Having understood that the lawn is beautiful, but labor-consuming, we want to draw your attention to ground-cover plants, they are becoming more popular in garden design.
Groundcover plants do not require care and quickly cover any free space with variegated carpets. They decorate the garden with beautiful leaves and delicate flowers, grow well in the sun and in the shade and are an excellent alternative to lawns. Soften the geometry of the landscape, make the garden space more colorful and livable, without effort soften the hard contours of the various zones on the site.
In addition to aesthetic, ground cover plants successfully perform a number of practical tasks . They suppress the growth of weeds, protect the soil from drying out, grow even in places where the unevenness of the soil leaves no chance for traditional lawns. Many of them are very undemanding, easily grown. Therefore, they do not require the use of complex agrotechnical techniques, they are suitable for ordinary garden soils, without the use of fertilizers.
The most popular in the gardens are sun-loving soil coverings , such as the Oprivia and the yellow borax, the Iberian and the cushion-like phlox, lemon-smelling thyme, the eight-petalled dryad. In the penumbra, numerous varieties of geranium, Chinese astilba, large leaf brunneria, Valdsteinia are indispensable.
For dark places are good ivy, pahizandra, fragrant violet and periwinkle small, saxifrage shadow, epimedium. For wet and damp places suitable for not forgetting swamp, coleman's coin, or meadow tea, bubble yellow, deren.
On the shelves of specialized shops and garden exhibitions you can buy:
The colchican moth (Epimedium colchicum) . Forms a dense cover of wintering leaves 30-35 cm tall. Spring leaves are light green, in summer - dark green. It is propagated by segments of rhizome. Very unpretentious and reliable in landscaping. The soil is undemanding, moderately dry and shade-tolerant.
Sweet-leaved meadow (Meechania urticifolia) . Low creeping perennial. It grows very quickly on loose, well drained soils. First grow small shoots, which later lie and reach a length of up to 1 m. Rooting takes place at the junction of the shoot, and therefore a low ground cover is formed. Flowers large bright violet appear at the end of May and please the eye for about 20 days. It is especially good to plant a camouflage in the tree trunks of trees, in heavily shaded areas of the garden. Reproduction by rooted cuttings.
Umbilical spring (Omphalodes verna) - creeping forget-me-not. The plant with wintering leaves, begins to grow in early April and already from the middle of May forms a dense green carpet. Blossoms sky-blue flowers up to 10 mm in size. Fast growing shoots quickly take root. It grows well in deep shade, but does not endure excessive moisture and stagnation of moisture. Prefers rich, well-drained soils.
Heart tiarica (Tiarella cordifolia) . It begins to grow in the middle of April, and in early May a dense cover is already formed. The flowers are brown. On the peduncle to 15 cm. The shoots grow rapidly, taking roots in each node. The arid summer requires watering.
Coleman's coin, or meadow (Lysimachia nummularia) . Plant with a stoating stem, up to 30 cm long. Flowers are yellow, up to 2.5 cm in diameter. Blooms 15-20 days in June. Can form a root cover not only on horizontal shoots, but also on steep slopes. Propagates by ingrained shoots.
Cotula squiggly (Cotula squalida) . The plant is about 5 cm high. It is spread by numerous rooting shoots. Forms a dense, absolutely flat carpet with a height of 3-5 cm. The soil prefers wet. Propagated by dividing the bush. The color of the leaves is brown-green - and very even growth allows you to combine the cotula with any trees and shrubs, as well as flowering summer.
Thyme creeping (Thymus serpyllum) . Perennial plant, up to 15 cm high with creeping stems. Leaves up to 1 cm, peduncles 5-15 cm high. Very beautiful pink-mauve flowers collected in inflorescences. Flowering in July-August, up to 30 days. There are forms with variegated coloring of leaves and varieties with white coloring of flowers. Propagated by seeds, cuttings and bush division. It prefers sunny places with easy, fertile, drained soil. As a carpet plant it is used in curbs, group plantings, on rocky slides.
Suitable for the creation of beautiful low carpets and various kinds of Shedum , there are a great variety of them with different in form and size colors and different heights.
Another possibility to use ground covers is to put them in containers . Such of them, as zelenchuk, tiarka and zhivichka, well tolerate the vagaries of our weather, and their shoots hang beautifully, forming green waterfalls.