Planting and maintaining ground cover

Overview: Planting ground cover

• Low perennials and bushes that cover the entire surface of the garden
• Hardy and low maintenance, a source of protection against weeds and evaporation and shelter and food for insects
• Individual ground cover plants should neither be too far apart nor too close together; follow the retailer’s recommendations
• Until the area is completely covered (approximately 3 years), you should carefully pull out weeds by hand, and spread compost over the ground in spring
• Prune evergreen and woody varieties in spring and deciduous varieties in autumn
  

What are ground cover plants?

Ground cover plants are low–growing perennials and bushes that cover the ground with creeping shoots and underground runners, and grow very densely.

These hardy plants are particularly suitable for low–maintenance greening of areas that may be difficult to reach or unsuitable for other plants, e.g. in the shade, on slopes or under trees. 

At the same time, they can be used to enhance the look of your garden, to fill the gaps in a flower bed, or to cover the garden with a green or flowering carpet.

Why you should plant ground cover?

Ground cover offers a number of benefits for your garden:

• Many hardy ground cover plants grow where no other plants would thrive, for example under trees and shrubs.
• Although ground cover plants are not a means of weed control, they do successfully inhibit weed growth. The plants spread their leaves and roots so densely that there is simply no room for invaders.
• Ground cover plants are suitable for planting on slopes. Their roots bind the soil and prevent erosion (e.g. wind or water erosion due to heavy rain). Furthermore, if you want to avoid mowing the lawn on slopes, you can opt instead for ground cover, such as ground cover roses.
• Ground cover serves as a kind of living mulch and shades the ground. The plants protect the soil against direct sunlight and keep it moist. The water consumption of ground cover plants is also lower than the evaporation from unprotected garden soil.
• Most ground cover plants provide food and shelter for insects and help beneficial organisms to thrive in the soil – a good option then for creating a wildlife-friendly garden.

General tips for planting ground cover

Before you start planting, you should take into account any particularities such how much ground cover spacing is needed, seasonality and a suitable location.

When is the best time to plant ground cover?

Retailers sell ground cover in pots, for example, which can then be planted throughout the gardening season.

However, late summer and autumn are best, especially if planting under trees. By this time, the trees have already completed their annual growth and so draw less nutrients and water from the soil, leaving more for the ground cover.

Weeds are also dormant in autumn. This means that the newly–planted ground cover can take root undisturbed before winter and spread over the ground in spring.

When choosing suitable ground cover, you should select plants that are suited to your preferred location, not the other way around.

There are ground cover species that can grow in sunny (e.g. catnip) or shaded (e.g. barrenwort) areas.

Fast–growing and evergreen species (e.g. Japanese spurge), which cover the ground all year round, are particularly suited to large areas. Smaller areas, on the other hand, need slow–growing ground cover plants, such as the European wild ginger, as otherwise they will quickly take over the area.

Shallow–rooted birch, hazel, mahonia, Norway maple or spruce are less suitable for planting under trees, etc, as ground cover. Only very hardy and low–maintenance ground cover plants, such as vinca or mountain cranesbill, can be used here.

Beech and chestnut trees have a lush, dense crown in summer, but this allows little light to pass through and makes it more difficult to plant ground cover underneath them.

Large shrubs (e. g. common lilac), trees with a prop root system (e.g. field maple), fruit trees, deep–rooted ash, oak, pine, lime and yew on the other hand, make good neighbours for ground cover species.

What spacing is required for ground cover plants?

To ensure that the plants grow densely and cover the soil completely, you should be sure to place the individual plants at the right distance from each other. For proper ground cover spacing, the plants must not be too far away or too close together when growing, otherwise they will deprive each other of water and nutrients.

You should always refer to the retailer’s recommendations regarding plant requirements per square metre. This is calculated as follows:

(100/number of plants per square metre) x 2 = plant spacing

If no such information is provided, the following applies: you can expect to plant 8 to 10 perennials per square metre to cover the ground, and 6 to 8 ground cover bushes per square metre.

Possible plant distribution in the bed

Planting ground cover: Instructions

Now it’s time to get planting! Set aside around one working day to plant your ground cover.

Committed to your safety: personal protective equipment

Working with high–performance power tools is fun and allows you to broaden your skills, which is great as long as you can rely on effective and safe protective clothing while using them.

Always wear personal protective equipment when working with your garden power tools. These include cut-resistant gloves and safety glasses. Please see the owners manuals for your product for further details.

Before using your power tool for the first time, fully familiarise yourself with it and ensure that it is in flawless condition before each use.

On request, your STIHL dealer will be happy to prepare your power tool for its first job, and will also advise you on models and sizes of protective clothing that you can try on at your leisure. Please remember that personal protective equipment is no substitute for working safely.

The following steps are only relevant when planting under trees and should replace steps 1 to 3 above.

Maintaining ground cover

Now that the plants are in the ground, it’s time to wait. With the right care, you can promote the health and dense growth of your ground cover plants and ensure that they feel at home in their bed. Here are some useful care tips to remember:

Ground cover watering

Immediately after planting, water the ground cover liberally and cover it with mulch. In summer, water the bed once a week and more frequently if required.

Over the two years after planting, make sure that ground cover plants under trees get enough water. This is especially important in late spring and summer: shallow–rooted trees in particular need a lot of water and draw it from the soil from when the leaves start to bud until the end of the main growth phase in July. In addition, dense tree crowns act like umbrellas,preventing rain from getting to the plants growing underneath. A proper water supply is therefore crucial in ensuring that your ground cover plants are also well watered.

Removing weeds between ground cover plants

Depending on the plants’ growth, it takes up to three years until the spaces between the ground cover plants are completely closed. During this time, weeds will appear in the gaps. These should be pulled out by hand. You should avoid thorough weeding, however, as ground cover plants have shallow root systems that can easily be damaged during weeding.

The steps for ground cover pruning are as follows:

1. Carefully pull off the blade scabbard on your hedge trimmer (e.g. HLA 56).
2. Check the battery and start the power tool.
3. Position the blade horizontally and guide it above the plants. Prune the ground cover to around half way. To cut the sides, hold the blade vertically. The bottom edges can be neatly trimmed using a brushcutter (e.g. FSA 60).
4. Use a lawn rake or soil rake to remove the cuttings.
   

Whether and how often the plants should be cut each year will depend on the types of plants and their tendency to spread.

Woody plants only need to be shaped or regenerated every few years. Fast–growing species on the other hand, should be pruned regularly to prevent them from spreading too much. General information:

• Perennials: Varieties that form runners and spread rapidly, such as cranesbill, can be trimmed to a few centimetres in autumn or the excess shoots cut off at the edge of the bed. Trimming should be performed as required.

• Bushes: With evergreen ground cover bushes such as creeping snowberry or box honeysuckle, trimming is a purely visual matter, similar to topiary. Bushes should be pruned every one to two years depending on growth. You should carefully prune them to just above the ground. However, you should leave enough branches and dormant buds.
  

• Ground cover roses: Ground cover roses should be pruned every one to two years.
  

Fertilising ground cover

Ground cover usually consists of low–maintenance plants. Plants need sufficient water, regular pruning and organic fertiliser to thrive.

In the first three years after planting, cover the soil around the ground cover with compost in spring before mulching.