This rocky front entry has little to no grass, using various groundcover plants instead.
Low-Maintenance Ground Covers
A baffling problem for many gardeners is what to grow in areas that are challenging. Have a tough slope or area that is hard to mow safely? Want to fill in around taller plants with a living mulch or grow a “stepable carpet” around your walkway pavers? Here are 10 low-maintenance ground cover plants that add curb appeal!
What Are Groundcovers?
Groundcovers are essentially low-growing perennial plants that never reach more than a couple of inches in height. Most of these plants spread easily. There are many reasons that ground covers are planted. They’re great for:
- areas where grass just doesn’t grow well, especially in shady areas such as under a tree.
- covering slopes or steep hillsides where it’s hard to mow but also where plants can help with erosion.
- hot, dry areas which receive little irrigation (think sedum!).
- areas that border patios, driveways, and lawns as well as between patio stones and stepping pavers
- high-traffic areas that need something tougher than grass.
And don’t just think of ground covers as cover-ups! They can provide flowering color and interest to your landscape. They can be beneficial to pollinators, stabilize soil, and grow where other plants won’t grow, such as under a tree.
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It’s important to choose the right ground cover for your needs, plant ground cover correctly, and also make sure that you pick a ground cover that can’t get quickly out of control.
1. Bearberry
Bearberry (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi) is extremely tolerant of poor soil, bearberry will even will grow in pure sand and will grow in sun or shade. The six-inch-tall evergreen has small, glossy, dark-green leaves that turn bronze-ish-red in autumn.
In spring, the entire plant is covered with tiny white flowers tinged with pink. These mature to bright red berries that birds love. Spaced 12 inches apart, plants will form a thick carpet in two or three seasons. Bearberry is hardy to Zone 2.
2. Hen-and-Chicks
Hens-and-chicks (Sempervivum) are great tucked between pavers and stones that line your pathways but you probably don’t want to walk on them, especially barefoot! They thrive in hot dry places where nothing else will grow and make a fine living mulch for a xeriscape garden. Zones 3-8.
Hens and chicks multiply fast and will soon tightly fill in a bare spot making it hard for weeds to gain a foothold.
3. Sedums
Sedum comes in many shapes and sizes but the low growing ones are perfect groundcovers for those hot dry slopes where nothing else grows. These spreading, mat-forming types of sedums resist drought by storing water in their fleshy stems and roots.
Practically bullet-proof, they are able to withstand any amount of abuse you throw at them and their blossoms will attract a multitude of bees and other beneficials. Zones 3-10. Two good choices, both hardy to Zone 4, are two-inch-tall ‘John Creech’ two-row sedum (Sedum spurium cv.), with pink flowers in June, and the six-inch-tall ‘Fuldaglut’ two-row sedum, with reddish or purple foliage and rose-red flowers from July through September.
See our guide on growing sedum.
4. Creeping Phlox
Creeping phlox (Phlox stolonifera) works well in hot spots or sandy spots with full sun and maintains thick foliage all year-round as well as pretty blooms in the early spring. In full sun, phlox provides a thick mass of carpet-like foliage which is completely covered with an abundance of blooms. See our guide on growing phlox.
New phlox planted in the landscape.
5. Foamflower
One of the best native plants to use as a shade groundcover, Foamflower (Tiarella cordifolia) has 8- to 10-inch spikes of fluffy white flowers in spring and evergreen foliage that adds visual texture to a woodland path and an added layer of interest between taller plants in your shade garden. Tolerant of a wide range of growing conditions from dry to moist but well-drained soils, this undemanding plant performs reliably in the garden. Zones 3-9.
6. Creeping Thyme
Creeping Thyme (Thymus serpyllum) is sun-loving perennial herb with small lavender flowers that bloom in the summer and an evergreen mat of low-growing foliage.
7. Blue Fescue Grasses
Ornamental grasses such as blue fescue (Festuca glauca) work well in dry, hot spots and also add beautiful texture to the landscape.
Image: Blue Fescue
8. Creeping Junipers
This ground cover is suitable for parched areas. A popular choice is blue rug juniper (Juniperus horizontalis ‘Wiltonii’), a tough-as-nails ground hugger that is only 4 to 6 inches tall. Its intense silver-blue needles take on pleasing purple tones in winter. Although a single plant may eventually grow to 8 feet in diameter, the recommended spacing is 2 to 3 feet for quick coverage. Blue rug juniper is hardy to Zone 3.
Image: Juniperus horizontalis ‘Wiltonii’
9. Sweet Woodruff
With bright green fragrant leaves, sweet woodruff (Galium odorata) bears clusters of white flowers in spring. It is an excellent low growing groundcover for shady spots and under trees and stays green until the snow hits. And that sprinkling of tiny white flowers is just sublime. Mine grow under a forsythia outside my living room window where I can keep an eye out for their early blossoms. Zones 3-9.
Photo credit: fotomarekka/Shutterstock
10. Lamium (Deadnettle)
Wonderful as ground cover in a shady area, Spotted deadnettle (Lamium maculatum) can cover large areas quickly, prevailing in the most unforgiving of conditions. It’s deer-resistant and can tolerate drought, heat, and cold. This low-maintenance plant thrives year-round! Pink or white flowers bloom in spring and summer.
