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  • Roses
    • Types of Roses
    • Easy Roses
    • Climbing Roses
    • Portland's Rose Test Garden
    • Rose Insects & Diseases
    • Pruning Roses
    • Rose Sawfly
    • Rose Bloom Balling
  • Pruning Basics 101
    • Pruning Tools
    • Winter Pruning
    • Pruning Grapes
    • Pruning Clematis
    • Prune Your Own Garden Registration
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    • Lawn Maintenance Schedule
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    • Moss in Lawns
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  • Mulch & Mulching
    • Living Mulches - Groundcovers
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    • Composting
    • Compost Tea
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    • Winter Veggie Gardening
    • Taming Tomatoes
    • Speeding up Tomato Harvest
    • Tomato Tips
    • Saving Tomato Seeds
    • Tomato Troubles
  • Plant Pests 1
    • Plant Pests Part 2 - Controlling Insects
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Groundcovers -Living Mulches 

Amanda's Garden Consulting Company
Japanese spurge, Pachysandra terminalis is a wonderful evergreen groundcover for shady spots. Photo by Amanda Jarrett

Ground covers are living mulches

Golden stonecrop, Sedum acre `Aureum', Scots pine, Pinus sylvestris, groundcover, ground cover, living mulch
Golden stonecrop (Sedum acre `Aureum') carpets the base of a Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris).
 ​Ground covers are not only used to cover soil in garden beds, they are also a great alternative to lawns. Easily replace grass perched on slopes when they are difficult and dangerous to mow without installing terraces. In fact, any areas where turf is having a tough time growing - sparse or weak growth -  consider changing it to a groundcover.
 
Ground covers perform the same functions as organic mulches, as listed below, except they don't need topping up every year. Once they fill in however, they might need controlling. These ‘living mulches’ provide colour, flowers, texture and some even bear edible fruit.
 
One caveat though: one must be careful as some groundcovers are quite aggressive. The classic and ever-present English ivy (Hedera helix) is a beautiful lush, green groundcover, but its stems root where they hit the ground, their seeds grow where they land, and they send up underground stems far away from the mother plant, making them almost impossible to control once they’ve become established.
 
It’s best to plant something in your garden that isn’t invasive or aggressive like English ivy (Hedera helix). Left alone, it can consume entire forests, converting the undergrowth into an ocean of ivy.
Picture
Heather is a colourful ground cover.
So instead, consider planting one of these groundcovers, which don’t root where they touch the ground and have less aggressive seeds (and so on).
  • lady's mantle (Alchemilla vulgaris)
  • candytuft (Iberis sempervirens)
  • Japanese spurge (Pachysandra terminalis)
  • bearberry (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi)
  • wintergreen (Gaultheria procumbens)
  • wild ginger (Asarum canadense)
  • stonecrops (Sedum)

Groundcover Benefits

Picture
'Sulphureum' bishop's hat (Epimedium × versicolor 'Sulphureum') is a suitable ground cover for shade.
Just like organic mulches, groundcovers share the same advantages and functions:
  • shade out weeds and their seeds
  • reduce soil evaporation
  • reduce erosion
  • insulate soil from temperature extremes
  • provide colour and texture with their foliage and flowers
  • provide continuity and unify areas linking garden beds
  • and they generally look great
Bishop's hat, (Epimedium × versicolor 'Sulphureum') likes shade to part shade.
Lady's mantle (Achillea mollis), likes part shade to shade.
Snow-in-summer (Cerastium tomentosum) prefers well drained soil and full sun. Can be aggressive. Evergreen.
Aubretia is an evergreen and likes sun to part shade.
Perennial candytuft (Iberis sempervirens) & gold alyssum (Aurinia saxatilis), like sun to part shade & each other.
Kinnikinnick, bearberry (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi) likes sun and dry soils.

​Invasive Groundcovers

There are a few other groundcovers that grow aggressively and are hard to remove if they get out of control.
  • goutweed, bishop's weed (Aegopodium podagraria)
  • creeping jenny (Lysimachia nummularia)
  • chameleon plant (Houttuynia cordata)
  • spotted nettle (Lamium maculatum)
  • yellow archangel (Lamiastrum galeobdolon)
  • periwinkle (Vinca minor, V. major)
St. John's wort (Hypericum calycinum) is pretty and tenacious.
Chameleon plant, Houttuynia cordata is too aggressive.
Goutweed (Aegopodium podagraria) spreads quickly.
English ivy will blanket huge trees and engulf bikes in no time.
The yellow archangel (Lamium galeobdolon) grows anywhere.
Creeping jenny (Lysimachia nummularia) is often used in hanging baskets.

Groundcovers

When selecting a ground cover assess the growing conditions. How many hours of the sun does the area receive? For example an area that receives 6 hours of direct sun a day is a sunny location. Does the soil dry out easily? Slopes and areas under trees and eaves are often very dry. Success depends on selecting the right plant for the right place. No matter what situation: wet, dry, sunny or shady; there's one that fits the bill. ​Better behaved ground covers include:
  • lady's mantle (Alchemilla vulgaris)
  • candytuft (Iberis sempervirens)
  • Japanese spurge (Pachysandra terminalis)
  • bearberry (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi)
  • wintergreen (Gaultheria procumbens)
  • wild ginger (Asarum canadense)
Before selecting a ground cover make note of the sun and soil moisture conditions of the intended area. Success depends on selecting the right plant for the right place. No matter what situation: wet, dry, sunny or shady; there's one that fits the bill. ​​
Picture
'Cape Blanco' stonecrop (Sedum spathulifolium 'Cape Blanco') is not invasive and is a perfect ground cover for hot, dry sunny gardens.

