Perennial Ground Covers - Types of Ground Covers

Perennial groundcovers are plants that

1) are reliably perennial, they live from year to year and

2) grow quite quickly to cover the ground.

Perennial Ground Covers Come With Warnings

The advantages of ground covers are that they cover bare ground and often grow where no other plant will survive.

This often makes them candidates for garden thug status. If a plant will grow and cover the ground, it seldom makes a distinction between the area you want covered and the area it wants to cover.

It is up to you to enforce the limits with edging material or sharp shovels. In my opinion, plants that are primarily used for ground covers should never be allowed into good perennial gardens.

Aegopodium or goutweed/bishop'sweed is a perfect example. This is a rampant spreader that will "eat" many nearby plants as it spreads by underground rhizome. It makes an excellent ground cover for wasteland areas but if put into a good garden, it will simply smother shorter plants and invade the root areas of taller ones.

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