Ground Cover

After attempting to do weeding on a gazillion-degree humid day (silly me) I can honestly say that I never want to do weeding again. A girl can dream.... Towards that goal I got to thinking maybe I would plant ground cover which would be attractive as well as keeping the nasty weeds at bay. So I have a couple of questions:

1) Will ground cover keep the weeds out entirely? or will I still have to weed in/around it? Which would rather defeat my purposes.

2) Will ground cover choke out my 'real' plants, i.e., the flowers, shrubs, trees? And, if not, conversely, can I later add in more 'real' plants easily, or will I kill the ground cover (if I cut its roots or whatever)?

3) How do I keep the ground cover from spreading TOO far? I don't want anything viney that would invade the rest of my yard or into my neighbors' yards.

Lastly, any recommendations for ground covers that would be green year-round and maybe with some flowers as well? I am at the Jersey shore (zone 6, I believe), the soil's rather dense, and one garden is shade/part sun and the other is mostly just sun... not sure there's one ground cover that would work in both.

Thanks!
Cindi

To answer all the questions depends on what groundcover, but I have found that someone might recommend one and it totally doesn't work in my yard, for instance, I was told Pacysandra would take over...it is still in the same spot I planted it, years ago with only a little growth

Vinca is a great cover, for both shade and sun but does spread a lot but pretty easily controlled
For shade I love Sweet Woodruff, I have no problems with weeds growing under
Ivy would be 1 that would choke out other plants

I use hammer in edging to control the spread

There are many plants that can grow as ground cover, but I do not think that any one plant will answer all the problems.

1) 'So dense it keeps out the weeds'- well some are dense enough that they do a really good job. Not always 100%, but some can come very close. The ones that do the best job are ground covers that are vine-like enough to cover itself, and grow over itself in multiple layers. Also, ground covers that are rampant enough to choke out the weeds.
If you use better behaved plants, then weeds can grow through them. Would something like 75% to 90% control be good for you? Where now you are pulling 10 weeds, only 1-2 might grow. This is the sort of weed suppression you can get with the more aggressive ground covers.

2) 'Allow other desired plants to grow'- Well, again, this depends on the ground cover. The best weed-suppressing ground covers also are pretty aggressive toward good plants, and only the larger plants will make it. Shrubs over about 3' are usually safe, or you could trim a clear band around the desirable plants. The wimpy ground covers that are safer around delicate or small plants are not much for weed suppression.

3) 'Not invasive into the rest of my garden'- well, again we can discuss aggressive ground covers vs wimpy ones, but I think you already can figure out where that is going.
You can add header board around the more delicate things to keep out the aggressive ground cover.
You can add header board around the aggressive ground cover to help confine it. I would use 6" minimum wide material, and bury it 4-5" deep. Many of the best weed-suppressing ground covers also run underground. You will use the exposed part of the header to know where to trim. Do not allow anything to cross that line!

4) Other: Many weeds grow when the seed is exposed to light. If you can keep the area deep mulched, then no light hits the soil, so many weeds will not sprout. The ones that do are mostly growing in the soft mulch, so are much easier to pull out. If you use the finer mulch, then set the header so perhaps only an inch shows before you mulch. If you use a coarser mulch, then you might need to leave a couple of inches of header exposed so it does not get buried in mulch.

5) Combined effect:
a) remove all visible weeds. water, fertilize, wait for another crop to sprout and remove them. You have now removed a lot of the potential weeds. Make sure you dig out the roots of perennials like dandelion and similar weeds that can come back from the roots.
b) Rototill lots of soil conditioner into any areas large enough to be able to handle a tiller. Hand prep where there are already good plants. If you are going to use header, install it after the tilling is done. Easy when the soil is softened!
c) Plant something from flats.
d) Add mulch. A fine mulch (almost as fine as soil conditioner) can be as little as 1" deep, though I really would go deeper unless your ground cover is really tiny. Coarser mulch needs to be thicker, and thicker could bury the new ground cover plants. You want it to be deep enough that it does not expose the soil if it is disturbed. Top dress as needed.