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  • Home
  • About, Services, Contact
  • Ask Amanda
  • Roses
    • Types of Roses
    • Easy Roses
    • Climbing Roses
    • Portland's Rose Test Garden
    • Rose Insects & Diseases
    • Pruning Roses
    • Rose Sawfly
    • Rose Bloom Balling
  • Pruning Basics 101
    • Pruning Tools
    • Winter Pruning
    • Pruning Grapes
    • Pruning Clematis
    • Prune Your Own Garden Registration
  • Lawn Basics
    • Lawn Reno, Seed & Sod
    • Lawn Maintenance Schedule
    • Spring Lawn Care
    • Moss in Lawns
    • Lawn Alternatives
    • Lawn Grub Control
  • Mulch & Mulching
    • Living Mulches - Groundcovers
  • Propagation
    • Growing Seeds Outdoors
    • Growing Seeds Indoors
    • Taking Cuttings
    • Seed & Plant Catalogues
  • How to Garden Topics
    • Fall Garden Chores
    • Planting Know-How
    • Soil Building
    • Watering Tips & Techniques
    • Drought Gardening
    • Sheet Mulching, Lasagna Gardening
    • Cover Crops
    • Composting
    • Compost Tea
    • Houseplant Winter Care
    • Hummingbirds in Winter
    • Winterize Your Garden
    • Ponds in Winter
  • Growing Food
    • Spring Veggie Gardening
    • Crop Rotation, Succession & Companion Planting
    • Harvesting
    • Growing Potatoes
    • Winter Veggie Gardening
    • Taming Tomatoes
    • Speeding up Tomato Harvest
    • Tomato Tips
    • Saving Tomato Seeds
    • Tomato Troubles
  • Plant Pests 1
    • Plant Pests Part 2 - Controlling Insects
    • Garden Inspections
    • Helping Pollinators
    • Dogwood Anthracnose
    • Viburnum Leaf Beetle
    • Dormant Oil/Lime Sulfur
    • Japanese Beetles
    • Peony Blotch/Measles
    • Slugs & Snails
    • Horsetail, the Weed
    • June Beetle
    • Powdery Mildew
    • Soil Solarization
    • Rhododendron Leaf Spot
    • Plant Rusts
    • Black Knot
  • Container Growing
    • Choosing a Container
  • Feeding Plants 101
    • Fertilizers & Ratios
    • Nutritional Deficiencies & Toxicities
    • Organic Plant Food
  • Plant of the Month
    • Spring Flowering Bulbs
    • Colourful Fall Plants
    • Abelia
    • American Sweetgum
    • Ash (Fraxinus) Trees
    • Astilbes
    • Aubretia, Rock Cress
    • Aucuba, Japanese Spotted Laurel
    • Autumn Crocus
    • Bear's Breeches
    • Beautyberry, Callicarpa
    • Black-eyed Susans
    • Bleeding Heart, Lamprocapnos spectabilis
    • Calla Lilies
    • Dahlias
    • Daylily
    • Delphiniums
    • Devil's Walking Stick, Aralia spinosa
    • Dwarf Alberta Spruce
    • Dwarf Burning Bush
    • Fall Asters
    • Flowering Currants
    • Flowering Quince
    • Fritillaria
    • Garden Peonies
    • Garden Phlox
    • Ginkgo biloba
    • Grape-hyacinths
    • Handkerchief or Dove Tree
    • Harry Lauder's Walking Stick
    • Heathers
    • Hellebores, Lenten roses
    • Himalayan Sweet Box
    • Jack-in-the-pulpit, Cobra Lily
    • Japanese Anemones
    • Japanese Forest Grass
    • Japanese Maples
    • Japanese Skimmia
    • Japanese Spurge
    • Laurustinus viburnum
    • Lavenders
    • Lily-of-the-Valley Shrub, Pieris japonica
    • Mediterranean Spurge
    • Mexican Mock Orange
    • Montana Clematis
    • Mountain Ash
    • Oriental Poppies
    • Oriental Lilies
    • Paperbark Maple
    • Pink Dawn Bodnant Viburnum
    • Poinsettias
    • Oregon Grape Holly
    • Ornamental Kale
    • Peruvian Lily, Alstroemeria
    • Phalaenopsis, Moth Orchids
    • Persian Silk Tree
    • Portuguese Laurel
    • Rose of Sharon
    • Sneezeweed, Helenium
    • Snowberry
    • Snowdrops
    • Star Magnolia
    • Strawberry Tree, Pacific Madrone
    • Stewartia
    • Torch Lily, Kniphofia uvaria
    • Tree Peonies
    • Tuberous Begonias
    • Virginia Creeper
    • Weigela
    • Winterhazel, Corylopsis
    • Winter Camellia, C. sasanqua
    • Wintergreen, Gaultheria procumbens
    • Witch Hazel
    • Wood Anemones
    • Yews
  • Garden Tour Blogs
  • Monthly Flower Arrangements
  • Website Index
  • Subscribe
  • Need Help?