Ground Cover for Shade

Whether you have a small garden or a large one, maintaining the garden and choosing the right plants is absolutely essential. A well designed and landscaped garden is a visual delight and you should design your garden in such a way that it looks beautiful and elegant. Many novice gardeners usually concentrate more on the different varieties of flowers that they would like to plant in the garden. But one very important element that most of them forget about is the ground cover. Low growing plants that generally covers a large ground area is known as ground cover. If your garden receives less amount of sunlight, then it is wise to choose ground cover for shade. These types of ground cover thrives in temperate climate which does not receive too much of the afternoon sun.

Best Ground Cover for Shade

Some of the best ground covers that you can choose are evergreen ground covers for shade. They are easy to grow, easy to maintain and they grow densely. To qualify as ground cover, these plants must be under 12 inches in height and should have a good spread that covers the entire ground.

Lily of the Valley: Lily of the Valley makes excellent ground cover and they grow up to a height of 6 - 10 inches. Its botanical name is Convallaria majalis and on maturity blooms with white fragrant flowers with small red berries.

Black Mondo Grass: This ground cover grows to a height of nearly 12 inches and its botanical name is Ophiopog planiscapus. It has a very dense black foliage and has small flowers that are violet in color. It is quite hardy and grows rapidly too.

Purple Wintercreeper Euonymus: This is one of the best ground cover for shade in Texas and it grows to about 8 inches in height. It can withstand even freezing weather conditions and is quite resilient. It can cover a large area and the leaves are waxy green in color.

Foam Flower: This ground cover whose botanical name is Tiarella cordifollia is a hardy woodland flowering plant that blooms with small white flowers in the spring. The leaves of this ground cover forms dense foliage that covers an extensive amount of ground.

Japanese Spurge: Japanese spurge whose botanical name is Pachysandra terminalis has light green colored leaves. They grow well in well-drained soil and grow in neat compact rows. This ground cover has no flowers, but its leaves are highly ornamental.

Asian Jasmine: One of the most popular ground cover that works well in the shade is Asian Jasmine. It grows to a height of 12 inches and its leaves are dark green in color. It thrives well in well-drained soil and is resistant to extremely cold weather.

Elephant's ears: It is an evergreen ground cover that has quite large and round leaves. In spring, white and pink flowers bloom that gives the garden a very attractive look.

A very resilient but often overlooked ground cover for landscaping that works well as ground cover for shade under trees is moss. Moss is very easy to grow and it will give your ground the look and texture of a green carpet. The best thing about using moss as ground cover is that it grows well on any kind of soil. If you have a problem with deer entering your garden and eating your plants then you need ground covers for deer control. Some ground cover that are also deer resistant are Blue oat grass, catnip, variegated liriope, creeping thyme plants and dead nettle.