Hello all -- Revisiting this thread I started a couple of years ago, inquiring about ground cover to keep out weeds. Well, I planted the entire area (fairly large) with pachysandra.... and I hate it. We put it in last year and this year it still looks like individual little plants, just sloppy looking. It's taller than I thought too; I thought it would "lie down" and spread but it's not. Just a poor choice on my part for that particular garden. So I want to pull it all out (anybody want a LOT of pachys.?) and I'm resuming a search for a better ground cover. I want some that is very low-growing but dense. Suggestions (with photos would be cool) are invited.

These will grow in bright shade to a fair amount of sun:
Lysmachia nummularia
Campanula (several species)
Viola hederacea
Duchesnia indica
Ajuga reptans

You will have to do the research to see if they will grow in your area, and what they look like.

Lysmachia nummularia runs, but not as aggressive as most vines.
Most Campanula are not spreading very much, but look into C. portenschlagiana (aka C. muralis)
Viola: There are a lot of other Violas, too. Many can be invasive, shooting seeds into nearby areas. This is good when you want to cover a large area, so maybe that is OK. V. hederacea is not as aggressive as some, and might be a dainty little addition to other planted areas.
Duchesnia is one that can run, but is not a vine. It is a distant relative of strawberry, and grows with runners the same way. Birds will eat the fruit and can spread it that way, too. Easily mowed every few years to keep it low, neat and encourage new growth.
Ajuga- many varieties from green to bronze leaves, and variegated. Will do OK in sun, too.

For a bit more sun:
Mazus reptans
Scaevola 'Mauve Clusters'

For a drier full sun:
Achillea- the leaf mass stays low, tight, the flowers stand up several inches to over a foot. Several species, many varieties.
Arabis caucasica- many flower colors.
Cerastium tomentosum- billowy, may be short lived.
Convolvulus sabatius
Phylla nodiflora
Thyme- any of several, but better ground covers are Wooly Thyme or Creeping Thyme, there are others that may spread. Many grow as a low mound, not so spreading, or else grow too slow (Elfin Thyme) for this job.

Hi BeachGirl.
You might want to give the Pachysandra a bit more time. This will certainly not make it shorter, but at some point it should be established enough to start spreading. There are many plants that seem to follow the gardening rule of:
The first year they sleep, the second year they creep, the third year they leap.
A ground cover that spread a lot the first year might eat your house the second year.
That said, one ground cover I have that might fit your requirements is Potentilla neumanniana. I got some at Bluestone Perennials years ago. It has tiny bright yellow flowers. It is only about 2" tall. For me it does spread by rooting at the edges of the patch, and also the occasional seedling pops up nearby, especially between the cracks on my brick walkway. Mine does not bloom a lot, likely because it is in a pretty shady spot. It seems quite drought tolerant. Note-the photo on Bluestone's website makes you think the flowers are big. They are tiny. Here is a photo of it in my yard, in a non-blooming state. Here is Seattle, zone 8, it is evergreen. As you can see it does not swamp the little shrub. It "plays nicely".
Here is a link:

http://www.bluestoneperennials.com/PONE.html

I have not seen Pachsandra growing well. Perhaps it does not like this area (the whole SF Bay Area from mild coastal to hot inland).
It can be clipped or mown shorter, and this would encourage more growth lower down.

Potentilla is a good idea, if it will grow in your zone. Full sun to a fair amount of shade, though as Pistil notes, less sun = less flowers.

Pistil, I will check on this potentilla. I like how it looks in your garden. On the Bluestone website, wow, you're right--it looks like it is ALL just yellow flowers. I'm in Zone 6 at the Jersey shore, so I think it will do well. I'm going to try it in a small patch and if I like it, I'll replace the pachys.

BTW, Pistil, off topic: I lived in Seattle for several years and have lots of family and friends in Wash. I consider that my 'other home.' I miss it!

Thanks,
Cindi

Editing to add: This site says $6.95, is that per plant...? I'll go broke, I have a very large garden I'm trying to cover. Yikes, might have to re-think.

