Floor cowl vegetation are one of the crucial versatile greens to incorporate in your backyard. They’ll work splendidly as garden replacements, fill in areas between pathways, and canopy gaps in your backyard to assist preserve water and stop weeds. What’s to not love!?

Utilizing low-growing groundcovers to create a patchwork of color, texture, and form within the backyard—AKA carpet gardening—is a pattern that resonates with me.

For years, I’ve been drawn to planting shorties within the backyard. With a small city backyard and a love for groundcovers, it may be a method to adorn a “jewel field backyard,” the identify my mom fondly referred to as my area full of dwarf cultivars and ornamental showpieces.

The carpet is ornamental because it fills within the area, but it surely additionally permits just a few single beautiful vegetation to shine like jewels.

I affectionately name it carpet gardening, the place you cowl all of the little nooks and crannies of your backyard till you’re left with a carpet of vegetation.

Let me present you a few of the finest floor cowl flowers and perennials so as to add to your backyard, and a few inspiration of how one can make your individual carpet backyard.

ground cover pathway — Low rising floor cowl vegetation can shortly cowl gaps within the soil, excellent round pathways.

What are Floor Cowl Crops?

Floor cowl vegetation are low-growing vegetation meant to cowl gaps and enormous areas of the backyard. They assist to suppress weeds and preserve moisture, holding the roots of the taller vegetation above good and shady.

They’ll additionally work as great garden replacements for individuals who don’t essentially want one thing to tread on. They’re far more low-maintenance, wildlife-friendly, and in my view, extra lovely.

Relying on what you’re in search of, you possibly can have floor cowl vegetation which can be solely a few inches tall to bigger floor covers that may go as much as 12 inches tall. Some are perennials, others annuals. Some are evergreen, others deciduous. Some flower, others are admired for his or her foliage. There’s just a little one thing for everybody!

ground covers stepping stone — Floor covers may be added to present gardening beds to assist shield the roots of taller vegetation.

Floor Cowl Crops for Shade

Child blue eyes (Nemophila menziesii)

Child tears (Soleirolia soleirolii)

Bigroot geranium (Geranium macrorrhizum)

Blue star creeper (Laurentia fluviatilis)

Brass buttons (Cotula coronopifolia)

Buggleweed (Ajuga reptans)

Bunchberry (Cornus canadensis)

Corsican mint (Mentha requienii)

Creeping Jenny (Lysimachia nummularia)

Creeping phlox (Phlox stolonifera)

Crimson clover (Trifolium incarnatum)

Dwarf mondo grass (Ophiopogon japonicus)

European ginger (Asarum europaeum)

5 spot (Nemophila maculata)

Japanese spurge (Pachysandra terminalis)

Lilyturf (Liriope muscari)

Lithodora (Lithodora diffusa)

Liverleaf (Anemone americana)

Midnight blue lobelia (Lobelia erinus)

Rock cress (Arabis caucasica)

Rock soapwort (Saponaria ocymoides)

Scotch moss (Sagina subulata)

Soapwort (Saponaria officinalis)

Spring cinquefoil (Potentilla neumanianna)

Candy alyssum (Lobularia maritima)

Candy woodruff (Galium odoratum)

Western blue-eyed grass (Sisyrinchium bellum)

moss garden bed edging — Moss is a superb floor cowl for moist climates.

Floor Cowl Crops for Solar

Woodland strawberry (Fragaria vesca)

Angelina sedum (Sedum rupestre ‘Angelina’)

Basket of gold alyssum (Aurinia saxatilis)

Bigleaf periwinkle (Vinca main)

Bigroot geranium (Geranium macrorrhizum)

Blue star creeper (Laurentia fluviatilis)

Buggleweed (Ajuga reptans)

Candytuft (Iberis umbellate)

Corsican mint (Mentha requienii)

Creeping Jenny (Lysimachia nummularia)

Creeping juniper (Juniper horizontalis)

Creeping mazus (Mazus reptans)

Creeping phlox (Phlox stolonifera)

Creeping raspberry (Rubus calycinoides)

Creeping thyme (Thymus serpyllum)

Crimson clover (Trifolium incarnatum)

Dwarf mondo grass (Ophiopogon japonicus)

False rock cress (Aubrieta spp.)

Hens-and-chicks (Sempervivum spp.)

