My Garden was designed for quiet and leisure. No power mower comes into it, for there is no grass to cut. Instead, it is carpeted by a collection of groundcovers.
Quiet is there, and at last, I am beginning to achieve some leisure, although leisure is not so easily gained as I had been led to believe.
Groundcovers do not end all labor, for their very virtue—their will to cover the ground quickly—does extra work when they go where they are not wanted.
Ideal Groundcover
The ideal groundcover takes over rapidly but is easily restrained:
- That grows too thickly for weeds to come through
- That needs no clipping
- That stays green throughout the year
I think bugle weed comes as near as any to answering all these requirements.
Perfectly evergreen in the South and practically so in the North, it does well in any soil and the sun or shade—though better in the shade.
Ajuga Reptans: Bugle Weeds
Ajuga reptans, one of the bugle weeds, has light green leaves and gentian blue flowers that start in April in the South and in May or June in New England.
One in the trade as Ajuga brockbanki also has blue flowers and beautiful curled leaves of dark, burnished wine.
Bugle weeds make a close, flat mat in a short time. However, a variety called Pink Spire is a little taller, equally quick, or quicker, at covering the ground and produces spikes of rose flowers all summer.
Shallow-Rooted Sedums
Sedums accomplish much the same thing as ajugas. They make neat and even covers and, being shallow-rooted, are easily pulled out when they travel too far.
Sedum ternatum’s rosettes of rounded pale green leaves and its lacy white flowers in late spring make a splendid carpet in the shade.
It is called a common stone crop, but with all its good qualities, it is most uncommon in gardens. In the sun, the mossy stone crops take over.
Varieties Of Sedums
Sedum acre is invasive, but Sedum sexangulara, which is similar, makes tidy clumps.
Both have yellow flowers in summer, and their linear leaves turn a warm russet in winter.
White-flowered Sedum lydium is considered superior to either, but I have yet to grow it and have an idea that, like most superior things, it is more difficult to establish.
Fragrant Thymus
The fragrant thymus covers the ground quickly—in the sun and poor, dry soil—but is not altogether reliable.
They can turn brown in spots just when you want the garden to be at its best.
With me, the most dependable is Thymus herba-barona, but I am not sure of the extent of its hardiness since it comes from the hills of Corsica.
Persian Barrenwort: Satisfactory Cover Plants
Epimedium pinnatum sulphureum, the Persian barrenwort, is one of the most satisfactory cover plants I have ever grown.
It is not evergreen; the leaves become bronze in fall and then turn brown, but they persist until after the new ones come out.
This means you have to clip them with hedge shears in late winter to keep the old leaves from hiding the flowers and spoiling the freshness of the new leaves.
Pachysandra And Periwinkle
Pachysandra and periwinkle are the most prosperous of all evergreen groundcovers. Never mind their being commonplace. So is grass.
There is no better green than pachysandra in wide spaces, under trees and shrubs where there are no small plants to smother.
A good stand is practically weed-free. But it takes time (yours) to restrain it, for its underground runners are very determined.
Vinca Minor
Periwinkle (Vinca minor) is equally hard to keep in bounds, and a good deal of weeding is required until it is well established.
It is recommended as a cover for bulbs by some gardeners.
Very stalwart ones will come through it, but their flowers have a choked look, and their decaying foliage makes the planting hideous.
Then, when the bulbs must be separated, getting them out of the thick periwinkle mats is a miserable job.
Hedera Helix Gracilis
Groundcovers are best left to themselves for the economy of labor and peaceful green.
The best form of ivy used as a groundcover is Hedera helix gracilis.
It is neat and small-leaved, slower growing and hardier than the type which is good as a groundcover only in spots where nothing else will grow.
Vines need to make satisfactory groundcovers for their nature to climb, and wherever they come in contact with a tree or shrub, they go.
Shade Lily Turf: Quickest And Cheapest Cover
In the sun or shade, lily turf (Liriope spicata) makes banks’ quickest and cheapest covering. It is evergreen in the South.
In sections of the country where it turns brown in winter, you can replace it with JJuniperus chinensis var. sargentii in sunny places or pachysandra in the shade.
Where greenery in winter is not important, you can consider flowers. In spring, in deep shade, a large bed of lilies of the valley is fragrant and beautiful.
Ceratostigma Plumbaginoides
In the open or under trees, Ceratostigma plumbaginoides is a sheet of gentian blue from the middle of July until September.
I never heard of anyone who had more lilies of the valley than he wanted, but the plumbago increases only too well—though it has been with me many years without causing serious trouble.
Dappled white or cream leaves play an important part in the garden pattern.
Pachysandra Silver Edge
Pachysandra Silver Edge is the variegated form of English ivy, and where scale is not prevalent, Euonymous fortunei are nicely splashed with white or cream.
In the South and on the West Coast, Saxifraga Sarmentosa is often seen. Being almost hardy, it should be tried in Northern gardens.
Its round, scalloped leaves and frail white flowers are very dressy in a shady place where nothing else will grow. It is well-named Mother-of-Thousands.
44659 by Elizabeth Lawrence