When we need to cover bare patches of soil permanently, we search for perennial ground covers. We need plants, for example, that will spread and grow together quickly to hold eroding hillsides in place.
Ground cover plants are a bit like area rugs in our homes, as we can mix and match them or plant many of the same type of plant to cover bare patches. Usually, it works most quickly if we plant a large number of small plants to spread and grow together and provide coverage of the bare patches.
Evergreens such as Blue Rug Juniper form a decorative mat as does Juniper horizontalis, and these ensure that an area looks neat in all seasons of the year.
Other options include spreading perennial plants such as liriope, bergenia, Epimedium, and Solomon’s Seal, though the leaves will not remain green through the winter in our climate.
For plants that are exceptionally quick growing try Snow in Summer, plumbago, potentilla, sweet woodruff, lamium, stonecrop sedum, thyme, and creeping Veronica repens. There is also a creeping baby's breath and a perennial pachysandra commonly called Japanese Spurge. The word repens means spreading, so look for that have that word in their name.
This is Moya Andrews, and today we focused on groundcovers.
