A carpet of greenery as a ground cover
In some areas of your landscape, lawns are hard to grow and it can be difficult to get to them with a lawnmower. Or maybe you don’t feel like mowing the lawn and would rather opt for another perennial ground cover species that doesn’t require maintenance. There are several options for you if you want to experiment with perennial ground covers other than lawn.
Choosing your ground cover
The majority of perennials ground cover have invasive potential. It is therefore important to install barriers, a fence or a lawn border for example, if you don’t want them to take over your flowerbed. Ground covers are fairly quick to establish; plant them in staggered rows so that they cover up space in no time. Their dense foliage often limits weed growth, so they are low maintenance, ideal for the busy gardener who doesn’t like to spend hours maintaining their landscape.
As with all plants, some varieties of ground cover perennials will prefer full sun, while others will give you their maximum beauty in part shade or even almost full shade. We can have very good results in the undergrowth for example or under very compact trees which limit the access to the sun at their base. If lawn is not growing and mulch is not an option for you, ground covers are the solution to vegetate these more hostile areas.
Perennial ground covers come in different heights. Depending on how you will use them, it is important to know how tall your plant will be when it matures. Also, depending on the type you choose, you may or may not have flowers, some species bloom bringing colour to the garden, while others are favored for their interesting foliage whose hues change with the day. Once again, let your tastes dictate your choices. It is even possible to create really pretty mosaics of colours and textures that will attract the eye of every passer-by.
What about the foot traffic?
Of course, lawns are champions at tolerating foot traffic. Let’s just think about sports fields. If the area where you want to plant a different ground cover is a busy one, you need to choose a perennial that will have some resistance to trampling… and there aren’t many of them. Get the right information from our nursery specialists so you don’t end up having to start over.
Ground cover perennials are ideal in certain conditions, when access is difficult, on uneven ground, to cover low walls or simply to have something different and complementary to the traditional lawn. Choose your ground cover carefully according to your land, its sun exposure and the image you want to get from it – the results will surprise you!
