Ground cover plants are one of the most versatile greens to include in your garden. They can work wonderfully as lawn replacements, fill in spaces between pathways, and cover gaps in your garden to help conserve water and prevent weeds. What’s not to love!?
Using low-growing groundcovers to create a patchwork of colour, texture, and shape in the garden—AKA carpet gardening—is a trend that resonates with me.
For years, I have been drawn to planting shorties in the garden. With a small urban garden and a love for groundcovers, it can be a way to decorate a “jewel box garden,” the name my mother fondly called my space packed with dwarf cultivars and decorative showpieces.
The carpet is decorative as it fills in the space, but it also allows a few single stunning plants to shine like jewels.
I affectionately call it carpet gardening, where you cover all the little nooks and crannies of your garden until you’re left with a carpet of plants.
Let me show you some of the best ground cover flowers and perennials to add to your garden, and some inspiration of how you can make your own carpet garden.
What are Ground Cover Plants?
Ground cover plants are low-growing plants meant to cover gaps and large areas of the garden. They help to suppress weeds and conserve moisture, keeping the roots of the taller plants above nice and shady.
They can also work as wonderful lawn replacements for those who don’t necessarily need something to tread on. They’re much more low-maintenance, wildlife-friendly, and in my opinion, more beautiful.
Depending on what you’re looking for, you can have ground cover plants that are only a couple of inches tall to larger ground covers that can go up to 12 inches tall. Some are perennials, others annuals. Some are evergreen, others deciduous. Some flower, others are admired for their foliage. There’s a little something for everyone!
Ground Cover Plants for Shade
- Baby blue eyes (Nemophila menziesii)
- Baby tears (SALHALIA SOLHALII))
- Bigroot geranium (Geranium macrorrhizum)
- Blue star creeper (Laurentia fluviatilis)
- Brass buttons (Coronopifolia cotula)
- Buggleweed (AJUGA REPANTS)
- Bunchberry (Cornus canadensis)
- Corsican mint (Mentha requienii)
- Creeping Jenny (Lysimachia nummularia)
- Creeping phlox (Phlox stolonifera)
- Crimson clover (Shamrock incarnate)
- Dwarf world grass (Ophiopogon japonicus)
- European ginger (Asarum europaeum)
- Five spot (Nemaphila spotted)
- Japanese spurge (Pachysandra terminalis)
- Lilyturf (Liriope muscari)
- Lithodora (Widespread Lithodora)
- Liverleaf (Anemone americana)
- Midnight blue lobelia (Lobelia erinus)
- Rock cress (Arab caucasica)
- Rock soapwort (Saponaria ocymoides)
- Scotch moss (Sagine sublock)
- Soapwort (Saponana officinalis)
- Spring cinquefoil (With potent neumanianna)
- Sweet alyssum (Lobularia maritima)
- Sweet woodruff (Rubia smell)
- Western blue-eyed grass (BLUE WAR)
Ground Cover Plants for Sun
- Woodland strawberry (Fresh fragrance)
- Angelina Sedum (Green Rupestre ‘Angelina’)
- Basket of gold alyssum (Aurinia saxatilis)
- Bigleaf periwinkle (Vinca Major)
- Bigroot geranium (Geranium macrorrhizum)
- Blue star creeper (Laurentia fluviatilis)
- Buggleweed (AJUGA REPANTS)
- Candy scent (Iberis umbellate)
- Corsican mint (Mentha requienii)
- Creeping Jenny (Lysimachia nummularia)
- Creeping juniper (Juniper horizontalis)
- Creeping mazus (Small reptans)
- Creeping phlox (Phlox stolonifera)
- Creeping raspberry (Rubus calycinoides)
- Creeping thyme (Thymus serpyllum)
- Crimson clover (Shamrock incarnate)
- Dwarf world grass (Ophiopogon japonicus)
- False rock cress (Aubrieta spp.)
- Hens-and-chicks (Sempervivum spp.)
