Shade

Ornamental groundcovers are a great way to reduce landscape maintenance while adding color and textural patterns to areas in the landscape. They are also a good tool for dealing with those difficult landscape sites where maintenance is a challenge or it’s hard to get other plants to grow. Steep slopes, narrow or irregular patches, and shady areas under low-branched trees and shrubs - these are all natural places to use a groundcover.

Benefits of Groundcovers

Picture-perfect lawns under the shade of mature trees - it sounds nice, but is often not realistic especially for trees which produce very dense shade like oaks and linden. Acceptable lawns in partial shade are possible, however some modifications in lawn care are needed.

If you catch yourself saying, "I wish we had more shade around the house," now's the time to make plans. Shade trees provide the most benefits when planted on the south or west side of your house, but that doesn’t mean you may not also need shade in additional locations.

Many gardeners struggle with their property’s shaded areas. True, turfgrass won’t grow in heavy shade (anywhere with less than 6 hours of direct, full sun), but there are many plants which prefer either partial or even full shade. All it takes is a shift in your landscape vision for shaded areas to go from thin, unthrifty turf to the healthy restful gems of your landscape.