Why Groundcover?

Groundcover plants play a crucial role in the garden ecosystem. They serve as a protective layer for the soil, preventing erosion and inhibiting weed growth. Additionally, they contribute to the efficient use of water by reducing evaporation, offer protection to surrounding plants from harsh winter conditions, and provide necessary shade. These plants also act as a buffer for rainwater, purify the air, lower ambient temperatures, and promote biodiversity within urban spaces. Moreover, ground cover plants require minimal maintenance while providing weed suppression, moisture retention, and adding visual interest and texture to garden areas.

Ground cover can take many forms such as plants, straw, wood chips, plastic, rubber mulch, or even lawn. It can be annual or perennial, trailing or clump type, evergreen or deciduous, woody or herbaceous. Typically growing low (under 12 inches) and with vigor, ground cover acts as a weed barrier.

I did a TV segment on KSL Studio 5 today all about ground covers. You can watch the full segment here.

Find my other TV segments HERE

Thank you @Olsonsgreenhousegardens and @butterfieldgardens for supplying all of the lovely goundcovers for my TV segment.

I couldn’t get through everything during the segement. I only got through the smaller varieties, so have listed both out here for you along with some longer descriptions of things I have pictures of that I could locate in my picture stash. Ha!

Just remember. If you don’t cover your soil, Mother Nature will.

Ground Covers

Small Area

• Creeping Phlox
• Aubretia
• Candytuft
• Snow in summer
• Creeping speedwell
• Lamium (shade)
• Sweet woodruff (shade)
• Thyme
• Ice plant
• Sedums

Large Area

• Bishops weed (part sun)
• Japense anemones (part sun)
• Lamiastrum (shade)
• Vinca (minor) (sun or added)
• Brunnera
• At John’s Ward (part shade to sun)
• Mahonia repens (Creeping Oregon Grape)

Carly’s Top Picks for Ground Covers (Small)

• Creeping Phlox: Known for its vibrant colors and semi-evergreen nature, creeping phlox is a springtime bloomer that’s perfect for rock gardens.
• Aubretia: Phlox’s pretty sister (in my opinion) Often paired with phlox, aubrieta has tidy foliage and is semi-evergreen, offering a neat appearance throughout the year.
• Candytuft: This evergreen subshrub blooms in spring and maintains a green color even in winter, making it ideal for year-round interest.
• Snow in Summer: With silvery foliage and white blooms, this plant is an early summer bloomer that thrives in rocky areas.
• Creeping Speedwell: Known for its blues, purples and pinks, this early summer bloomer stays low to the ground and is excellent for rock gardens.
• Lamium: Available in various colors, lamium is a shade-loving ground cover that adds texture and color to shaded areas.
• Sweet Woodruff: This herbaceous plant fills in nicely, especially in damp, shaded areas, and features a whirl of white flowers in late spring.
• Wooly Thyme: With many non-culinary varieties available, thyme makes a great ground cover that can withstand foot traffic.
• Sedum album (stonecrop). A low growing, sun loving, drought tolerant ground cover. Great for rock gardens.

Creeping Phlox is a beautiful semi-evergreen perennial ground cover that is in full bloom right now. Comes in pink, red, white, blue, rose, lavender, purple, and thrives in full sun in rich, well drained soil Hardy in zones 3-9, & grows about 6 inches in height and can spread out up to 2 feet to form a mat. It also attracts butterflies and is considered a relatively deer-resistant ground cover.

Thyme, Thyme, and more Thyme.

There are so many types of ornamental Thymes (which are not used for culinary purposes). A low growing ground cover ranging from almost flat to 12 inches high with blooms ranging in colors from pink, mauve, magenta & purple… and rarely white. This hardy, sun loving plant can handle some foot traffic, likes well drained soil (even sandy soil), can thrive in poor soil, requires litttle to no fertilizer or pruning and is typically used in rock gardens, around gardens and stone paths, & in xeriscapes. Thyme that gets too little of sun, will be leggy, and sparse. Some Thymes are great for really small spaces, i.e stepping stones and flagstones. A few options would be would be Elfin Thyme, Wholly Thyme & Leprechaun Thyme. Thymes for larger spaces would be Creeping Pink Thyme, Caraway Thyme, Turbo Thyme.

Pictured above is Thymus longicaulis or Turbo Thyme.

Lamiastrum ‘archangel’. This is probably the most vigorous ground cover I’ll post about, but it does have its place in a landscape. It’s a great choice of plant for large areas; especially under a grove of trees. (Just for reference it is considered an invasive plant in the Pacific Northwest if you live there.)

