Effective Groundcover

[Michigan2Iowa]

Some suggestions?

I currently use a large amount of wood mulch for ground cover in my garden. I'm happy to say I make it myself because I cut a lot of firewood every year, so its not treated or wood industry by-product. However, I would rather have a plant (or plants) to perform the duties instead. I have used Lamium (some call it spotted dead nettle?) to some success, but it is just a slug magnet. I have a neighbor that uses Yellow Archangel Lamiastrum galeobdolon...but I call that stuff Michigan Kudzu after seeing what it has done to my mother's garden back on the farm.

Any other ideas? The area where I need groundcover is in my bulb garden, which is north facing, and gets partial sun in the spring but gets full sun and hot Iowa heat in the summer. I have some daylilies and native prairie Liatris for summer growth.

Thanks,
-Paul-

[grandpasrose]

What about creeping thyme or Lungwort "Pulmonaria officinalis" or Snow in Summer "Cerastium tomentosum".
Creeping thyme is quite low to the ground, takes little care, and has a wonderful aroma.
Lungwort is about four to six inches tall, with green spotted leaves, that have small pink and blue flowers. They do need a lot of water when it is hot though. The spread quite quickly.
Snow in Summer is a greyish green groundcover, that is very rampant, if that is what you are looking for. It will grow wherever you let it. It takes minimal care and is very drought hardy. It is covered with a mass of white flowers in the early summer. Once the blooms are finished they just need to be topped, (our spot where it is, is so large that we use the whipper snipper to top it) and that's it.

Hope you find what your are looking for.

Val

[The Helpful Gardener]

Sun or shade? Dry or moist soil?

Val's sun suggestions are great (the snow-in-summer and the thyme), but the pulmonaria is really a clumping perennial rather than a groundcover. If you are looking for a less rampant form than the Lamiastrum, look no further than its cousin Lamium. Lots of different forms with much nicer flowers than the invasiive one. I particularly like 'Purple Dragon', 'Orchid Frost' (pink) and 'White Nancy'...

Let me know what you have for conditions and we'll talk...

Scott

[grandpasrose]

You need to come and give my pulmonaria a talking to Scott!! It certainly doesn't know it's supposed to be a clumping perennial.
I have it in a number of spots in my yard, and it spreads quite nicely.

Val

[The Helpful Gardener]

Yet another example of how plants react different ways in our different areas (we need to start keeping a list here)...

HG

[opabinia51]

I've always been partial to Kannickanick which has berries that birds eat and humans can eat but, they are pretty woody.

Some of the crop rotation covers probably wouldn't work based on the pure aesthetics but, you may want to consider them:

Buckwheat
Crimson Clover
White Clover
Hairy Vetch

All Legumes that harbour Nitrogen fixing bacteria

Rye

Could form a lawn of Rye but, like a said: probably not the first choice for aesthetics. And Rye gets really hard to remove after it gets established. Anyway, just some suggestions after reading your post and no one elses.

[Michigan2Iowa]

Scott,

I have used Lamium as a ground cover before as I mentioned, but it is simply too attractive to slugs (by the way, Purple Dragon and Orchid Forest happen to be favorites of mine as well).

In the summer the area I'm referring to gets hot, direct sun. I keep the ground evenly moist...but we are expecting a level 4 drought this year so a drought tolerant species would most likely be best.

Opa,

We have used Rye and White clover as a transitional field cover on the farm, but its simply too invasive as a garden ground cover, and my wife doesn't like how it continually jumps onto the lawn... Refresh my memory, is Hairy Vetch have a purple flower?

Thanks all, I'll look into these options
-Paul-

[opabinia51]

You got it. Purple flower.

You might try Kannickanick (spelling?). It's also a low maintenance ground cover. (at least it's supposed to be)

The idea behind it is that you just buzz over it with a weed eater and leave it be. I used to spend hours tediously picking out every weed (groan) but, once you've given it a bit of a buzz cut, it looks pretty good. Though, a word to the wise, once it's in, it' a bit of a pain in the rear end to dig out again.

[The Helpful Gardener]

The bear berry ain't a bad tip for hot dry. Or the Cerastium. Isotoma (used to be Laurentia) is another good long bloomer, and blue is a great color to cool hot ares...