Ground Cover Plants

The most commonly grown ground cover plants in a Western garden are Fescues- (Festuca) plants from a genus of about 300 species of tufted grasses, belonging to the grass family Poaceae. No doubt grasses are wonderful ground cover plants, but the lawn we envisage is that of the bowling green or the golf club, not that muddy patch outside the window!

Ask a child what a garden has in it and they will probably answer "A lawn", and they will think of football, or picnics or games; they rarely think about mowing a lawn!

Gardening is certainly not fun if the biggest task in the garden each weekend is mowing the lawn. So what are the alternatives for ground cover plants apart from the traditional turf?

If your football-pitch maintenance days are over why not consider reducing the area of lawn, enlarging your borders so you can redesign them to give your garden a new lease of life? Do you need grass at all, what about paving, with a variety of ground cover plants throughout?

 

Your new borders need not be high-maintenance; by thoughtful selection of ground cover plants you can focus on some stunning specimen plants surrounded by ground cover plants such as Alchemilla mollis and hostas.

Consider establishing a herb wheel where the ground cover plants are multi-purpose:low-maintenance, attractive, scented, weed supressors and enhance your cooking. This type of feature can be enhanced with pots, fountains and statues.

Ground cover plants are also a must-have for those difficult areas such as beneath trees and greedy plants, near to walls and buildings and where traffic is heaviest such as driveways and paths. For instance autumn flowering cyclamen thrive in dry soil under trees; bluebells and ferns can be encouraged to grow between rhododendrons to hide the unsightly branches at ground level; and Irish ivy is the traditional standby for those heavily shaded, dry areas where no other ground cover plants seem to grow, including grass.
Suitable ground cover plants may be shrubs, perennials, summer wildflowers and spring bulbs to break up any block of green.