- Ice plant (Delosperma Cooper)
- Lamb’s ear (Stachys byzantina)
- Lilyturf (Liriope muscari)
- Lithodora (Widespread Lithodora)
- Midnight blue lobelia (Lobelia erinus)
- Mountain Sandwort (Arenaria montana)
- Portlaca (Portlaca SPP,)
- Rock cress (Arab caucasica)
- Rock soapwort (Saponaria ocymoides)
- Sea thrift (Armeria Maritima)
- Scotch moss (Sagine sublock)
- Snow-in-summer (Flora tomentosum)
- Soapwort (Saponana officinalis)
- Spring cinquefoil (With potent neumanianna)
- Sweet alyssum (Lobularia maritima)
- White Dutch clover (Trifolium repens)
Ground Cover Inspiration
As you can see, there is a vast array of plants that can be used for ground covers. They can look very different depending on the space and the environment. Here are a few I’ve taken photos of over the years to give you a little bit of inspiration.
Years ago, I captured this display garden above at the Northwest Flower and Garden Festival. This striking feature garden, the Tiny Tetons, created by Nature Perfect Landscape and Designused carpet gardening to create the illusion of the meadow-like setting of Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park.
Many of the display gardens also created a tapestry of plants intermixed with stone to create a lovely, low-growing landscape without the use of lawn. These photos above and below are from Adam Gorski Landscapes show garden, Discovering Alaska. A variety of plant material, some native to Alaska, were used to create a depiction of a lowland meadow. The use of river stones, boulders, and plants creates artistry through structure.
Designer and Plantswoman Susan Calhoun created A World Away on Na Pali Coast, a tropical paradise that was lush and colourful. I love the mixture of iris and lettuce in this garden!
This succulent and cactus garden shows another version, this time with water-wise landscaping. The garden pictured below, entitled Southwest Serenity, was created by the West Seattle Nursery to showcase warmth and natural beauty in drought-tolerant landscape design.
The photos below are from a small urban landscape I saw on a garden tour. I was eager to see lawn replacement options like this, that create a beautiful landscape without all of the water-hogging turf grasses that are a concern with pests like the European Chafer Beetle.
These designs are more wild and organic than the ideas shown in the show gardens and may appeal to home gardeners looking for a relaxed landscape. Whether you are planting in patterns or creating a looser design, the idea remains the same.
Carpet gardening works well on rooftop gardens as well. I spied this ocean view green roof on the East Vancouver Garden Tour a few years ago. A mix of seashells, sedum, and other drought-tolerant ground covers made for a green space that didn’t take away from the industrial ocean views.
This next garden is a common sight here in the Pacific Northwest. It utilizes plants that love moisture and moss to fill in the patches between the stone pathways. I’ve always loved how many textures of greens you can find in rainforest settings.
At my old house, I designed a backyard play garden with built-in concepts of carpet gardening, including a mix of woolly thyme, tri-colour ajuga and hopscotch stepping stones winding a path through a kid-friendly garden.
This space was designed to be a maximum of 18″-24″ in height, but most of the plants were 6″-12″ to appeal to my then-toddler as he cruised through to smell the flowers, pick ground cherriesor touch the bunny tail grasses.
This brings me to my current garden. In the front yard, I was looking for a low-maintenance and drought-tolerant solution to replace the failing turf grass left behind by the previous owners.
I completely revamped the area, leveling the lawn, adding a dry riverplanting a spring bulb lawnand then adding my wildflower lawn.
It quickly became the talk of the neighbourhood, as everyone marvelled at the transformation from what was previously a struggling lawn. The flowers start fairly low, but they do get quite high at their peak before coming back down again in the fall.
I hope you’ve found some inspiration for ground covers in your area! I suggest checking the list of ground cover plants above and seeing if any are native to your area. This will make caring for the plants even easier, as they’ll naturally be more drought tolerant and thrive in your local conditions.
More Low-Maintenance Garden Designs
A city girl who learned to garden and it changed everything. Author, artist, Master Gardener. Better living through plants.
