Ground covers for Landscapes
Areas of your landscape that are difficult to garden are a prime location for ground cover. Ground covers are plants that will take hold in areas where you want to add greenery, with or without flowers, without the extra work. Ground covers can be high or low growing. Ground covers can be used in areas of your landscape that are too steep to be mowed, or that are too dry or moist for other plants to grow properly.

Posted Thursday, April 20, 2006

To ensure that your ground cover is going to take hold you will need to mulch around your young plants. This will ensure that they have the proper moisture while their roots take hold. For the first two or three years, watering and fertilizing your plants will be needed to keep them growing and healthy as they continue to spread out.

Caring for your ground cover is something that you do not have to think about. The only thing you may be compelled to do is to shape the cover for aesthetics. Alternatively, if you find your plants are not growing well, I will give you a few tips to help you out in this area as well.

When you first plant any type of ground cover in any area, you need to water the plants. Watering your ground cover plants well as you first plant them is going to prevent additional shock, and it will help establish the roots faster.

Plants that are more established that are looking a little tall, rugged, or sprawling out, you can trim them back a little to make the plants fill in thicker. Trimming your plants will make the plant focus on growing outward and filling in with leaves instead of growing upwards. Plants that grow thick will fill in and cover the soil nicely.

When you first trim your plants, only trim an inch or two, depending on how tall the plant is. Only cut off the ragged edges and the pieces of the plant that out grow the other portions of the plants.