Help me choose a ground cover for between stepping stones

I have stepping stones extending my sidewalk between two flower beds. They cover an area about 4 ft by 12 feet. I am looking for a ground cover to plant between the stones, such as creeping thyme, irish moss, lobelia.

I am in zone 6. The area is full sun, south facing. Ideally it will be walkable, perennial and evergreen. Flowers would be desirable, but not necessary. If there are flowers, however, I don't want to draw many bees. I don't want my poor dog to step on one.

I currently have black plastic underneath and sand underneath and between slate stones. The sand washes away, revealing the plastic. Weeds and errant morning glory seeds still start up between the stones. (Morning glories grow faster than weeds in my garden...they are supposed to stay by the wall...but they look nice, come back every year, and are easy to pull out.)

The edge by the sidewalk may get salt from time to time. A salt tolerant plant would be great, but if most of it survives, I can thin it out and replace some damaged plants.

http://www.stepables.com/

I would recommend browsing the stepables website. Their website it dedicated to plants that are perfect for "stepable" groundcovers.

Their number one seller is blue star creeper, and I highly recommend it. It will need water at first, but once it gets established, it is very no-care, no fuss, and has beautiful tiny powder blue flowers in Spring.

Thanks, Seedpicker!

I am using the stones to start my last minute seeds. I have to get something started there soon.

I 2nd the blue star creeper, I think Bluestone also has it, Their 1/2 price sale ends 31st of May .

This message was edited May 30, 2009 8:36 PM

http://www.bluestoneperennials.com/b/bp/LAFLS.html

Here is a link, I have had no problems with bees, the plant does die back in the winter but will return in spring in my zone 5 .

GardenQuilts,I just bought some stepables,1 is shade,1 is partsun, I know there is more available for sun,but I think alot of them do bloom.

Also I have mother of thyme,but it s blooming right now and the bees love it,but it only blooms a few wks,but its really tuff stuff and really pretty.

better pix of mother of thyme ,sorry this one is worse,it looked good sorry

This message was edited May 31, 2009 8:51 AM

I used a mix of stepables - some flower and some don't. I have a dog and she has not been bothered by the few bees that are around. I like the look of mixing different kinds.

I started some blue star laurentia seeds this winter/spring. They haven't done well, and are still tiny. I have a few left to try. I will plant the rest in one crack. I may also try some elfin thyme. My regular thyme grown nearby is really hardy. The blueish foliage and pink flowers would look nice adjacent to my pink Wildeve Austin rose. If it draws too many bees, I can always move it into the garden somewhere. (Amazing how many plants I try to put in the garden somewhere.) I think I will start with those and see how they do. I always try seeds first.

I wrote down the top ten "steppable" varieties to bring with me shopping. I haven't seen 'steppables" in the garden centers here, but I will keep looking.

Thank you so much for your advice. I asked this question at one of the larger local garden centers and they tried to sell me colored sand. Brightly dyed sand and natural slate....imagine. i could envision colored sand and black ceramic pavers for a postmodern home....but not in a northeast cottage garden.

yuk on the brightly colored sand!

One of the toughest "steppables" for me seems to be coconut thyme. I've got it with some other creeping thymes around the edges of my patio. :-)

I've also got 'Hall's Wooly Thyme' (T. praecox), which seems tough too (in terms of not needing much care once established and not minding some foot traffic).

No brightly colored sand! Unless of course you're going for the Las Vegas look.

Here's another pic of a part of my yard where I have stones and a variety of ground covers.

Portland...that is exactly the kind of stone I have. They call this part of PA "the slate belt". What is the light green moss-like ground cover? An Irish moss? I like the look of the lighter green with the gray stone.

I thought the colored sand was an odd suggestion also, especially for the garden place. First, he suggested round-up. Then I had to explain that I wanted plants between the cracks on purpose. Then he warned me to be careful with the weed whacker on the stones, I could snap the cord. Just for laughs, I asked if he had any really short plants. Then he thought of the sand. It gave the bf a laugh....he suggested florescent orange (NOT my color) and some tiki torches (NOT my thing).

Portland-
what is the little purple bloomer to the right in this picture?
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/fp.php?pid=6621942

a little phlox?

Seedpicker it is one of the steppables. I looked through my plant tags but I can't find that one. I do remember that when I looked through the steppable section at the nursery the tags showed it in bloom.

GardenQuilts the light green one is an Irish moss. I like the contrast between that one and the darker ones. My cats love those stones - they lie on them when they are warm from the sun!

Thank you, portland.

You are very welcome, GQ.

I'd like to tag on to this thread. Does the low growing ground cover type of sedum work well between stepping stones. I have a dry area that gets a lot of sun where I was thinking about using sedum between stepping stones. Right now I just have a bunch of nasty weeds growing there.

Can you give us the names of the sedum you're thinking of so we can better advise you?

Some do better than others.

For full sun, I recommend "Magic Carpet" Lemon Thyme -- they are easy to start from seed, though yuou are better off starting the seeds in pots and then planting the plants, in stead of planting the seeds directly. Starting with plants you can have a thick growth of thyme in 1-2 months, while seeds will take 2-3 months.

I agree, Blue Star creeper is a great ground cover for in between stones, but I have found that it does not like to compete with anything else. Thyme is very prolific, definitely flowers, and the bees LOVE it, so skip that so your dog does not get stung! I also like erodium, My latest favorite is sedum----of course, I don't remember the name, will look it up for you----but the two best are bright yellow/green with tiny leaves, and one that is burgundy green, about 3-4" tall, that look like small flowers. Love them both. All are available in mud flats at local nurseries here, which is the cheapest, most efficient way to plant them.