Great Ground Cover Ideas For Your Garden
One of the many problems for a new garden is the glaring space between young plants. Young plants are small in the beginning and you may wonder after the landscaper departs how you ended up with a mulch pile instead of a garden. Tired of looking at mulch, 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. These are some great ground cover suggestions to fit just about any northern garden need.
A full sun garden will benefit from some sedum. It comes in a variety of color shades and growth habits. Sedum is a good choice for a sunny slope with poor soil conditions. It is often used on a lot of those new fangled green roof tops to give you an idea of what kind of environment it likes. Hot, hot and hot! It is not a good choice around a path, though, as it can not handle being disturbed at great length.
Thyme, the beloved kitchen herb, is another great 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.
If you have a shade garden you really should consider some pachysandra. Pachysandra is a good deep shade ground cover that can handle some partial sun. Pachysandra is a good choice under a walnut tree which can be difficult to plant under. 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.
Wild ginger is a good choice if you have a native plant garden with some shady spots. 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 to hide the cast off seeds. Supposedly there are some evergreen varieties.
No matter what the conditions in your garden, the right ground cover will enhance the look of your garden. Ground covers help cool the roots of plants in your garden and hide unsightly looking detraction. Unify your garden design with ground cover. Put some gazing balls in a patch of ground cover for an easy garden decoration idea and just enjoy!
