The Benefits of Ground Covering Plants
Gardening is one of those practices that seem to always offer a way that you can improve on your craft. There always seems to be an undiscovered wrinkle that you can add to your skill set or knowledge base and new developments seem to be happening non-stop in almost all areas of our ever-progressing society. That means that science will provide you with new advances to take advantage of when you have mastered the tried and true techniques that have been developed in the past. The chase never ends because being awarded for evolving your skill set is highly addictive and the possibilities with gardening are nearly endless. One way that you can improve the efficiency of your garden is by planting ground covering plants throughout your garden bed. Ground covering plants can do a lot to add to the visual appeal of your garden, but the real benefit comes in the form of their ability to control weed growth. There are many different ground covering plant species that you can choose from and understanding them will allow you to get the most out of the benefits that they provide.
One reason that ground covering plants are so effective at controlling and limiting weed growth is their ability to grow and spread just as fast as weeds do. The advantage that weeds have over the plants in your garden is the speed in which they can propagate and multiply. Staying ahead of their competition within your garden bed allows weeds to invade and eventually leach all of the available nutrients. One reason for this advantage is that weeds are compatible with their local environment so much so that this kind of speed is possible in their growth. Many plants we choose to plant in our gardens are not native to the area that we live which can limit their ability to naturally propagate and spread efficiently. Finding the right ground covering plant species to add to your garden will all but eliminate the possibility of weeds taking over your garden or even successfully infiltrating in order to merely share the space.
Species such as Ajuga, Vinca Minor as well as English Ivy are all very effective and bring their own unique attributes to the table. English Ivy adds an elegant and rustic feel as it cascades over surfaces that is has spread over. It really does a lot to a gardens aesthetic and can make edges appear to be softer. Species like Vinca and Periwinkle can add a lot of bright and vibrant colors while keeping weeds at bay. They will show bright blues and purples. If you want pinks and white, Ajuga flashes those colors brilliantly. You can combine ground covering plants in different sections of your garden, but make sure to control the manner in which they spread, especially ivy. These species can also take over a space if they are allowed to grow and spread unchecked. Finding the right ground covering plant species can do wonders for your garden on both the functional and visual spectrums.