GROUNDCOVER

When I first began to garden I could never figure out what was meant 

by groundcover because no matter how much I planted  it never 

covered enough ground.
Now I am getting the hang of it… and feel so blessed with combinations and choices…that it could be the perfect subject for another book…

Oxalis + variegated ivy.

Another Oxalis , 'Iron Cross' , and maybe my favorite,
taking over the receding Anemone foliage 

(ah, the joys of layered planting – and so easy
to do with these little bulbs).

Hellebore, Autumn Fern (stupendous colors) and Japanese
Painted – the indispensable fern.

Epimedium, Japanese Painted, Heuchera good old
‘Palace Purple’ and Hellebore.

Schizophragma 'Moonlight'  is usually used as a vine,
but if it has no support, then it is the most divine groundcover...
like its more well-known climbing hydrangea cousin,
Hydrangea petiolaris.

So, if your garden lacks walls – letting them scramble on the
ground is a fantastic use for certain vines.
Here mixed with Persian Big-Leaf Ivy.

Delicious shiny Asarum europaeum with Fern Leaf peony
foliage, Acanthus leaf and what would I do without my
masses of Sedum ‘Acre’.

Sedum ‘Acre’ with a tuft here and there of Black Mondo Grass
(courtesy of April Gornik – but mine never gets as tuftier as hers).

Asarum with Trillium and Arum italicum – one of the most
underused and greatest of all perennials.

Japanese Painted fern – which looks gorgeous with everything – and 

the sweet-smelling mound-forming ever-increasing,
oh what is it called??? begins with a G....

Japanese Painted Fern and Saxifragia, though
I don't know which one.

Violets (this a less aggressive, more sophisticated one that I got from 

Abby Jane Brody... and cherish) with an ever-travelling Disporum.

And  the wonderful Sedum 'Angelina'
mixed with a little Sedum 'Blue Spruce',
which is unfortunately not nearly as willing
to cover my ground.

I could go on and on…and will do just that in the next issue of Dirtier…
and maybe in that book that is hovering in my subconscious…