Ground Cover

 
Areas of bare ground can be transformed with groundcover, a carpet of low growing plants that create a tapestry of colour throughout the year.  Ground cover should ideally be plants which are evergreen, compact and grow to a low, even height.
 
It is important to clear the ground of weeds before you start and take care that you remove any deep-rooted or difficult, perennial weeds.  Add plenty of well rotted manure or good garden compost and then incorporate a slow release fertilizer.  Then cover everything with a mulching sheet.  You can use a polythene sheet, but a dedicated woven mulching sheet is preferable.  Make crossed slits in the sheet where you want to plant and take care that you don’t make the slits too large, otherwise the weeds will creep through.  Dig out the planting holes and then put in your plants.  Keep the patch well watered while the plants are getting established.  The mulching sheet can be removed once the ground cover plants are well established.
 
The mulching sheet is ideal for clump forming plants like heathers, but don’t use it for plants that creep and root, such as ajugas and hypericum calycinum.  Plant these straight into the soil and then apply a loose mulch.
 
The most dramatic effects are created by using a limited number of plant varieties in bold groups so that the planting looks good whether seen close up or from a distance.  In order to have your patch look its best all the year round choose a mixture of deciduous and evergreen plants and stagger the flowering times, so that you have colour for each season.
 
In order to get the maximum amount of colour  and interest in the garden, use shade tolerant plants ground cover for planting under trees and large shrubs.  The following plants will grow in all but dense shade:  Lady’s Mantle (Alchemilla mollis), bergenia (Bergenia), trailing bellflower (Campanula poscharskyana), Welsh poppy (Meconopsis cambrica), East Indian knotweed (Persicaria affinis) and variegated greater periwinkle (Vinca majore ‘Variegata’).  Speedwell (Veronica peduncularis ‘Georgia Blue’) prefers sun or part shade.  All of these plants will tolerate moist soils – hosta (Hosta sieboldiana ‘Elegans’) loves shade and most not be allowed to dry out.
 
All the above ground cover plants, with the exception of hosta can be grown in full sun, while others are real sun worshippers and would not be happy in the shade, such as grey or silver leaved plants or those with hairy foliage.  Among those are Ballota, juniper (Juniperus), catmint (Nepeta x faasenii) and purple sage (Salvia officinalis ‘Purpurascens’).
 
If you need to cover a large area quickly, opt for really vigorous varieties that will rapidly create a very dense carpet of foliage and flowers, such as East Indian knotweed, variegated greater periwinkle and the Gamebird series  of roses.  These vigorous varieties are excellent for use on slopes to stabilize the soil – variegated greater periwinkle is particularly suitable for this purpose because its shoots arch over and root where they touch the ground and thereby quickly create many new plants.  Trailing bellflower is also very good for stabilising soil, spreading by means of underground runners.  If the soil is very unstable you might use a planting membrane, that surpresses weeds but allows water to get through.