There are many low groundcovers resilient enough to withstand being walked on. Let these easy-growing groundcovers be the solution to your landscaping needs.
Here are some of the best groundcovers to choose from:
Rupturewort – Green Carpet
Sun Exposure: Sun to part shade
Soil: Well-drained soil
Height: Under six inches
The vibrant green of Rupturewort, also known as Green Carpet, perks up gray leaved plants (like Lavenders) and offsets darker green plants. It is soft to walk on and can take quite a bit of foot traffic, as long as it is not continual. Trailing down the side of a container, it adds interest and color to container plantings.
Irish Moss
Sun Exposure: Sun to part shade
Soil: Well-drained soil
Height: Under six inches
Handsome, lush chartreuse to yellow moss-like foliage forms a soft mat that is good along walkways and between stepping stones. Tiny translucent white flowers add to its beauty in spring. This evergreen perennial tolerates moderate foot traffic.
Thyme
Sun Exposure: Full Sun
Soil: Well-drained Soil
Height: To 10 inches
Enjoy the fresh smell of thyme underfoot in your garden. This easy-to-grow groundcover offers fragrant foliage and pink or white flowers in the spring and summer.
Blue Star Creeper
Sun Exposure: Part to full sun
Soil: Evenly moist soil
Height: two to four inches
A wonderful creeping perennial for filling the edge of a pond or moist landscape. Tiny green leaves form a dense, low mat between stepping stones, under shrubs, and around ponds and decks. Tiny light blue star-shaped flowers cover the plant in spring.
Sweet Woodruff
Sun Exposure: Part to Full Sun
Soil: Well-drained Soil
Height: To 12 inches
Sweet Woodruff is the perfect groundcover for adding fragrance to your backyard. When the leaves are crushed beneath your feet, they smell like freshly mown hay. This is one plant that isn’t prone to invasiveness and tends to form well-mannered clumps.
Brass Buttons
Sun Exposure: Full Sun
Soil: Well-drained Soil
Height: Six inches
Here’s a great plant you probably haven’t heard of. Brass buttons offers tiny, fine-textured foliage that’s tinged black and button-shape, bronze-color flowers. Plus, it tolerates some degree of traffic, so you can walk on it.
Hardy Ice Plant
Sun Exposure: Full sun
Soil: Well-drained soil
Height: Three to six inches
Vibrant purplish pink two inch flowers cover the fleshy green foliage over a very long period. Heat, drought and salt tolerant, this adaptable plant thrives with little care, even in rocky, unimproved soils. Non-invasive. Plant as a groundcover or add to rock gardens. Evergreen.
Bishop’s Weed – Snow on the Mountain
Sun Exposure: Part to Full Sun
Soil: Well-drained Soil
Height: To 12 inches
Fast spreading bishop’s weed will thrive where most other shade plants fail. Because it is so vigorous, it’s best suited for shaded slopes or other areas where it has plenty of room to roam.
Lamium
Sun Exposure: Full Shade
Soil: Moist, well-drained Soil
Height: Eight inches
Lamium is an excellent, easy-care groundcover. Most types bloom through the summer, producing clusters of pink or white flowers. Even when they’re not blooming, they have great silver-marked foliage that brightens up shady corners. What a beautiful alternative to a struggling lawn!
Golden Moneywort
Sun Exposure: Part to Full Shade
Soil: Moist Soil
Height: Three inches
Golden moneywort is a superb choice for adding color to shade, thanks to its golden foliage. Also called creeping Jenny, this is a fast-spreading plant perfect for covering lots of ground.
Dianthus Flashing Lights
Sun Exposure: Full sun
Soil: Well-drained soil
Height: To 18 inches
This hardy, mat-forming perennial has bright-green leaves and salmon-scarlet flowers. This evergreen perennial will do well as a showy ground or bank cover and useful as edging plants.
Vinca
Sun Exposure: Part to Full Sun
Soil: Moist, Well-drained Soil
Height: Eight inches
Enjoy vinca’s colorful blooms from spring through fall. The blue, purple, or white flowers provide a colorful accent to the shiny, green foliage. This easy, adaptable groundcover tolerates a wide range of soil conditions.
Lady’s Mantle
Sun Exposure: Sun to Part Shade
Soil: Moist, Well-drained Soil
Height: To 18 inches
This beautiful perennial offers a unique treat: Fine hairs on the leaves sparkle with water droplets and glisten in the early morning light. Lady’s mantle blooms in early summer, too, producing clusters of chartreuse blooms.
Pachysandra
Sun Exposure: Shade
Soil: Moist, Well-drained soil
Height: 12 inches
Use pachysandra to cover deeply shaded ground. This plant offers rich, dark jade foliage and little clusters of white flowers. Pachysandra will take a few seasons to establish but once at home will thrive on neglect. Plant it and ignore it: The plant is about as low-maintenance as you get.
Sedum
Sun Exposure: Full Sun
Soil: Well-drained Soil
Height: Three inches
Low-growing sedums may not produce the big bang of color like their taller cousins, but it’s hard to go wrong with these ultra-low-maintenance groundcovers for sunny spots. This one provides golden blooms in summer.
Soapwort
Sun Exposure: Full Sun
Soil: Well-drained Soil
Height: To 12 inches
Soapworts are underappreciated plants. Many of them make fine groundcovers. ‘Max Frei’ is a low-growing, mat-forming selection that is highlighted with starry pink flowers in spring. It’s an excellent choice for gardens because it tolerates summer’s heat and humidity.
Creeping Phlox
Sun Exposure: Full Sun
Soil: Moist, Well-drained Soil
Height: To Eight inches
Pink, white, purple, red, and bi-colors with darker-colored eyes abound in spring on this perennial groundcover. Perfect for edging sidewalks and walkways, this slow-growing perennial likes full sun and well-drained soil. Creeping phlox won’t become a rowdy neighbor to the tulips, daffodils, and other spring bulbs that look charming planted with it.
Snow-in-Summer
Sun Exposure: Full Sun
Soil: Well-drained Soil
Size: Three inches
Billowing mounds of crystalline white flowers float over snow-in-summer’s silvery foliage. It makes a delightful accent to a stone wall, patio, or garden border. Snow-in-summer is able to handle a range of soil types as well.