Hauling hoses—or paying huge water bills—is never fun. Fortunately, drought tolerant ground covers and other landscape plants can help reduce the time and money it takes to keep your landscape looking its best. Use the ground covers listed here whether you are reducing the size of your lawn or converting a high-maintenance bed into a low-maintenance planting.
Keep in mind that you don’t have to cover an area with just one ground cover. To create a gardenlike planting but keep the low-maintenance benefits, arrange several different ground covers in drifts of three, five, or more plants.
There are many drought tolerant ground covers, including lilyturfs (Liriope spp.), sedums, and thymes. Use some of these selections to create your own low maintenance, water wise plantings.
Artemisia (Artemisia spp.). Grown for their silvery, deeply cut leaves, some artemisias can be extremely vigorous spreaders while others cover well without becoming invasive. Look for slow-spreading southernwood (A. abrotanum), which reaches 3 feet and spreads as far. Silver-gray wormwood (A. absinthium), to 3 feet, and ‘Lambrook Silver’ it’s silver-leaved, 2½ foot tall cultivar, both spread to about 2 feet. Southernwood and wormwood are both hardy in Zones 4 to 8. A. ludoviciana ‘Valerie Finnis’ is another good choice. Hardy in Zones 4 to 9, it is a much more manageable ground cover than its rampant cousins ‘Silver King’ and ‘Silver Queen’.
Candytuft (Iberis sempervirens). This shrubby evergreen perennial bears flat-topped clusters of brilliant white flowers in spring over 6- to 12-inch-tall mounds of dark green, linear leaves. Plants spread to 2 feet or more. Cut them back hard afte flowering to keep them neat. ‘Little Gem’ is only 6 inches tall. ‘Autumn Snow’ blooms in spring and fall. Zones 4 to 9.
Sedums (Sedum spp.). Also called stonecrops, low-growing sedums make outstanding ground covers for dry soil. Most produce dense clusters of tiny flowers in shades of yellow, pink, or white atop fleshy leaves. Two-row sedum (S. spurium), an evergreen, is one of the most popular selections, but there are others. Kamchatka stonecrop (S. kamtschaticum) is a moderate 3- to4-inch-tall spreader with semievergreen leaves and white flowers. Plants spread to about 10 inches and are hardy in Zones 4 to 9. Evergreen middendorf stonecrop (S. middendorfianum) is 12 inches tall and spreads to 18 inches. Plants bear yellow flowers and are moderate spreaders hardy in Zones 3 to 9. Hybrid ‘Ruby Glow’ is 10 inches tall, spreads to 18 inches, and bears showy red flowers atop rounded, purple-green leaves in midsummer. It is hardy in Zones 5 to 9.
Low-growing forms of cotoneasters, spiraeas, and popular shrubs like junipers are perfect for creating tough, ground cover plantings.
Cotoneasters (Cotoneaster spp.). Prized for their flowers and showy berries, cotoneasters tolerate drought and poor soil, although they’re generally happiest with well-drained moist conditions. The tiny white flowers are borne in abundance in summer and are followed by red berries in fall. The foliage may be evergreen or deciduous. Ground covers include deciduous C. adpressus, hardy in Zones 5 to 8, which is 4 to 10 inches tall and spreads to 6 feet. Rockspray cotoneaster (C. horizontalis), hardy in Zones 5 to 7, is another excellent deciduous ground cover that is 2 or 3 feet tall and spreads to 5 feet. Also consider low-growing forms of evergreen willow-leaved cotoneaster (C. salicifolius) including 1-foot tall ‘Moner’ (Emerald Carpet). Necklace or dwarf wintergreen cotoneaster (C. conspicuous var. decorus) is 1 to 2 feet tall, evergreen, and hardy in Zones 6 to 9.
Spiraea (Spiraea japonica). This species can reach 5 or 6 feet in height, but new introductions featuring compact habits make excellent ground covers. Plants cover ground with spreading branches, not suckers, and have a handsome mounding habit. They feature rounded clusters of tiny pink flowers in summer. ‘Gold Mound’ bears chartreuse leaves that hold their color well into summer rather than fading to green. Plants are 2½ to 3½ feet tall and spread to 3 or 4 feet. Spiraea Magic Carpet (‘Walbuma’), also with chartreuse leaves, is 18 inches tall and spreads to 2 feet or more. Zones 4 to 9
Even tough plants need special care to get them started. Ideally, work plenty of organic matter into the soil or spread it over the site at planting time. Mulch plants as soon as they are in the ground, and water them regularly for the first year. Plants need 1 inch of water a week. Use a rain gauge to measure rainfall and supplement during dry weather. Regular watering encourages roots to penetrate deeply and increases how drought tolerant the plants will be.
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