I've heard that mint smells great when you mow it, but I keep mine confined to pots. There was a thread on the herb forum about using peppermint as a groundcover. Peppermint

Another thread here talks about groundcovers for sunny areas.

I'm sure someone else will chime in soon.

Good luck!
Dafy

Chime!!!

Hi Mags,

Are you sure the butterfly bushes are dead? Chances are the roots are fine and that theyll come backÂwellÂif you havenÂt already dug them up and thrown them away. If youÂve thrown them out and they come backÂthat would be scary!!!

The creeping thymes are the most common "steppables," but since you donÂt really plan to be walking on them regularly, there are all kinds of things you could use. Since you understand the dangers of mint, it seems to me the scent would be wonderfulÂbut, as youÂve suggested, it would need to be mowed. You might even want to consider adding some of the other mints to the area. They come in all sorts of wonderful scents. Chocolate and orange mints are two of my favorites. But, of course, they will just keep spreadingÂinto the mulch under the tree, and every-which-where. The thymes can smell really good when you walk on them too.

For on the slope, for drought tolerance and easy care, you might want to consider a combination of different sedums, iceplants, and hen & chicks. Some of the sedums would sqush a little bit if walked on, but most of them would be just fine if stepped on occasionally. And you could put some of the upright sedums in among the groundcover ones for some variation. I learned last year that there are some absolutely wonderful ones with dark foliage nowadays. That would be the most xeric option. And many of the groundcover sedums and iceplants are evergreen, so it wouldnÂt be bare in winter.

Then there are also things like the many different creeping veronicas, ajuga, lamium, creeping babyÂs breath, and pussytoes, tho theyÂd all need somewhat more water than the succulents. Does anything there sound interesting to you? I can give you more info about any of them if youÂd like.

Skybird

I'm a big fan of vinca major (also known as periwinkle). It is evergreen, can be in sun to shade, and is xeric. Most of them have cute little blue flowers in spring. I also have one with pinky purple flowers.

Thank you all for the great ideas!

Skybird, I like the idea of using a combination of sedums and would like to choose varieties that are evergreen. I love ice plants - planted a handful last year and they didn't seem to spread at all. Not sure why.

I either need to plant a lot of whatever I choose, choose something that spreads reasonably quickly or has lots of babies...or maybe a combination of all the above!

I'd like more info on the sedums, and can either contact you for more info, or read about different varieties on the web.

If a visual would be helpful, I posted a photo of this area in February http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/rmgard/msg0222325116858.html. If the link doesn't work, search Help With Leaning Butterly Bushes. (By the way, one of the butterfly bushes - the one I didn't move, but "straightened" is alive and I've moved it to another area. The two large ones are still in place but seem to be deader than a doornail! I have a caropteyis (?sp) that seems to be in the same state, despite its' multiple offspring putting on leaves!)

Thanks so much,

Mags

I dont have time tonite to do a decent reply, but Ill be back with more info on the different sedums.

Its hard to tell exactly where the "slope" is in the pictures. Is it just to the right of where the bushes were/are in the picture? So youre planting veggies where you took out the bushes, right?

What kind of iceplant do you have now? Ill probably repeat this later, but the sedums and iceplants ARE very xeric, BUT theyll spread much more quickly if theyre watered regularly, so I usually recommend people water them fairly often if theyre trying to cover an area as quickly as possible. Once they get to where you want them, you can slow way down on the watering. Chances are though, if you have veggies "on top," the succulents will be pretty well watered with the runoff from the veggie garden, which will need to be watered frequently.

With the Buddleia, as I recall, we used to recommend cutting them pretty much down to the ground overwintertreating them pretty much like a deciduous perennialand they tend to come up from the roots each year. The roots are the important part, and if theyre ok, the rest of it will be too. I recommend cutting it all the way down to about 6"and then just waitwith your fingers crossed! With a little bit of luck, it may come around. And Im pretty sure Caryopteris can be treated the same way, so if you think its dead anyway, why dont you cut it all the way down and say a little prayer. Or, if you have side shoots coming up, perhaps the center has died out and you could just dig it up and replant the new growth where the old one was. But, if the roots are still ok, cutting the tops off will let it put all its energy into the roots right now, rather than trying to keep anything on top going, and will, hopefully, help them pull thru. I almost always do that with perennials if Im digging them up or moving them, so the roots can just do their own thingand when theyre all reorganized, the top starts growing again!

Ill be back in the next couple days with sedum info,
Skybird

What about allysum? I have heard that makes a great groundcover and although it is an annual it reseeds and comes back. You can buy the big boxes at walmart and just sprinkle it all over.

i really like the veronicas for groundcover - my woolly veronica has been very xeric, tolerant of shade and sun, great with no care, a nice show of purple flowers at this time of year and grows fast (I can bring you a bunch of cuttings if you'd like);

I also have a bunch of friendly wild violet/viola-type plants that spread very well and bloom pink or purple - i could bring a few of those too if you'd like;

you might also consider a combo of creeping phlox (which I find pretty xeric if it has some shade and is near a stone or two for moisture); snow in summer for some gray and a little bit of height?

dianthus seems very xeric for many people, but my experience it has needed some shade and being near stones to do well in select areas of my yard that aren't scorching hot;

Mags - i just saw that you're in UT, so I guess I won't be bringing cuttings to the swap... :-)

i have had many many feet of coverage from one tiny 2" pot I bought years ago of woolly veronica; i started it in a pot, then put little bits of it in trial areas, and it took off everywhere I put it

good luck

and maybe post some "after pics" next year to show us!

Im glad this one got bumped back up, cause I promised you info about the sedums, Magnolia, and I COMPLETELY spaced it!

Heres pictures of a few of the most common varieties.