Photo credit: nnattalli/Shutterstock
Planting Ground Cover
Remember that coverage isn’t instantaneous. You don’t want to squeeze ground cover plants together; most grow and cover their soil surface by year three. Pay special attention to the spacing on the plant tags; this will help you calculate how many plants you need. As a general rule, you wan to space plants so that the distance between each one is generally equal to their maximum width. Here is a good guideline to gauge how many plants you need from the National Gardening Association:
- 100 plants spaced 6 inches apart cover about 20 square feet
- 12 inches apart, they’ll cover 85 square feet; and
- 18 inches apart, they’ll cover 200 square feet
Before you plant most ground cover plants, ensure that all weeds and grass has been eliminated. There are a number of ways to remove weeds (hoes and tillers) or, if you have time, you can wet the area and cover with clear plastic for 4 to 6 weeks to solarize the soil.
Scatter composted manure over the planting site and even the planting surface Then place your plants on top of the soil in zigzag rows. When ready to plant, dig holes to the same depth as, and two to three times wider than the plants’ root balls. Remember to place the plant in the hole so that it’s at the same soil level as it was in the pot. Firm the soil and water in. Cover in organic mulch about 2 inches thick, but about 6 inches away from the plant stems.
We hope this helps! If you’re having trouble growing grass or other plants in your yard, have you discovered clover? Gardeners are returning to recognizing the benefits of clover in lawn grass mixtures—or even as a replacement for grass. Learn more about the clover comeback.
If you are interested in replacing your lawn or part of your lawn, discover ground covers which are grass alternatives!
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We have a California native Lippia nordiflora ground cover. It has little pink(ish) flowers and is very low maintenance, we cut it back once a year. We have not had much success with creeping thyme or creeping(?) rosemary. We are in planting zone 9b.
I'm in zone 9b central California and I grow creeping thyme and rosemary just fine. I'm slowly learning how not all zone 9B's are the same.
What plants are deer resistant and grow in a shady area?
We bought a house in North Carolina this past summer, close to the Virginia border, and away from the coast. The spring we had beautiful pink flowers, which appear to be creeping phlox. I noticed a small plant at the edge of the phlox appears to be dying. How do we contain creeping phlox so that it doesn’t smother other plant roots, and grows only where we want it?
Hi, Cindy,
You might try edging—the “strip” type bands that you set in ground at ground level. Perennials like ground covers are known for sleeping in year one (not growing much), creeping in year two (stretching, so to speak), and leaping in year three (meaning spreading). You want to effectively block the root spread.
Another alternative would be to dig it up every year.
Let’s see if readers of this page have other ideas…
Planted thyme w/pink flowers last year in Pacific Northwest. This year it just sat slightly grown. We read that sandy soil is best. We distributed sand. It plumped up and grew fast. A fungus appeared. We sprayed. Long-cold winter went to summer days at high heat. We watered lightly was not sure to wet too much. Now, it is browning/drying out in several spots. Should I have watered more? Trying to save it. Bees love it.
Hey Jim, I planted Lemon Thyme in Ohio. They are currently about 8 inches in diameter but I trim them in the fall. BTW, I also planted them in the fall. We get a fair amount of rain here but not quite as much as the Pac NW. About 40 inches per year where I am located. We also have high humidity. Typically, above 55%. I made a rock garden and mixed the already existing soil with sand and then poured the mixed soil back on the ground between the rocks. I included some succulents between the rocks for interest. Since planting 2 years ago the thyme and succulents have thrived. They have survived 2 winters at temps as low as 10 degrees. I do not water them. I let the weather do that. I planted them along a concrete walk way and trained them by trimming them to grow between the 18 inch concrete step stones. I let them trail in to the rock garden too and only trim them there if the encroach on the succulents. They are planted on the North East side of the house and spend half of the day in direct sunlight, then some partial shade and then full shade depending on the position of the sun. They give a beautiful lemony scent and can withstand the occasional crushing under foot. I suspect the fungus might be from too much water. Try adding more sand for drainage. They may be suffering from root rot. They can take the heat and the cold. I have found that controlling the water is key. Maybe try not watering them and let the weather do that. Maybe the combination of more sand and less help with water will help your plants thrive too. Hope this is helpful.
I live in Northwest South Dakota. I need a good fast-spreading ground covering for our backyard/patio area. The top layer is a stamped patio. Then there are large boulder-type rocks to form three wall levels. We need a good fast-growing ground cover to put in several spaces in between the rocks of each layer. I also would love to add some ground cover at the lowest level along with larger flowering plants. This area is shaded by trees in the summer but it does get the morning sunshine for about 4 hours.
Here in Vacaville, Ca. We are growing Lipia Nordiflora it is about 4-6” high spreads like ivy and has little pink flowers and is native to the southwest. Love the way it cascades over brick.
What is a good ground cover for an area mostly shaded. Area is adjacent to wooded area that prevents sun most of the summer. It gets maybe a couple hours of sun daily.