Lamiastrum is easily grown in most conditions from part sun to full shade in all different types of soil. Although it prefers moist soil and growth will be more dense under those conditions, it does tolerate drought and dry sites well. It has a beautiful almost silver and green variegated leaf. It blooms bright yellow hooded blooms for a few weeks in mid-spring. Blooms shoot up on taller stocks making the ground cover go for about a foot high, to close to 2 feet high with its blooms. Lamiastrum is from the mint family. (Maybe that’s where its vigor comes from?!) Plants are semi-evergreen, retaining their leaves through mild winters but dying back to the ground in cold climates in the winter and re-emerging in early spring. It spreads by rooting at nodes, from stem and root fragments, and by seed. Hardy in Zones 4-9.

Another similar, but less aggressive variety of Lamiastrum is ‘Hermann’s Pride’. This would be a great choice if you like the look of this variegated ground cover but have a smaller area to plant.

Candytuft (Iberis) is a cold hardy, fast-growing ever green perennial subshrub used as an ornamental plant for rock gardens, bedding, and borders. Candytuft grows best in full sun, usually has white flowers, but some cultivars have pink or lilac blooms. This plant prefers well drained soil.

Brunnera. It’s an easy to grow, deer-resistant, low-growing, clump-forming perennial with heart shaped leaves & delicate tiny blue flowers in the spring. The flowers remind me of a forget-me-not flower, but the plant is a lot more beautiful (in my opinion). It’s a great shade plant that can tolerate dry shade; which I feel can be a struggle to find plants that like those conditions. Blossoms left to seed will spread.

Vinca minor (not to be confused with Vinca major), often called periwinkle (getting it’s common name from the color of the flower.).This trailing, evergreen plant is tough, low-maintenance, and nearly pest-free. Vinca minor is shade-loving (can handle part shade/part sun), drought tolerant when established (handling dry shade areas well), deer resistant with flowers that are rabbit proof. Vinca minor has periwinkle colored flowers in spring and summer, has a dense habit of 3-6 inches tall with runners that spread out, glossy, almost waxy leaves, & smothers most weeds. There are numerous cultivars, with different flower colors and even variegated foliage. Preferring good drainage and rich soil, (but will tolerate poor soils) they can quickly neutralize an area. Making them a good choice for large planting areas (a great option for under scrub oak or on a hill side to help reduce soil erosion.) Hardy in zones 4-8.

Sweet woodruff (actually an herb) is an herbaceous creeping, deer resistant, mat-forming perennial that is often used as a ground cover in shady areas (great for under trees or woodland gardens). It has pretty star-shaped whorls of leaves and lacy  white flowers in spring (April/May). Its leaves have a sweet vanilla scent.Sweet woodruff grows about 6 -12 inches high & prefers partial to full shade. It can tolerate medium to wet soil and even dry shade! Though it will naturalize much more quickly in a wet area. If conditions are ideal, its spread can become more aggressive. Be sure and plant it in a wet area only if you want it to naturalize.You can control its spread by giving it a mow with the mower set on high, or even spaying the outer edges with a shovel. If conditions become to hot and dry in the summer, the plant may go dormant until it receives more water.Sweet Woodruff will also grow under pine trees (a tricky place to find something that grows).Sweet Woodruff is exceptionally easy to grow, spreading by underground roots and seed. It has no serious disease or insect problems and requires no fertilizer. Hardiness Zones: 4 to 8

Mahonia repens {Creeping Oregon Grape}. This low growing subshrub flowers bright yellow in spring, followed by a blue berry in summer, which is edible, but bitter. Our peacock loved eating the berries!Oregon grape is considered evergreen though it can turn bronze in the fall and winter months. Oregon Grape is used as an ornamental plant in natural landscaping. It is water conserving, drought tolerant, & looks great in a native plant habitat or wildlife garden. A great low water-needing ground cover type shrub for shade and in gardens under oaks to reduce or eliminate irrigation. Berries and foliage are resistant to deer.

Lamium: Available in various colors, lamium is a shade-loving ground cover that adds texture and color to shaded areas. Several varieties and foliage colors available.

Finding Ground Covers in Utah

Ground covers are an important part of landscaping that offer both beauty and functionality. With these recommendations, you can transform your outdoor space into a thriving, low-maintenance garden.

All of my recommended groundcovers are readily available here in Utah. All of the ground covers shown in the segment are grown from Butterfield Gardens, THEE local Utah groundcover specialists! They supply a lot of nurseries we have here in Utah. They also supply Olsons Greenhouse Gardens with all of the groundcovers shown which supply all of the Walmart’s and Homedepot’s throughout the state.

XO, Carly