One of the many problems for a new garden is the glaring space between young plants. Young gardens need time to grow and fill in and in the meanwhile can look pretty barren. Get to work and plant some ground cover! The more the merrier. Use ground cover to help fill in between plants, fountains and garden decor, or around stepping stones.
Before you start planting just anything you need to choose your ground cover based on the light, water, and traffic conditions in your garden. Here are just a few of the many ground cover ideas a gardener in a northern climate garden might want to consider.
If you have a sunny garden you might want to consider planting some sedum. It comes in a variety of color shades and growth habits. Sedum will thrive in hot sun and poor soil. Sedum is used on “green roofs” which are very inhospitable to highlight the kind of conditions it can take: hot, dry and horrible. The hotter the better! It is not a good choice on a path, though, as it can not take being disturbed at great length.
Thyme, the beloved kitchen herb, is another excellent ground cover choice for a sunny garden. Thyme is great for an area that gets some foot traffic because it smells good when you step on it. Give your landscape a cottage garden feel with this herb that also comes in a variety of growth habits and color choices such as creeping thyme, woolly thyme or lemon thyme…there are so many types.
Pachysandra can be a great ground cover for your shady landscape. Pachysandra is a good deep shade ground cover that can handle some partial sun. Pachysandra is nice because it will hide the ugly browning leaves of spring bulbs which you are not supposed to remove. Pachysandra always looks good and is easy to maintain.And it is less invasive than it’s popular nemesis called vinca: vinca is a garden no no because of its rampant invasiveness into woodland areas-so when in doubt choose pachysandra.
If you have a native plant garden and a lot of shade then wild ginger is the ground cover you have been looking for. It has handsome dark green circular leaves and forms a dense matte with little ground hugging flowers that are popular with toads and woodland critters. Plant it around the base of a [bird feeder|recycled glass bird feeder] to hide the cast off seeds. It is rumored that there are some evergreen types in more southern climates.
The right ground cover selection is always going to enhance the look of your garden. They cover up all the unattractive areas in your garden and also improve the health of existing plants by shading their roots. Ground cover can be a unifying element in your garden design for many years to come. Put some [recycled glass gazing globes|gazing balls] in a patch of ground cover for an easy garden decoration idea and just enjoy!
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This post was written by admin on March 5, 2010
