovers have a thick, spreading habit of growth
that chokes out weeds or other plants.
They can be used in a myriad of
situations, to cover a dry embankment, to fill up the gaps in a brick or
stone path, or to add coolness and beauty to a low wall. In the flower
garden, they can be used to restrict weed growth and some are suitable
to grow in marshy areas.
Many plants that have a mounding or clumping habit can be used as
groundcovers if planted closely enough together that they overlap. Some
low-growing trees and shrubs can be considered good groundcovers, since
nothing will grow beneath the weeping branches.
The evergreen spindle
tree Euonymous fortunei 'Emerald 'n Gold' is good to use as a
groundcover. It likes most soils and its bright green and gold
variegated foliage changes to a bronzy-pink in winter. It will grow in
zones 5-7.
The dwarf broom Genista Lydia makes a good cover for an open bank in
full sun, with its prostrate branches and yellow flowers. Some of the
cotoneasters can be used as groundcovers, too. Cotoneaster horizontalis
will cover a lot of ground in time. It has pink flowers followed by red
berries.
Given an acid soil, heathers make ideal groundcovers once they are well
established. They will cover the soil underneath with a dense carpet of
foliage, making it impossible for weeds to grow. Not only do they flower
in the winter when the garden is often short on flowers, but the foliage
changes color throughout the year.
The evergreen Pachysandra terminalis is as easy to grow as the ivies,
but is slightly taller and much less invasive. It likes a shady spot to
settle in, as does the bog plant Lysinnachia nummalaria, or creeping
jenny as it is commonly called. Its tiny leaves are covered with yellow
flowers in the summer.
One of the best marsh plants with its delightful ferny foliage and
spikes of rose colored flowers in mid-summer to fall is Astilbe
chinensis 'Pumila'. Lysichiton americanus will also spread rapidly over
marshy areas. Its flowers resemble a yellow arum lily on a short spike,
while the broad leaves are a lime green.
Don't forget some 'ordinary' flowers can be used as groundcovers.
Nasturtiums tolerate poor soil, flower all summer and rarely allow a
weed to take up residence under their rambling stems.
Vinca is a natural
groundcover with blue flowers, as is Ajuga reptans or bugleweed.
Tiarella cordifolia, or foam flower, spreads by underground rhizomes.
Its solid green mat is flecked with red and it has white flowers in
spring.
Some groundcovers can become a hazard to the health of other plants if
left to grow unchecked, but the odd few hours spent pruning or uprooting
unwanted stems will solve the problem and is much easier than weeding.