The first one is Dragons Blood on the left and Angelina on the right both with their summer colors.

And this is the same two but with their winter colors. They were both cut back to the ground in fall, so theres not much there, but its enough to see the foliage colors.

Just found this pic. This is the Dragons Blood blooming. It was pretty floppy by thenit gets quite a bit of shade where it is.

This is Sedum pachyclados. I really like the "rosette" look it has, but this one gets "stemy" looking and really needs to be cut down to the ground once a year. The winter color is the same as the summer color.

This one is Tricolor on the right with White Nugget iceplant (blooming) and Mesa Verde Kelaidis" behind itnot blooming yet. Tricolor is a nice accent. It doesnt show in the picture, but its green, white and pink. In winter its mostly pink.

You can see some of the pink color on the Tricolor in this pic which was taken the beginning of April last year.

Heres the Mesa Verde iceplant blooming.

This is Sedum kamtschaticum Varieagatum blooming. Its the only sedum I have thats not evergreen. Thats more of the Angelina in the background.

This is Sedum hybridum which gets dark red in winter like the Dragons Blood but greens up more quickly in spring.

This is Sedum album with its winter color. Its just plain green in summer. This one can be invasive. It spreads fast, but can be easily pulled out, but the real problem is that any tiny little piece that drops somewhere in the yard will root. It seems to beam itself all over the place!

And this one is called Blue Carpet but it can be a little bit hard to keep this one looking really nice. The foliage is very tiny, and if it gets floppy looking and you cut it back, it takes longer than the others for it to come back and look like a petable little mound again!

Thats just a few of the different sedums that are available. I wish I had room for some more! You can see that they mix and match nicely, and with their winter colors, they give you nice winter interest too. I keep mine pretty controlled as you can see, but if you dont keep them pulled out around the edges, they keep spreading. And I like to mix hen & chicks and iceplants in with mine too. Then there are the upright sedums that you could put in a few here and there for some height in the area. With them there are the standard, green leaf varieties like Autumn Joy, and, as I learned on RMG last fall, there are also a whole bunch of them now with dark, burgundy and purple and red foliage. Im in the market for a couple of those right now!

The succulents are incredibly easy to grow. To get them to spread more quickly, water them regularly after you put them in, until they get to where you want them, and then they would seldom need more than natural moisture. I do spend time with mine cutting them down to keep them compact looking, and controlling which way and how much they spread. If you were to get into the hen & chicks, I bet youd become TOTALLY addicted to them. They come in, literally, countless varieties, and are almost all dramatically different colors in winter too. They come in sizes from an inch across up to 5 or 6" across. And they're even easier to manage than the sedums since they dont really need any sort of cutting back. If they get beyond the border of where you want them, you just pull them out and bestow them on some other grateful gardener. The iceplants can all be rooted from cuttings too, but some of them arent quite as easy or fast as the sedums.

With the sedums, you can also start out pretty cheaply, because as soon as you get a couple started, everytime the stems get 2 or 3 inches long, you can cut off the topwhich will make them come back much fullerand root the cuttings and, voila, a new plant! Then when that one starts growing you cut them both off and repeat, and pretty soon youve carpeted your whole yard! ;-)

I just made up instruction sheets for the sedum cuttings Im taking to the swap, and if youd like me to post the instructions here, just let me know.

If youd be willing to pay the postage, Id be happy to pack up some cuttings of any or all of themand some starter hen & chicksand send them out to you. It is too bad youre not here in the Denver area to come to the swap. But, hey, if you get a bunch of them going, you can take them along to any SLC swaps you guys have out there, and share the wealth.

Ok, I just went back and read your last post! As with the sedums, the iceplants will spread more quickly if theyre watered regularly. Yours may not have spread a whole lot because they were just getting settled in last year, or they may have needed more water to get going. Some of the iceplants, also, dont spread as quickly as others. The White Nugget I have really doesnt spread much at allso far at least.

Let me know if you have any other questions, and let me know if youd like some cuttings. With sedum and hen & chicks, theres always a little bit to give away!

Skybird

P.S. If you click on any of the pictures, you can then arrow back and forth to see morebut be forewarnedthere are over 300 in the one album! :-)

Hey Mags! If you are interested in those sedums, hens & chicks, or iceplants, I would take Skybird up on her offer. She sent me cuttings, of most of the ones in those pictures, through the mail last spring, and some of my clumps are already as big as the ones in her photos! I put them around the edges of my perennial beds, and they do a great job of cutting down on the weeds, plus they are so much more attractive than looking at mulch.

Bonnie

I have just moved into my new house (xeep south) that is a virtual clean slate as far as landscaping is concerned. I will be planting shrubs but want to plant ground cover around and under rather than mulching. I have just ordered some Iceplant cuttings and have some Summer Glory seeds started but what next for a beginner gardener on a very tight budget? If anyone would like to contribute a cutting etc. or advise as to where I might pick some up for an inexpensive price..please chime in as my fondest wish is to have a nice yard and join the conversation here!

If you're in the Denver area you should consider coming to the spring trade if it happens this year. Sounds like we're having a bit of trouble figuring out a date right now but it's always a good time talking to other gardeners and trading plants. You don't have to bring stuff to trade, though, new gardeners and gardeners just new to the area are welcomed! There's always more than enough to share and it's a very friendly and welcoming group. There is a string started for it on this forum.

As far as sunny spot groundcovers, some are very aggressive. I grow tons of peonies and had that same idea, tired of replacing mulch every few years, but got some stuff that is very aggressive and that I'm now pulling out. If your shrubs are woody and don't die back to the ground every winter you might not face the same issue I'm talking about.

msbaby, if you can't make the swap let me know. My yard is covered with xeric plants and I let everything go to seed so I usually have a lot of extras that I'm happy to share!