Groundcover suggestions??

Hey everyone,
I am looking for suggestions of a dense ground cover that would be a candidate to replace the mulch I have in all of our gardens..I would be looking for something for zone 4 that would be easy to clean from all the leaves and winter debris, and would still allow all the bulbs and perennials to emerge in the spring. Our gardens vary from barely full sun (I like to think that we have some areas that are full sun for at least part of the year) to getting an hour or two of direct sun and the dappled shade.

Sedum. Nice colour all year, especially the red leaved ones...bonus blooms.

ajuga

if you want some ajuga.... you can come dig it up out of my lawn... LOL ...stuff is all over the place.. and I didn't plant any

I am sure Victor will give you some good suggestions

I rather like creeping vinca aka periwinkle. I have it around my lawn trees. The spring bulbs come up through it without a problem, it goes around medium size hosta and I can whack it to plant new stuff. I never even rake the leaves from them in fall. everything comes up through them and they add humus to the soil.
I also have creeping vinca in my woodsy areas. It always looks good and it's the first thing to bloom in spring, no leaf raking there either.
I'm a lazy gardener, vinca works for me.
Andy P

I was gonna suggest vinca but it is iffy for me here in zone 5a...wasn't sure if it would do well in zone 4.
Creeping phlox is another good one too.

Though some say it's too invasive, I love golden creeping Jenny. If you just give it decent moisture, it will do wonderfully. Forms a nice thick, weed-smothering carpet. Because it is so low - leaves will not be an issue. It grows from full sun to full shade. Bright gold in full sun. Light green in full shade.

Spreads quickly, but has not been invasive for me. Easy to keep up with so far.

Hi, Victor, DG-ers. This is my first post of the season. Victor, I have found some "regular" (not golden) Creeping Jenny that must have been planted 40 years or so ago. I found it in a rock garden I am just now uncovering from years of weeds in the lower yard of this old farmhouse. We've been here 25 years, and before us, the family was not gardeners, so I think this rock garden could be even older than 40 years old.

The Creeping Jenny has been happily waiting for someone to find it and "de weed it" ... and it's stayed nicely inbounds, as well.

Hi Daisy!

Nice to see you posting again. Wow - how cool is that? Jenny is very patient!

My wife and I stole away for a two-day getaway last weekend in Rhinebeck. Had a great time.

Rhinebeck Rules! I hope you had some nice meals ... and maybe visited The Phantom Gardener or Northern Dutchess Botanical Garden (a retail place) and picked up a couple of choice plants..

My hubby and I are just discussing how it could be possible that we planted our first garden together this spring here in Rhinebeck ... 25 years ago. I was preggers w/ our son ... and hubby was trying out the rototiller my Dad gave us that first Christmas here in the sticks.

Foolishly, we planted Delphinium and Lupins in rows ... not knowing they are difficult to grow from seed.

Naturally, the Delphs grew 5' tall and were breathtaking and the Lupins came true in every color known to man.

It's been downhill ever since! LOL.

oh... but LOL

Last year I tried some creeping jenny in the strip next to the road which is in poor soil. Didn't multiply, but is hanging on. Also put some as part of a perennial arrangement in containers near the front door. It crept out of the containers to the ground underneath (which is just as poor) and is flourishing. Go figure.

Another I like is Ranunculus repens Buttered Popcorn. Similar characteristics as Jenny - will grow from full shade to full sun and is very low and dense. Does not require as much water as Jenny. Nice variegated leaf and small yellow flowers. Less aggressive than the species.

amazing how far your camera has come

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/61936/

does look nice though

lol

Hee hee. Lost a lot of that one year, but it's coming back.

My little 6" Creeping Jenny in pots next to my front door I planted in early April is now sweeping the porch. I always make sure it has a good drink every day, either from the faucet or rain.

Also growing Ajuga as a border and is doing well.

Any low-growing sedum as threegardeners recommends is always a great groundcover, lovely little plants that keep their color, tolerate poor soil, and many of mine have tiny little Yellow or Pink blooms. And if you're really brave try English Ivy as long as you can keep it within bounds.

Sedum is good for sunnier areas with dry to average moisture. Hostas and hellebores are great for shade. Hardy geraniums are good for part shade and dry to average moisture.

I'm not sure if this is helpful but I would think an herb would be really nice, something like chamomile or creeping thyme maybe?

