Most people who call looking for new gardens and landscaping often mention that creating a low maintenance landscape is important to them. I often explain that there’s no such thing as a low maintenance garden. Gardens always require ongoing maintenance. Earliy in my career, when I was eager to succeed in the landscape industry, I would install new gardens and new landscapes for anyone who called. Once I became established and I got into a position of turning down more work than we take on, I started qualifying clients and projects simply on future maintenance budgets. The fact is, after 45 years in the landscape industry, I can say that the only gardens that we’ve designed and installed, that ultimately failed, were gardens where we didn’t have a hand in maintaining the garden. I’ve never had a garden that we designed, installed and maintained fail.
This leads me to a very important design approach we have used for decades. Bare ground means garden maintenance. Large swaths of mulch between plants means garden maintenance. Covering the ground with colonizing plants helps reduce future weeding and mulching, leading to a garden that will ultimately require less maintenance. Not no maintenance but less maintenance. Groundcovers, as they fill in and spread, act as one of your best gardener helpers. Choosing the right groundcover is important. Certain groundcovers play well with shrubs and trees but they are way too aggressive to coexist with perennials. Other groundcovers spread more slowly and can be managed easier around perennials.
Things to consider when choosing a groundcover for your garden is the height of a groundcover, how aggressive the plant is and what the groundcover will also be planted with are all things that need to be considered.
Here are 5 groundcovers, when placed appropriately, will help lower garden maintenance.
Phlox subulata is a low, spring flowering groundcover with evergreen foliage. This plant works well with all but the lowest herbaceous plants. It can be controlled by cutting back/pulling out as it starts to consume a neighboring plant. One plant has the ability to easily cover a large swath of ground.
Packera aurea is a native plant which flowers in spring. Foliage is ground hugging but small yellow aster like flowers stand about 15″ above the foliage. This is a aggressive ground cover once established. It should only be used in large landscapes with trees and shrubs where it is free to do what it does, colonize quickly. It is too aggressive to plant with many perennials but if you’re looking for a green mulch that will control weeds, this is a good choice.
Geum fragnoides is a ground hugging, spring flowering plant that does a great job controlling weeds. Native to the northeast. Geum can work with taller perennials as well as trees and shrubs.
There are so many great Geraniums. Some will colonize while others will clump. My favorite varieties have fragrant foliage which deter deer. A lot are great at keeping weeds down in the garden.
Amsonia ‘Blue Ice’ isn’t a plant that isconsidered a groundcover but it absolutely has the characteristics to be placed in the groundcover category. Amsonia ‘Blue Ice’ starts as a clumper but once established, it will start to colonize quite a bit of real estate. Blue flowers stand about 12″ in May. Deer resistant.
Carex is a large species of plants that come in many different shapes and sizes.There is essentially a Carex for every cultural situation you’ll come across. Sun, shade, wet, dry, sandy soils or heavy, clay soils, you’ll find a variety that will feel at home. Above is Carex ‘Ice Dance’, a variegated groundcover that becomes a dense 12-18″ weed smothering mat that will keep even the peskiest weeds at bay.
Last but not least is one of my favorite groundcovers, Ceratostigma plumbagnoides. A lot of people will say that Ceratostigma is not hardy to Litchfield County but I’m here to tell you that I have had no difficulty growing this plant for decades in the Litchfield Hills. There are tricks to get this plant to establish and thrive but once it is established, it will be long lived. 8-12″ tall, the brightest blue flowers and red fall color. What’s not to like. It will become a dense, weed smothering mat once established. Give it a try and happy gardening.