Ice plant (Delosperma cooperi)

Lamb’s ear (Stachys byzantina)

Lilyturf (Liriope muscari)

Lithodora (Lithodora diffusa)

Midnight blue lobelia (Lobelia erinus)

Mountain Sandwort (Arenaria montana)

Portulaca (Portulaca spp,)

Rock cress (Arabis caucasica)

Rock soapwort (Saponaria ocymoides)

Sea thrift (Armeria maritima)

Scotch moss (Sagina subulata)

Snow-in-summer (Cerastium tomentosum)

Soapwort (Saponaria officinalis)

Spring cinquefoil (Potentilla neumanianna)

Candy alyssum (Lobularia maritima)

White Dutch clover (Trifolium repens)

Angelina sedum and lithodora ground covers — Angelina sedum and lithodora

Floor Cowl Inspiration

As you possibly can see, there’s a huge array of vegetation that can be utilized for floor covers. They’ll look very completely different relying on the area and the atmosphere. Listed here are just a few I’ve taken images of over time to provide you just a little little bit of inspiration.

Creating an illusion with garden plants — The Tiny Tetons

Years in the past, I captured this show backyard above on the Northwest Flower and Backyard Pageant. This putting characteristic backyard, the Tiny Tetons, created by Nature Good Panorama and Design, used carpet gardening to create the phantasm of the meadow-like setting of Wyoming’s Grand Teton Nationwide Park.

natural wonders landscape design — Discovering Alaska

Lots of the show gardens additionally created a tapestry of vegetation intermixed with stone to create a stunning, low-growing panorama with out the usage of garden. These images above and under are from Adam Gorski Landscapes present backyard, Discovering Alaska. A wide range of plant materials, some native to Alaska, have been used to create an outline of a lowland meadow. Using river stones, boulders, and vegetation creates artistry by means of construction.

Stones and boulders in landscaping — Discovering Alaska

Designer and Plantswoman Susan Calhoun created A World Away on Na Pali Coast, a tropical paradise that was lush and vibrant. I like the combination of iris and lettuce on this backyard!

Iris and Heuchera — A World Away on Na Pali Coast

This succulent and cactus backyard exhibits one other model, this time with water-wise landscaping. The backyard pictured under, entitled Southwest Serenity, was created by the West Seattle Nursery to showcase heat and pure magnificence in drought-tolerant panorama design.

Drought tolerant landscape carpet gardening — Southwest Serenity

The images under are from a small city panorama I noticed on a backyard tour. I used to be wanting to see garden substitute choices like this, that create a ravishing panorama with out the entire water-hogging turf grasses which can be a priority with pests just like the European Chafer Beetle.

These designs are extra wild and natural than the concepts proven within the present gardens and will enchantment to residence gardeners in search of a relaxed panorama. Whether or not you might be planting in patterns or making a looser design, the concept stays the identical.

Carpet gardening with colorful groundcovers

Carpet gardening works properly on rooftop gardens as properly. I spied this ocean view inexperienced roof on the East Vancouver Backyard Tour just a few years in the past. A mixture of seashells, sedum, and different drought-tolerant floor covers made for a inexperienced area that didn’t take away from the commercial ocean views.

ground cover roof top with stone walkway

This subsequent backyard is a typical sight right here within the Pacific Northwest. It makes use of vegetation that love moisture and moss to fill within the patches between the stone pathways. I’ve all the time beloved what number of textures of greens yow will discover in rainforest settings.

At my outdated home, I designed a yard play backyard with built-in ideas of carpet gardening, together with a mixture of woolly thyme, tri-colour ajuga and hopscotch stepping stones winding a path by means of a kid-friendly backyard.

This area was designed to be a most of 18″-24″ in peak, however many of the vegetation have been 6″-12″ to enchantment to my then-toddler as he cruised by means of to scent the flowers, choose floor cherries, or contact the bunny tail grasses.

This brings me to my present backyard. Within the entrance yard, I used to be in search of a low-maintenance and drought-tolerant answer to exchange the failing turf grass left behind by the earlier homeowners.

I fully revamped the world, leveling the garden, including a dry river, planting a spring bulb garden, after which including my wildflower garden.

It shortly turned the speak of the neighbourhood, as everybody marvelled on the transformation from what was beforehand a struggling garden. The flowers begin pretty low, however they do get fairly excessive at their peak earlier than coming again down once more within the fall.

wildflower alternative lawn — The candy alyssum, child blue eyes, and creeping daisy in my wildflower garden.

wildflower lawn — The California poppies added peak in the course of the peak of summer season.

I hope you’ve discovered some inspiration for floor covers in your space! I counsel checking the record of floor cowl vegetation above and seeing if any are native to your space. It will make caring for the vegetation even simpler, as they’ll naturally be extra drought tolerant and thrive in your native situations.