Cinders can be a good choice as a substitute for ground cover either in black or red. Both have the disadvantage of being hard on the bare feet and presenting a problem of tracking into living spaces.

Cinders also make a good background for a planted ground cover. Some of the native ground covers look very good agaist the cinders.

Bags of cinder are flying out the door at an alarming rate here on Maui anyway. Pallets stay empty up to a week or so at the larger home improvement stores, mostly due to the large demands placed on a few hardworking indeviduals, who litterally are bagging cinder from the Big Island and Oahu, as fast as they can. With so many new homeowners moving to the Islands all of us have to "hang loose" if it happens to be sold out on the day we go to buy it. It will be on the ocean moving slowly towards it's distination via the barge. I've used the red cinder on my pathways and find it to last long, look great, but I have also slipped on the darn stuff many times, and even twisted my ankle walking my lab up in the hills where they had used it on a temporary roadside. It eventually breaks down as it turns back to soil (of sorts). I personally perfer the red cinder over the black. I like the contrasting colors. Remember to use shrubs, palms, and trees that won't shed. It's not fun trying to rake out small leaves, and it doesn't look very nice with rubbish on it. One last thought while the supply last. You can alway buy a bag for as little as 4.97, and refresh your ground cover whenever necessary, and it won't turn yellow and die on you. Good Luck and Happy Gardening!!!

You can consider mondo grass, perhaps the miniature kind.

Aloha
how much sun does your garden area get? I have had great success on the Big Island with Liriope varigated grass. It gets about a foot high but I plant them thick enough so that weeds don't grow under them. They are quite inexpensive when you consider that about every 6 months you can split a plant into 2 or 3 plants it you want more....but can go a few years without being divided if you have plenty.