I love pachysandra.

Vinca is common but gets the job done! I have it in a few woodland type beds and it really does look good. It can be vigorous, but I usually just go around each spring and rip out the stuff that is starting to get out of the beds, and that's that for the season. And in spring, it really does have pretty little blooms, although mine are usually still covered with leaves.

Pachysandra is also pretty much bullet-proof. It is also vigorous, and a little harder to pull out, but do-able. If you are planting other things in the bed, the vinca is lower-growing and plays more nicely with others than the pachysandra.

Ivy - I would not plant this. Never. Looks beautiful and charming but is destructive in the long run.

Lamium is gorgeous, IMO, but I've never had much luck getting it established for any length of time. You may do better with it. Worth a shot, IMO, since it really is pretty.

Creeping jenny is a beauty but I believe can take over a bed, although it seems to be easily ripped out as well. I don't have a lot of experience with this one. I do have a small patch of the golden creeping Jenny, which is only about 2 feet by 4 feet and is literally surrounded on three sides by asphalt and one side by a huge patio. This is the only spot I was brave enough to plant it, lol.

Lady's Mantle - eh! Many people seem to love this, but I'm not overly thrilled with it. It does have beautiful leaves, and the water collects nicely on them, but the flowers don't do much for me and once spring is over, they never seem to look as nice. That being said, it is a hardy plant and seems to need little maintenance. Don't seem to spread quickly though, IME, if that is what you are looking for.

Might I also suggest sweet woodruff? Some people hate the stuff; I'm in the camp that LOVES it. Gorgeous, delicate, airy foliage, with little white flowers. Some complain that it is a thug, but in my experience it is not. As a matter of fact, in a bed where it was planted with vinca, the vinca won, lol.

By the way, I don't think I've ever seen any of the plants on your list bothered by rodents.

Good luck!

Dee

Babs, you must type faster than I do, lol. There wasn't a single answer to this post and after I hit the submit button, I ended up being the last commenter!

Good list you provided, but made me think of a question for suzabanana - did you want an evergreen groundcover?

Wow! Great responses thus far. Thank you!

To answer some questions:

I don't want an evergreen groundcover. Just something that will fill in the gaps during the growing season and is fairly low-growing (under 12" preferably).

The shady bed is a raised bed with a fence in the back and a stone wall all around. Nothing will spread easily into the lawn.

In the shadiest section I've planted Lily of the Valley hoping it will naturalize. Not much has happened with that though. I do have other things planted, so I'm hoping to find a groundcover that will allow other perennials to come up. Perennials we already have in the shady bed are: hostas, hydrangea, lamb's ear, astilbe, wild geranium, bleeding heart, sage, lavender, oregano, thyme, coneflower (gets eaten), daylily, phlox (gets eaten), crocus (gets eaten) and some inherited shrubs I'm not too keen on. I intend to plant muscari and daffodil bulbs in the fall as the bed gets enough sun in the spring for bulbs before the trees fill in.

European Ginger - I LOVE this, but have a lot of difficulty finding it locally. The only place I've found who has it wants $20 for a 2qt pot and I need at least a dozen of them if not 2 dozen.

Sweet Woodruff - I planted some of this last year and while it's cute, it's not spreading much.

Vernoica Georgia Blue - I need to look for this. It sounds like it might fit the bill well.

I'll try to get some photos so it's easier to see what I'm after.

suzabanana - If you don't mind mail order, here's a possibility that sells quantity with discounts, much cheaper than your local place. I don't know anything about the company, but they have great ratings on Garden Watchdog.

https://greenmountainhosta.com/catalog/european-ginger-c-29.html

Sweet Woodruff is also nice and has a nice scent. Be patient. It will spread.

I'll add to the chorus for Sweet Woodruff.

I also really like Geranium macrorhizum.

Steve

I have more ground cover geraniums than necessary for a garden. g. maccrorizum Spessart, geranium sanguinium (magenta), smaller amounts of the magenta var. of Bivoko, called Karmina.
The first two are wonderful groundcovers. Suppress weeds, no fertilizer or care needed. The foliage is fragrant though some people find it unpleasant. I don't. Karmina is smaller leaved and appears more delicate. Works as a more modestly spreading cover.

I live in Lexington.

Tell me if you are interested.

Is there a way to contact another gardenwebber privately through houzz?

