One of the many problems for a new garden is the glaring space between young plants. A new garden can be a little sparse sometimes as you wait for the young plants to mature-which can take about three years when you live in a northern climate. Get to work and plant some ground cover! And a lot of it. Use ground cover to help fill in between plants, fountains and garden decor, or around stepping stones.
Before you start planting just anything you need to choose your ground cover based on the light, water, and traffic conditions in your garden. These are some great ground cover suggestions to fit just about any northern garden need.
Plant some sedum if you have a very sunnygarden. It comes in a variety of color shades and growth habits. Sedum will thrive in hot sun and poor soil. It is often used on a lot of those new fangled green roof tops to give you an idea of what kind of environment it likes. Hot, hot and hot! It is not a good choice on a path, though, as it can’t handle being disturbed at great length.
Another good choice for a sunny garden with a path and some stepping stones, is the kitchen herb called thyme. Thyme is great for an area that gets some foot traffic because it smells good when you step on it. Your landscape will have an English Cottage feel with this kitchen herb that comes in many different varieties to suit your needs…to name a few.
If you have a shade garden you really should consider some pachysandra. It is a good choice for an area that gets very little sun or an area that gets some dappled sun. Pachysandra is nice because it will hide the ugly browning leaves of spring bulbs which you are not supposed to remove. Pachysandra always looks good and is easy to maintain.Pachysandra is less intrusive than vperrywinkle, another popular ground cover choice.
Wild ginger is a great choice for the shady woodland garden. It has handsome dark green circular leaves and forms a dense matte with little ground hugging flowers that are popular with toads and woodland critters. Plant it around the base of a recycled glass bird feeder to hide the cast off seeds. It is rumored that there are some evergreen types in more southern climates.
No matter what the conditions in your garden, the right ground cover will improve the look of your landscape. They cover up all the ugly areas in your garden and also improve the vigor of existing plants by shading their roots. Use ground cover to pull all the elements of your garden together. Put some recycled glass gazing globes in a patch of ground cover for an easy garden decoration idea and just enjoy!