Kristen Greenfield likes to plant two or three types of ground cover, mix colors and textures, and plant other perennials in between to prevent the ground cover from growing together.
One example is a shady garden where she can plant different types of hostas as a ground cover, says Greenfield, owner of Bloom Landscape.
She said some of her favorite shady ground covers include wild ginger, lamiastrum (particularly Hermann's pride), pachysandra, periwinkle, and sweetbush.
As an alternative to lawns in large spaces, sedum and climbing thyme are suggested.
It may add a ground cover along the foundation or in flower beds, Sam Carlson said, mixing different colors during the breeding season.
“You can really put them anywhere. I love that you can create these little oases of pollinators,” said Carlson, landscape architect with Bret Achtenhagen Seasonal Services in Mukonago.
Dick Sondag said he likes to use it under the trees.
“Grass doesn't grow everywhere. If you have a very shady area under a maple tree, it can be very difficult to grow grass there, and that's where ground covers come in handy. … If If you have a large shade tree, you can enclose it in a 10-foot circle and use a ground cover instead of grass.
He used a native ground cover at the edge of the woods on his home in Randolph.
“I have a patch of woodland and along tree edges I put a native shade ground cover for more color.”
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Carlson said some of her favorite groundcovers are early spring, anemones, sedge, and ayuga.
Primrose is a type of ground cover that grows in woodland areas, he says. They are among the first plants to offer flowers to pollinators in the spring and are beautiful when in bloom.
Some of her favorites in this season are yellow daffodils, daffodils, and Virginia bluebells .
Anemones are a favorite because they are native to Wisconsin, are non-invasive, and have pretty white blooms.
Ribs do not need to be cut or fertilized
Annuals that grow in shade and sun are a large family of plants that he loves because they are herbaceous but don't need to be mowed or fed. Green onions are very hardy and can grow in harsh conditions, Carlson says.
My favorite onion is the Pennsylvania onion, which is a leafy green plant that grows about 12 inches tall but keeps flat. It fills in really well and creates beautiful waves with a grassy texture.
“It's amazing and goes well with other plants. It's not so invasive that you can't use other perennials that will make a home later in the season.”
She also loves Burgundy Glow Ajuga with purple flowers.
“I brought it through my stove. This is an incredibly resilient little plant. You can't kill it. It's tough enough to withstand being trampled,” she said, adding that it does well in most soils, making it a good choice for beginning gardeners.
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The stones provide the "continuous drama" in the garden
Greenfield prefers borage and thyme.
She likes planting stones because they come in a wide variety of colors, from shades of green to grey, plum, chartreuse, blue, and red.
"My favorite ground cover is a gorgeous young lady named Angelina sedum. I like to include plants with interesting foliage colors to keep the drama alive in the garden. Angelina retains a rich greenish-yellow color all season, turning orange in the fall. .... Angelina offers An interesting contrast in combination with most plants and can look tough in winter even a blizzard.
“I also like Lime Zinger Sedum now. It has pretty gray-green flowers with red tips that stay compact even after flowering.”
He calls climbing thyme "essential plant for cultivation among the steppe to give the pretty and sweet appearance of the English garden".
"It's a great floor plan for this feature because it's only 1 to 2 inches deep, so it doesn't tower over the stepper motors.
"I love red climbing thyme (Thymus praecox) because it gives the flower a more vibrant color, and I love Elfin thyme because its leaves are very compact and very small," she said.
Zondag's favorites are two stonecrops: phlox and periwinkle.
The little sedum has a variety of leaf and flower colors, grows very quickly and thrives in warm, dry, sunny locations. I really like Dragon's Blood Sedum. In summer it has a nice dark green.
Sedum gold dust has yellow blooms on top of the leaves, and when the flowers wither, the leaves cover the flowers.
"There's also a new creeping phlox that I love called Amazing Grace. The flower has a pink center and a white border. This one is very good. ... It grows quite a bit and when new growths appear it's beautiful. It flowers mid to late May."
"For shade or partial shade, I love the Periwinkle plant for its bright green leaves and blue or purple flowers in early summer," she said.
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This article originally appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; These ground covers do best on Wisconsin lawns or in some shade.