Marie, you can either follow each other or you can change your settings to allow mail.

Thanks. When I have time I'll figure it out. Good to know it can be done.

I love sweet woodruff. This is my first year trying it in the north.

What about wintergreen?

Creeping Jenny should be outlawed. I ended up with some snow on the mountain at the Walpole swap, and reading about it am getting worried that it is extremely invasive as well. I'm trying a Pachysandra start, and a number of the other shade plants listed above. I have a particular soft spot for the native shade plants... because they're native? And often unique.

You have reason to be concerned about snow on the mountain AKA goutweed AKA bishop's weed (variegated Aegopodium podagraria). I would only put it in a pot or a restricted area (ie surrounded by pavement or other barriers) as once established it is difficult to remove, even more than creeping Jenny.

Does anyone have experience with Mazus Reptans?

http://www.jeeperscreepersusa.com/MAZUS-reptans_p_51.html

Also, here are some photos of the area I need to cover in case it is helpful for narrowing down choices.

It needs a lot of TLC I'm afraid :( The previous owner kind of gave up on gardening and there's only so much I can do on my own while chasing 2 kids around!

mazus can spread alot; it is very very low. I wouldn't call it invasive (it won't move from your back yard to the front by itself) Pretty little lavendar tubular flower

If you just want straight groundcover, I'd vote for the classic pachysandra or vinca. Easy, tough, looks nice, and will be well contained by the wall. I have tried lamium and found it to be scraggly-looking after it blooms, plus it gets invaded by weeds too easily. For something a little more interesting/taller, I love lady's mantle.

You could also take ideas from what you already have growing there. I think I see a geranium (purple flowers) and a hydrangea or two--those should work well in shade. What about ripping out what you don't like, getting more of what's working well, and filling the rest with groundcover? I can imagine several hydrangeas with geranium and lady's mantle surrounding. It would be very low-maintenance.

For easy care and attractiveness, I don't think you can beat pachysandra. And the deer don't touch it. But if it is a flower bed you want, I'd consider that a raised bed like this is dry. If you don't want to be watering all the time, both epimediums and hostas do well for me in dry shade. There are so many stunning hostas that you could really have fun with them. And zero maintenance.

I also have the variegated pachysandra--slow-spreading but very attractive when planted with white-flowered or white-edged plants.

Suzabanana (love that name!), you've gotten such great suggestions .... there's nothing new that I would add.

Lalala's suggestion of eliminating what you don't like and getting more of what works well makes sense. Hydrangeas, geraniums and Lady's Mantle make an attractive, easy-care combination.

Ginny12's plant suggestions for a dry shade garden might suit your style. Of course, all new plants, even those in dry gardens, need water to get them started.

I have both Veronica 'Waterperry' and 'Georgia Blue' growing in areas of shade to to full sun. What I like about these low Veronicas is the fact that they are gentle enough to allow bulbs come through and easy enough to control.

What I wonder about, though, is the condition of the soil. Has any compost or other material been added to those beds? For most plants, a good soil bed is the key to vigorous growth. You said that your Sweet Woodruff is not spreading much, but for me it travels like wildfire. We add fresh (and free) compost to our gardens every year and I'm constantly ripping out Sweet Woodruff.

You might want to spend this summer enhancing the soil beds. Summer is also a good time to check out garden centers or neighbor's yards to find out how specific plants do in your area.

You mentioned that you have little ones, ... so no plants that might be toxic or cause skin reactions.

Potentially Harmful Perennials

Molie

Wow, that's a nice area to work with. IMO, what you need there is not a groundcover, but a garden! :) Looks like you've got the start of one there; it just maybe needs a bit of shaping up and a few additions. There are lots of things that can be low-maintenance once established.

I agree with Molie and think you should enhance the soil to begin with. Then I can see that area with hostas (there are some gorgeous variegated ones!), maybe some boxwood for winter interest, hydrangea or dwarf rhodies, some spring bulbs, some low-growing geraniums to hang over that nice little wall...

Can you tell us what you have in there already? I can't quite tell everything from the distance the photo was taken from. Also, at the end, what kind of trees are in there? I think it's actually kind of exciting to have that kind of area all ready for you to go to work in!

You folks are awesome! I'll try to answer all the questions...

