Ground Covers For Your Garden

Create a carpet of color in shady spots with ground covers. Lovely on their own or to fill in big expanses, many also grow well at the foot of bigger shrubs such as rhododendrons or summersweet. This Better Homes and Gardens video presents five beautiful varieties of ground covers that are rabbit- and deer-resistant:

Lamium: Vigorous ground cover in the mint family with lovely purple, pink or white flowers and silver variegated foliage. Lamium is a relatively quick spreader that forms a dense carpet, and it can take more sun if the soil stays evenly moist.

Lamiastrum: A close relative of lamium that has yellow flowers in the spring. The Herman’s pride variety is a slow spreader with leaves strongly marked with silver.

Canadian Wild Ginger: This North American native has fuzzy heart shaped leaves with little chocolate flowers held close to the ground. Fairly drought tolerant, it is a moderate spreader that can form a dense carpet.

Lungwort: Mixes beautiful foliage and pretty flowers. The silver spinal leaves are a wonderful contrast to the early spring pink and blue flowers, and it looks particularly stunning with white daffodils. Lungwort does best in moist, well drained soil in shade or part-shade.

Ajuga: Very low growing ground cover with green, burgundy or variegated leaves and small spikes of cobalt blue flowers that bloom in early spring. It is a moderate spreader that grows densely, crowding out weeds, and prefers moist well drained soil and shade or part shade.