Colorful Ground Covers for your Landscape
Using colorful ground covers is just one way to add excitement to your landscape. Using colorful ground covers in areas where it is difficult to reach, difficult to work in and where you don't want to have to spend a lot of time at, you will add more to your landscape than you may ever imagined possible.

Posted Wednesday, April 5, 2006

First let's take a look at some of the bright greens that certain ground cover provides.

English ivy is one ground cover that blends green with creamy white to cover the barren soil in a landscape. English ivy grows best in zones five through nine, in the shade of trees or next to a tree line. English ivy creates a boundary that you can mow right up next too.

Periwinkle is another ground cover that will add a large amount of green covering to your landscape. Periwinkle grows best in zones five through nine, in areas that are flat or on slopes. You can grow periwinkle best in areas where there is partial or heavy amounts of shade.

Colorful ground covers are most often sun loving plants. If the winters are mild, not below ten or fifteen degrees, you can expect most ground covers to live through the winters and continue to flower. Most ground covers are known to be perennial plants, which means they will come back each year since the roots never die off completely.

Ajuga is a ground cover that grows best in zones three through nine. The flowers and foliage on this plant are green, white, variegated, red and bronze. The flowers will appear in the spring months, dying off as the heat of summer approaches. This is one type of colorful plant that will make a nice edging or can be used on slopes that are too hard to garden.

Creeping phlox is one of the most popular types of colorful ground covering. The flowers appear anywhere from the early spring months through the summer. There are several types of creeping phlox, some more hardy than others that will allow the flower to continue blooming through the heat of summer. The greenery of this plant will last all summer long no matter what type of hot and dry climate you eperience. Creeping phlox will grow best in zones two through nine, proving how diverse and adaptable this plant is to many types of areas.