What was there already: 3 hydrangeas, 1 scraggly rhodie, 3 geraniums, several unidentified scraggly shrubs, 2 salvia, hyacinth, several spring bulbs that don't flower (only greenery) and trees (hickory and invasive Norway maple).

What I have planted over the past 2 growing seasons: oat grass (against the fence), 1 honeysuckle (against the fence), lamb's ear, 4 lavender, 4 thyme, 4 sage, 4 oregano (I love to cook), 6 daylilies, 3 bleeding heart bulbs, 6 astilbe bulbs, garden phlox/coneflower/rudbeckia (all get eaten by squirrels/chipmunks/groundhogs), crocus bulbs (gets eaten as well), lupine and sweet woodruff.

Treatment of the beds: year 1 we applied (not free) compost. Year 2 (last year) we cut down 3 Norway maples and chipped them for mulch. We mulch with shredded leaves (6 inches depth) every fall and mulch with our maple mulch in spring. We have an irrigation system that we run when we don't have enough rain and it gets 90% of the beds. I will hand-water whatever it doesn't reach. The soil looks good - nice and black with tons of worms, although it's definitely on the rocky/sandy side. We are 1 mile from the ocean on top of a granite ledge so the majority of the soil was brought in when the house was built 30 years ago. Growing grass in our shady areas is an exercise in futility!

Future plans: I'm not a big fan of shrubs in general. I have no interest in evergreens or "winter interest" since we spend zero time in the yard in winter. I'm happy to have all perennials back there. It's quite shady back there and if I was starting from scratch I'd get rid of all the trees and plant different ones: Japanese maple, Kousa dogwood, some fruit trees etc but currently doing all that is cost-prohibitive since we have $30k of ice damn damage that needs to be repaired :( I'd also like to get some spring bulbs in - muscari edging, maybe some daffodils (since I know they won't get eaten), and I'm hoping the lily of the valley I planted will one day show up.

We have a ton of hostas in other parts of the yard, so I'd like to go with other things if possible.

Regarding the sweet woodruff - do I need to move the mulch in order to encourage it to spread? Perhaps that's part of the problem?

If we can figure out how to contact each other I have european ginger I can give you.

Another sweet woodruff fan. Spreads well under my river birch, but is not overwhelming. I just weed it out when it gets out of bounds. Looks nice even when its not blooming.

Susan

I figured out how to turn messaging on (annoying that it's off by default!) and can try to message Lisa. Or she can try to message me now that it should work.

"... 6 astilbe bulbs, garden phlox/coneflower/rudbeckia (all get eaten by squirrels/chipmunks/groundhogs), crocus bulbs (gets eaten as well), lupine and sweet woodruff."

Suzbanana, I too have chipmunks & probably a woodchuck eating a lot of my non-daffodil bulbs. (Plant them in the fall, they fail to come up, dig the area the next fall & find nothing/no bulbs in the dirt :-( ... So frustrating! )

What I'm doing this fall is planting ALL non-daff bulbs inside those square suet cages/baskets I've bought for just $1-$2 each at Ocean State Job Lot or Christmas Tree Shop over the past year. I can also make some bulb baskets out of wire mesh if I run out of the purchased cages. I'm going to see whether this saves them from the teeth of whatever's eating them!!

That's an interesting idea! I was hoping they'd naturalize in my beds, so I'll have to see how large those cages are. I've never had an issue with the bulbs getting eaten, just the foliage.

Oh, it's the bulbs that disappear in my garden! So the cages probably won't help you....

suzabanana, did you get an email I sent you?

Marie

I'm surprised that the bit of pachysandra I planted 15 yrs ago hasn't spread very much. The Vinca minor, on the other hand, really took off. I got some FC-ers to take some, but there is plenty more. If I could get my "Transporter" to carry all of that around my wild blueberries, I'd have it is Suz-banana's yard, pronto. I even have a variegated version someplace. I like it around the upper slope rhodies and especially along the road (hillside runoff) to keep my property/rural road soil from eroding; but the lower edge of my front yard and native blueberries would like to see it gone :). Pack a lunch and bring a gloves and a bin with leaf mold and take all you want. I'll supply the iced tea.

BTW, is creeping Jenny the same stuff as creeping Charlie? That mint family, rank smelling purple flowered stuff? You can also have all of that. Hahaha.