Tired Of Ugly Mulch? Try Some Ground Cover

New landscapes can have a number of planting problems. 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. So instead of looking at mulch for the next three years, get pro-active 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. Here are just a few of the many ground cover ideas a gardener in a northern climate garden might want to consider.
If you have a sunny garden you might want to consider planting some sedum. Sedum comes in many different colors. Sedum will thrive in hot sun and poor soil. Sedum is used on “green roofs” which are very inhospitable to highlight the kind of conditions it can take: hot, dry and horrible. Hot, hot and hot! It is not a good choice on a path, though, as it can’t take 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. It is good for an area that gets walked on, such as a path, because of it’s aromatic qualities. Give your garden a cozy feeling with thyme-which comes in a variety of colors and smells…to name a few.
Pachysandra is an excellent ground cover choice for a shaded spot. Pachysandr 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. It always looks nice and clean and is easy to control.It is always better to have an easy to control ground cover than an invasive ground cover, like vinca for example which has been implicated in destroying woodland areas.
Wild ginger is a good choice if you have a native plant garden with some shady spots. 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 bird feeder to hide the cast off seeds. It is rumored that there are some evergreen types in more southern climates.
The right ground cover choice is always going to improve the look of your landscape. They cover up all the unattractive areas in your landscape and also improve the health of existing plants by shading their roots. Unify your landscape with ground cover. Put some recycled glass gazing globes in a patch of ground cover for an easy garden decoration idea and just enjoy!