9 pointers for caring for ground covers

The secret to success with ground covers is choosing those that are suited to the growing conditions in your yard. Here are some tips for taking care of your ground covers.

• If your site gets at least six hours of sun a day, select ground covers that can take full sun.
• Partial-shade plants can get by with three to six hours of sun; fewer than three hours usually qualifies as full shade.
• Also consider the soil. Most ground covers grow best in average conditions, but some can tolerate very wet or very dry soil.

It's natural for new ground cover patches to look a little sparse, but avoid the urge to set the plants close together; otherwise, they'll become crowded and prone to disease problems.

• Instead, tuck annuals into the bare spaces to fill in for the first year or two.
• They'll add extra colour and stop weeds from getting started.

Ground covers with trailing stems, such as vinca and wintercreeper, tend to root where they touch the soil.

• Help them along by pinning them down with short pieces of wire bent into a "U" shape.

Make the most of mulch to suppress weeds and keep the soil evenly moist while your ground covers are filling in.

• To make the job of mulching go quickly, cover each plant with an overturned pot, then spread three to five centimetres (one to two inches) of compost, shredded bark or other organic mulch over the whole bed.
• Remove the pots and — voila! — a perfectly mulched ground cover patch.

While they mature, an easy way to fertilize large drifts is to use soluble food that you can apply with a hose-end sprayer.

It's fine if some leaves fall on your ground cover beds (they'll serve as a natural mulch).

• But if the plants are buried by an abundance of leaves, clear them off with a rake or leaf blower before winter.

In early spring, spruce up your ground covers by cutting back any evergreen stems that are too long or winter damaged.

• To rejuvenate old ground cover patches, give them a hard trim with hedge clippers or a lawnmower (adjust the blade to its highest setting).
• A string trimmer can work great on slopes, but test it on a small area first to see if it's powerful enough for the job; if not, you may need a blade attachment.

If you plant ground covers beneath trees — such oaks, maples and other heavy seeders — seedlings may appear in spring.

• Use pliers to pull them while they're young.
• Woody weeds are easiest to pull when the soil is wet.

It's smart to check out just how vigorous a particular plant is before you let it loose in your landscape. Some spread so quickly that they can creep right into your lawn or flower beds.

• Ground covers that need careful watching include ajuga, goutweed (Aegopodium podagraria), houttuynia, ivies, Mexican primrose (Oenothera speciosa), moneywort (Lysimachia nummularia), sweet woodruff (Galium odoratum) and wintercreeper.
• Regular pruning or pulling out unwanted plants can work to control a small patch.
• In large areas, it's more practical to separate ground covers from lawn or garden areas with metal or plastic edging strips that should extend 10 to 15 centimetres deep or more to discourage creeping roots from crawling underneath.
• Or give the plants a site where they can spread freely, such as a slope or an area surrounded by paving.