Choose Ground Covers as a Lawn Alternative

Planting a lawn is sometimes too easy an answer for filling an empty spot in your yard and garden. That carpet of green grass in your yard, as wonderful as it looks, uses up valuable resources such as water and fertilizer. To keep your lawn looking its best, you also invest a lot of your time and physical labor — oh, and don't forget the expense. You do have alternatives and can have good reasons to use them.

Face it. Dry climates, such as the desert Southwest, and the amount of water a large lawn needs make having a lawn out of the question for some people. You may have a garden situation where other, more usable or low-maintenance alternatives are a better choice.

Ground covers are usually low growing, often spreading plants that form a uniform layer of foliage when planted close together. Ground covers range from very low-growing plants that are just a few inches high to more shrubby types that are several feet high.

The pros and cons of ground covers

Ground covers provide an even carpet of green (or other color) foliage that, from a landscape sense, has a similar overall impact of a lawn. The effect isn't as formal and refined, but you still see a carpet of foliage. The downside of most ground covers is, of course, that you can't walk or play on them like a lawn. In addition, ground covers don't provide the quick solution that a lawn does. (Most ground covers take several years to fill in.) However, the upsides of ground covers are impressive:

• Ground covers need less water than lawns. Once established, many ground covers get by on very little water and can withstand periods of drought. Install drip irrigation, which really maximizes water efficiency, and you're on a water-saving roll.

• Ground covers offer diverse beauty. You don't see just flat and green; ground covers come in a variety of foliage textures and colors and with colorful flowers, berries, and fall foliage color.

• Ground covers are ideal for sloping ground. Forget about growing (and mowing!) lawns on steep hillsides or slopes. The water washes away and gets wasted before it can soak into the soil. Mowing lawns on slopes can be dangerous. You can use ground covers, on the other hand, to stabilize soil on slopes. You can use drip irrigation, which applies water very slowly without runoff. You don't need to mow ground covers.

• Ground covers need less care. Ahh, a life with no mowing and less fertilizing. If you use mulches or plant through landscape fabrics (clothlike material that smothers weeds), you don't even have to weed. Ground covers are sounding better all the time, right?

• Ground covers are perfect for small spaces. Ideal areas for ground covers include narrow, curbside areas that are impossible to water properly, and other small spots that are a pain to mow.

• Ground covers can make your lawn look bigger. If a smaller lawn is what you're after, you can still have the big, expansive look by planting ground covers around the outside of it. You get a small play surface and the formality of a lawn — say, right around the front door — without all the commitment of time and resources. Very trendy!

• Ground covers can grow in shade. Many ground covers, including Japanese spurge, English ivy, and dwarf periwinkle, grow better in heavy shade than most lawn grasses.

Like most plants, ground covers have their own requirements for sun, shade, soil, water, and so on, so you need to do some research before you make a final selection.

Low-growing ground covers

Many of these ground huggers can withstand light foot traffic. In other words, you can walk on them periodically, and they're ideal for planting around stepping stones or in the narrow planting strip between the sidewalk and street. All the following plants are evergreen, meaning they have leaves all year. (Deciduous plants lose their leaves in the fall.)

• Wooly yarrow (Achillea tomentosa): This tough, hardy ground cover reaches to about 6 to 9 inches high and can take foot traffic. In the summer, yellow flowers complement the ferny, gray-green foliage. The leaves are also aromatic, a fragrant bonus when you walk on it (that is, if you like the smell).

• Carpet bugle (Ajuga reptans): Carpet bugle grows 2 to 6 inches high with handsome, deep green or purplish leaves. This hardy plant sports blue flowers that grow on spikes in spring and early summer.

• Chamomile (Chamaemelum nobile): This plant's fine-textured, aromatic foliage reaches about 6 inches high. Chamomile has yellow flowers (herbal tea is made from the dried flowers) and can withstand light traffic. The ground cover is hardy to about 0 degrees F.

• English ivy (Hedera helix): This widely adapted, sprawling foliage plant sometimes has variegated leaves. Generally, this hardy plant grows 12 to 18 inches high and can climb.

• Aaron's Beard, St. John's Wort (Hypericum calycinum): Sunny yellow flowers highlight this hardy plant, which grows 12 inches high.

• Iceplant (Lampranthus):This large group of low-growing succulents has bright flowers. Most of these drought-tolerant plants are not very hardy and are best adapted to mild-winter climates.

• Mondo grass or lily turf (Liriope or Ophiopogon): Grassy leaves and summer flowers identify these two similar, hardy plants. They also thrive in shade.

• Japanese spurge (Pachysandra terminalis): This attractive foliage plant is ideal for shady, moist situations. Japanese spurge grows to about 10 inches high and is hardy.

• Spring cinquefoil (Potentilla tabernaemontana): Spring cinquefoil has neatly lobed leaves and yellow flowers and grows 3 to 6 inches high. This hardy plant can withstand foot traffic.

• Creeping thyme (Thymus praecox): A spreading herb with aromatic foliage and white to pink flowers, this plant grows 3 to 6 inches high. Creeping thyme is hardy and can withstand traffic.

• Dwarf periwinkle (Vinca minor): This ground cover displays dark green leaves and violet blue flowers. Growing 6 to 12 inches high, dwarf periwinkles thrive in shade and are hardy.

Shrubby ground covers

Shrubby ground covers include plants that are shrubbier and usually taller than the ones described in the preceding section. Unless otherwise mentioned, all are very hardy.

• Kinnikinnick (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi): This hardy evergreen shrub grows to about 12 inches high and sports small white flowers and red berries. Kinnikinnick is also drought-resistant.

• Barberries (Berberis): Barberries are available in many low-growing varieties, some with purplish-green leaves. The plant is deciduous with bright red fall color and red berries. It's also pretty thorny, good for planting under windows to deter burglars.

• Cotoneasters (Cotoneaster): This large group of deciduous and evergreen plants includes many excellent ground covers. Cotoneasters boast white flowers and red berries. Some deciduous ones have beautiful fall color.

• Winterberry (Euonymus fortunei): Winterberries are very hardy evergreen plants that come in many fine ground cover forms. Some have very attractive, colored foliage.

• Junipers (Juniperus): These excellent, hardy plants have needlelike foliage. The tough and versatile juniper comes in evergreen's many heights and some interesting foliage colors.

• Star jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides): The sprawling, vining evergreen plant has shiny foliage and fragrant flowers. This plant does best in mild-winter climates. Star jasmine is hardy to only 10 degrees F.