Low Growing Ground Covers For Summer

Paint A Background With Low Growing Ground Covers

My neighbor was bemoaning her little flower bed yesterday and asked me to take a look. Actually, it was looking pretty good with a Chelsea daisy bush coming into pink bloom, some maroon Scabiosas budding, a couple of Day Lilies already in flower and Shasta daisies starting to clump nicely. I asked her what the problem was and she said it just looked bare.

Well, this is when low growing ground covers earn their keep: when spring has sprung but nothing is in full and glorious bloom yet and those bits of bare earth make everything look spotty until the plants fill out.

We took a walk around my garden to see what low growing summer ground covers I had. Some of the spring flowering ground covers are losing their flowers now and a few summer bloomers have are yet to show their faces but they are there, spreading happily amongst my growing annuals and small shrubs.

I’ve got some Alyssum in full bloom. It’s a great little ground cover because it starts flowering when it’s about an inch wide and doesn’t stop until late fall by which time it’s at least 12 inches wide. I’ve got both the white and the purple doing their thing. Its close ally, blue Lobelia is also peeking out from under some unruly Erigeron.  Erigeron is a low growing ground cover that spreads out all over the place. Some people fear it because it can get out of control but I just pull out the clumps that are getting out of hand, happy that they’ll be back sooner or later as the other flowers are fading or going to seed. They put on a pretty pink and white show with practically no water.

I bought some very unusual Petunias a while ago, purple black with yellow centres and they are spreading out nicely. I also have Million Bells here and there which I hope will cascade all over the place like they did last year. However, the ones I have planted in 6 inch pots have lost all their flowers so they’re obviously sulking. These little ground covers come in all different colors and, of course, I have at least five of them – pink, yellow and white, maroon, purple and pale orange. I saw whole beds of them somewhere the other day and they were quite dazzling en masse. These sun loving plants usually grow very well in pots but love the freedom of a sunny bed.

In the semi shade is my creeping Fucshia which looks nothing like a Fucshia as we know it. It is a flat, spreading shade ground cover with round leaves tiny red and orange flowers and huge scarlet berries in late summer. It’s a native to this area so is growing well under my Maple tree. Columbines like semi shade and I have a pretty little ground cover variety called a Western Columbine which is throwing up pretty little red nodding caps at the moment. I have a California Fuschia in the sun which is also a prostrate spreader which will get bright red flowers as it gets warmer.

All my plants in the front of the bed are planted in 6 inch pots because of gophers. Most are happy although the Million Bells obviously aren’t for some reason. But I have a Lotus ground cover that I grew from a cutting last fall and it’s loving being there. It has very fine silvery green leaves and will get extraordinary red lobster claw flowers later on in the season and can spread over several feet if you give it room. I usually grow it in a hanging basket where it is equally happy.

My bare rooted Geraniums are growing well and the first one has started flowering, next to my Desert Campanula which is going great guns and is covered in indigo blue flowers.

And, of course, my gentle violets continue to delight and fill my bed with color. I showed Laura how different a bed can look with these low growing ground covers acting as a base coat for the bed and she went home full of the joys of spring.

Happy gardening and please don’t forget your sunscreen. There’s so much skin cancer about, you must protect your skin. By the way, here is a link to a list of gopher resistant plants: http://www.groundcoversandgardening.com/gopher resistant plants. If you want to buy plants that deer probably won’t eat, look here.

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