​ 5 Fuss-Free Flowering Ground Covers for Better Curb Appeal

Growing fresh cut flowers isn’t the only way to liven up your yard. Adding flowering ground covers to your landscape is another way to enhance the visual interest of your home’s front yard, and even backyard. Get to know 10 of the most interesting and hardworking blooming ground covers that are ready to provide your yard with year-round texture, interest, and beauty. 

Lily of the Valley

Know those bell-shaped blooms in pure white that emit a lovely scent?  Imagine having a lush carpet of them beneath your favorite shade tree. Lily of the Valley is a reliable ground cover that will provide beauty to your landscape. 

Just make sure you give this shade-loving groundcover enough room to roam. Plant these on shady or partly shady areas, under trees or shrubs. This is an extremely tough plant that will grow on most soil or climate. At the beginning their roots appreciate moisture but once established, lily of the valley can be quite drought tolerant.

Creeping Thyme

A woody perennial with a citrusy-minty scent, the creeping thyme or Thymus praecox can enliven pathways and rock gardens. The flowers are often purple but sometimes they can be white or pink depending on the variety. 

The creeping thyme grows up to about 3 inches only and they sprawl randomly and quickly making them perfect as ground covers. This lawn cover is deer-resistant and kid-resistant wherein they can withstand frequent foot traffic, including the tromping of children. Creeping thyme can tolerate both sun and light shade. For a vigorous carpet of creeping thyme, provide them with good drainage.

Wall Germander

Scientifically known as Teucrium chamadrys, the wall germander is a short and bushy herb with aromatic dark green foliage and lavender-colored flowers. Its leaves are shiny with toothed edges and when you crush them, they release a strong garlicky scent.  This is an adaptable ground cover that isn’t picky about its location. They can thrive in full sun to part shade, in most types of soil. The low-maintenance germander is perfect for those areas in your garden where it is difficult to plant. This herb flower heavily in the spring but you’ll still see blooms until fall.

Low-Growing Sedum

Also known as stonecrop, this plant has fleshy succulent leaves and shallow roots. They spread themselves readily making them ideal ground cover plants. Among the most popular sedum varieties are the Pink Mongolian Stonecrop with their blue-gray leaves and pink flowers that show themselves in late summer. The Creeping Stonecrop or Sedum humifusum is another popular ground cover choice given its deep green foliage, brilliant yellow blooms, and low-growing habit.

Blue Star Creeper

This plant as a lovely grass substitute. The spreading growth habit forms dense mats of lush foliage. Delicate star-shaped flowers tinged light purplish-blue grow in the spring and summer months. Compared with traditional grass, this plant requires less water and zero mowing. A hardy plant, the Blue Star Creeper or Isotoma fluviatilis can tolerate heavy foot traffic and extreme weather conditions. For the best growth, provide regular watering but plant in sunny or partially sunny areas. This no-fuss plant can beautifully fill in those gaps between stepping stones.

Choose any of these low-growing flowering plants and see how they can add beauty to your landscape while solving many of your gardening difficulties. As ground covers, these plants actually prevent soil erosion as they are helpful in stabilizing the soil on slopes. 

They can likewise prevent the establishment of weeds therefore reducing your lawn maintenance work.