This message was edited Jun 16, 2015 12:47 PM

Would you be interested in a trade by mail? I bet if I do some trimming where it is growing over the walk I could make some new starter plants. I trim it back once or twice a year anyway. I looked and you have a pretty empty trade list. I haven't done much trading but this would be easy.

Beachgirl, IF I were you, I would go to a book Store or local libraby as there will be plenty books with Pictures of lots of ground cover plants, as already mentioned, there are dozen of those plants.
Look also at some of the Rockery type plants as once some of those become established, they are great spreaders, Some of the succulents spread across the ground.

The best way to get the correct plants with regarding your worry about the plants taking over, IS when you research the plants by name, also research the height, spread, and zones these selected plants thrive in.
Remember some will like bright light while other will require a bit of shade, JUST like all plants, you need to learn what conditions they thrive in or you waste a lot of money on plants that were never going to do the job you purchases them for.
To be honest, there are very few plants that will cover an area your talking about within a couple of years, as mentioned above, the plants take a good year to get used to there new environment, then they will slowly begin to grow making new growth and flowers IF they are flowering plants.

Take your time this season and really do research for your needs, I can give you a list of plants BUT there is no point as I'm unaware of exactly what it is you want, I know you want ground cover BUT, ground cover to me will be far different for you. It's better IF you know what your expecting from the many plants that will cover ground BUT also be aware that for the next few years, you will still need to be weeding as there is no easy way or magic switch to speed the process up.
do your homework first then you will have a better idea of colour, shape, texture, spread and height.

Good luck and Kindest Regards.
WeeNel.

Beachgirl, IF I were you, I would go to a book Store or local libraby as there will be plenty books with Pictures of lots of ground cover plants, as already mentioned, there are dozen of those plants.
Look also at some of the Rockery type plants as once some of those become established, they are great spreaders, Some of the succulents spread across the ground.

The best way to get the correct plants with regarding your worry about the plants taking over, IS when you research the plants by name, also research the height, spread, and zones these selected plants thrive in.
Remember some will like bright light while other will require a bit of shade, JUST like all plants, you need to learn what conditions they thrive in or you waste a lot of money on plants that were never going to do the job you purchases them for.
To be honest, there are very few plants that will cover an area your talking about within a couple of years, as mentioned above, the plants take a good year to get used to there new environment, then they will slowly begin to grow making new growth and flowers IF they are flowering plants.

Take your time this season and really do research for your needs, I can give you a list of plants BUT there is no point as I'm unaware of exactly what it is you want, I know you want ground cover BUT, ground cover to me will be far different for you. It's better IF you know what your expecting from the many plants that will cover ground BUT also be aware that for the next few years, you will still need to be weeding as there is no easy way or magic switch to speed the process up.
do your homework first then you will have a better idea of colour, shape, texture, spread and height.

Good luck and Kindest Regards.
WeeNel.

Pistil: Sure, I'd love to trade. I've never done it so would need to figure it out. How much pachys do you want? Needless to say I have A LOT. ;-) Some I've identified some other small spots where I will put it. But a great deal of it will go to waste if I don't find a new home for them. If you'd like to message me, off-forum, we can work it out.

WeeNel: I am definitely doing better research this go-round. Last year I had seen pachysandra here at my office and it looked great, so that's what I went with. Now that I examine it again, I realize the placement of it is far different than at my home garden--here it's on a hill thus I look at it dead-on, vs. home where it's on a flat, though raised, area and I see it at ground level from my driveway and the street, and it looks scraggly from that angle. Ah, well, live and learn--in gardening that's become my motto.

Cindi

I use a lot of sedum Gold Carpet as groundcover and it's gone nuts this year :) It's very low-growing and spreads very well. I don't have a problem with keeping it under control as I have it in a rock garden and I just pull up what I want to get rid of. The picture shows it in front of my roses before I thinned the sedum.

In fact, if you're interested and willing to pay the flat rate postage, I'll send you a small flat rate box stuffed with it as it's sitting in my garage right now LOL.. not in dirt, just in a bowl :)

(sorry about the sideways pic!!)