It's not clear what you mean. Do you mean that you want plants below the tree that you can clean the olives out of easily? Or, something that keeps the olives from getting too dirty? Are you trying to save the olives or are they a by-product that you want to dispose of?

I want to dispose off the olives. Currently I have bare ground. I've tried to make it look good with pine leaves to cover the ground, but when i rake the olives out, invariably the pine leaves get raked too.

Can you plant a solid groundcover that will "eat" the olives? Then just leave them there to mulch and decompose. You'd have to tell people where you're located if you're hoping for a plant recommendation.

i live in bay area, northern california

You can spray something on the tree to prevent the olives from forming. https://homeguides.sfgate.com/spray-olive-tree-not-make-olives-54559.html

That would be expensive and a hassle to spray a whole tree, at the right time, in order to avoid olives. I don't know what the durable groundcovers are for your area, RS, but surely there is one that will do the job. What groundcovers grow there?

Olives are messiest when stepped on. Do people walk in this area? If not then I would use mulch.Bark could not be raked. Mulch can if you only lightly rake.

If you like olives then pick them up and pickle them. Home olives are a taste adaption but they are good.

Due to our water restrictions, Olive with bark underneath is not rare in my town. I borrowed a picture from Google.

Perfect! Socalizens, what ARE those good groundcovers for this person?

gardengal48, since i don't use the olives, having a low ground cover that is drought tolerant and is ok with shade sounds like a great idea. It wont' show all the mess and is low maintenance. Like Yardvaark mentioned, I'm looking for some ground cover names that will fit the bill. I live in nothern california (bayarea)

emmarene9, nobody walks in this area. So, looking for something that hides it and would save me the trouble to rake it..

A solid bed of Liriope muscari comes to mind, if it grows there.

Prostrate cultivars of rosemary would be dense and thick enough to swallow the olives. The colors and water requirements are also compatible with olive trees. Any ground cover would probably need some supplemental water but rosemary needs less than most. Two other thick ground covers commonly used in CA would be low growing cultivars of lantana and star jasmine. The lantana would need periodic shearing to stay low while the star jasmine would need a little more water.

Any decent independent nursery can help you pick out a suitable ground cover. And if you do some Googling, you can turn up various sites that will provide assorted lists. Here is just one: CA native groundcovers.

"Prostrate cultivars of rosemary would be dense and thick enough to swallow the olives. "

Not if that rosemary gets shaded by the tree canopy very much. Rosemary is a full sun plant. It will be much less dense and robust if grown in even partial shade.

My GC of choice would be Rubus calycinoides (syn. Rubus hayata-koidzumii), creeping raspberry. A tough, layering evergreen GC to 12" that is both shade and drought tolerant

In my experience here in CA olives don't make super dense shade. I've seen lots of rosemary growing under them.

Ceratostigma plumbaginoides

I'd also consider the ground cover type of Hypericum.

Liriope looks nice but spreads and becomes a bit invasive, becomes thick but allows oxalis to come through. I’m not a fan!

That would have to be Liriope SPICATA that spreads, not muscari.