I have lots of thyme--but not over bulbs. Daffodils might be able to fight through it's thick mat (after a few years) but I would think smaller bulbs might not be able to. Mother-of-thyme (t. serpyllum) is lower and might work, but I would think of ajuga, vinca, lamium, sedum or asarum first.

I like arabis. I grew 'snow cap' from seed. Tulips and lilys come up through it and it smothers the weeds in that bed. It spreads quickly too.

Thank you all so much for the great many suggestions!! I have been away for the last 4 days, and it is so nice to have all these suggestions to research! I wandered around a garden center this morning, but that was in waldoboro (zone 5 I think)...The sedum looked nice..I was leaning toward creeping thyme, so thanks for the tip about bulbs not being able to make it through. I have some daffodils and tulips, and crocuses that probably would be lost...I was also looking at speedwell varieties...going for the shortest growing height. I also happened upon Victor's 'Quest for the ultimate groundcover' article - also very insightful.

Liz, I love going to our garden centers and nurseries. They're automatic enablers, always giving me all sorts of ideas what to do next. Please post pics when you've made your choices. Love seeing progress reports.

On a similar but different note, Looking for a strong groundcover to take over a very shady area where there is currently "grass" (if you can even call it that...mostly dandelions, plantains, other not-so-pretty items. pachysandra, vinca minor, possibly ivy or bunchberry? any thoughts on things that would be really good at choking out weeds and "grass" but would be deterred by gravel driveway??? :-) it is the section in the right foreground of the photo...
Liz

Grass is very tough. You really need to try to get rid of it first.

pachysandra would grow right through your driveway.. it grows under boulders here ... and I can't get rid of it... if you can bury a barrier it would work... but can crawl it's way over that as well

I'd also get rid of the grass first.

My 1st choice would be Creeping Jenny, just keep the roots consistently moist, otherwise it'll die.

English Ivy could also be a choice for a nice creeper ground cover, putting down roots wherever new shoots land. It will fill it fairly fast and you could keep it clipped out of your driveway. Watch it though around trees and anything else permanent or semi-permanent so it doesn't become invasive. It'll even destroy mortar if you have any brick structures nearby.

Not a fan of ivy. Ajuga can work Also, Ranunculus Buttered Popcorn, as I have described above. Lamium too, though it spreads more slowly.

I'm not a fan of Ivy either. It moves too fast.
No matter what you plant, a springtime clean up or two will be needed. I find plenty of wild mustard and native tree seeds coming up in the Vincas.

I love creeping jenny... have started all over ... love the color...

Hi Andy!!!! the clematis you gave me is growing and growing this year should cover the arch with Westerland - a goregous orange rose... can't wait!

I'll have to look up Creeping Jenny.
Hi, Kassia. Glad to hear the Clematis is doing well.
Andy P

This is the Creeping Jenny I have. Keep roots moist at all times. Bought mine in early April when it was only 4" long. Just took this photo after AM watering and you can see how it's literally sweeping my deck, faces NW & only gets 1 hour of full Sun late in the day. I don't have much shade in the yard so I'm not sure what to do with it now. I have 2 big pots like this and a total of 4 Jenny's. Suggestions anyone?

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/58136

This photo for comparison was taken 22-Apr-09.

Yeah that's English Ivy in there too, totally contained!

Thanks for the pics. Anything that needs to be kept damp would die around here.
On a side note. This is what happened to Ivy clinging to a cement retainer wall when I pruned it at the top. It gets trimmed every spring when I prepare the veggie garden above. Some freak gust of wind knocked it down. I cut it down to the ground 4 years earlier, it grows fast. It's cut back to the ground again now, lol.
Andy P

I used Cerastium tomentosum (snow-in-summer) to choke out a big weedy patch that we had when we bought the house.

Andy, there goes the theory that ivy destroys cement. Oh wait, maybe it was mortar. Looks pretty cool!

DN, I can't find that plant in the plantfiles. What is it?

Wow - that's freaky, Andy!

I'm not a fan of Snow in Summer. Had lots of it. Great until after bloom - then it opens up at the center and looks ugly.

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/728/
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/64/
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/58136/

I used 4 different ground covers in a pain in the butt part of my one front bed. This area gets all of the snow/rock salt dumped on it through out the winter, and pretty much everything else died there over the years. This is the 2nd/3rd season for these guys. I get a few stray dandelions, other than that, nothing grows through it.

There's the link to snow-in-summer in HH's post . It does get a little floppy but I put short yarrow in it and it looked ok. Now that the weeds are finally all choked out I can change it.