Ground Cover

Ground cover plantings are a wonderful way to create gorgeous carpets of colour in your garden, whatever its size and wherever it’s located. But what’s so special about ground cover growing, when is it most useful and when should you start?

The initial few months will take some effort, but once growing well, most ground cover planting needs little maintenance except perhaps a very occasional trim, and some food and water in drier weather.

It has a superbly smothering effect on the weeds, killing weedlings and deterring further weeds from appearing. The denser the ground cover planting, the better the effect.

Autumn is an ideal time for planting. Trees, shrubs, climbers and herbaceous plants that go in to the ground at this time of year often establish extremely well as they have the luxury of enjoying the relatively warm and yet moist soil, a perfect place for new roots to grow out and establish rapidly.

Make sure you invest a bit of time and effort in to the preparation. Clear the area of weeds, digging out all tough weeds completely if you can. Fork the soil over, removing debris such as large stones or buried rubbish and then fork in plenty of well-rotted manure or garden compost, and perhaps a little slow-release feed too.

If you’re planting up a slope, it’s worth trying to secure the soil a little too, as all that preparation and weed clearing will have loosened the surface and made it prone to erosion. Once growing well the roots of the plants will help to secure the slope brilliantly, but in the meantime, use landscape fabric pinned down onto the surface of the slope.

Don’t be tempted to cram the plants in too closely. Given time they will form the desired effect if planted at the correct spacing. But if you plant them elbow to elbow, they are more likely to become stressed and miserable, more prone to disease and will need thinning out. Make sure the plants are kept just moist at the
roots until they’re established and feed occasionally. By choosing varieties of plants which are recommended for use as ground cover you’ll be unlikely to have to do much if any pruning.

So what should you choose to grow?
Foliage that is attractive and interesting makes a wonderful ground cover planting and if you wish you can add a few more flamboyant flowering plants to the mixture too. By using plants with interestingly shaped leaves or variegated leaves your leafy planting will look even better.

If you want a reasonable effect all year around, then select at least some of the plants you use from the evergreens.

Shrubby Ground Cover Ideas 
Heaths and Heathers, Cotoneaster horizontalis
and Cotoneaster microphyllus, Stephandra incise ‘Crispa’, ground cover roses eg the ‘Flower Carpet’ roses.

Shade-Tolerant Ground Cover Ideas
Sarcococca hookeriana var.humilis, Mahonia repens, Gaultheria procumbens, Hypericum calycinum, many hebes including Hebe pinguifolia, Euonymus fortune cultivars such as ‘Emerald n’Gold’, ‘Emerald Gaiety’

Herbaceous Cover in Shadier Spots
Sweet violets, pulmonaria (lungworts) eg the white-flowered ‘Sissinghurst’, Bugle (the ajugas eg Ajuga reptans ‘Burgundy Glow’), Lysimachia nummularia (Creeping Jenny), Lily-of-the-valley, Lamium ‘White Nancy’ and Lamium ‘Silver Beacon’, Bergenia

Sunnier Ground Cover
Snow-in-summer, thymes, oregano, many of the sedums, chamomile.