Viewing post #686129 by kylaluaz

I've been experimenting with groundcovers. I have a number of purposes, one being to, over time, replace lawn area, and another being to have more "living mulch" between and among the larger, showier plants.

I started at a tight curve of Hannah's corner, because it was an area where nothing at all was growing -- not even weeds, not even grass! until I forked some manure into the soil and mulched and watered it. Then, the grass sprouts started to find the place more hospitable but by now I've plucked most of that out.

I wanted to find plants that would take foot traffic, because this section is right beside the only access to the back yard from the front yard and it bound to be stepped on. Also, for the other purposes, foot traffic toleration was important.

I started by looking online for groundcovers that take foot traffic and chose some to look for. Some were old friends and some were, and are, new to me. Some that I want I have yet to find, but I have a good start now and that little section of Hannah's corner is doing really well.

So this is a little tour of my groundcovers so far. Some of these will also start showing up (as I take plugs) in the other beds, over time.

Leptinella spp. known as Brass Buttons. There are a number of named varieties (or is it cultivars??) and I don't know which this is. It doesn't look like much but it's amazing it survived right there. That spot is at the very end of the bed and is diretly under roof runnoff. Because even brass buttons is having a hard time there I am thinking I will move this little surviver and let the neighbors who are doing better grow to cover.


Such as Lobelia chinensis here. It's doing great.

And the wooly thyme also adjacent. I have two patches of that, next to each other.

Also upstream is this Corsican sandwort, or Arenaria baleariea. I've tried to grow this before and not had great success; here it is doing better and I hope it will flourish. It's a beautiful little plant.

By the way, all of these have flowers, just not now (except the lobelia).

I've got two varieties of creeping thyme, next to each other, filling in nicely. I don't recall what their names are but these will have red and pink flowers.

There are also two plugs of something called green carpet, or Herniaria glabra. It's doing well but at this stage it looks so much like the creeping thyme there's no point in a picture. It also will not have noticeable flowers I understand (tiny white ones that, the tag says, "pass without notice.")

Finally, there are two plugs of Turkish Speedwell, Veronica liwanensis. This is doing beautifully and I really want to get a lot more of it.

This post is long enough! so I'll say more later if need be.