Groundcovers for Shade
Last week I posted about groundcovers for sun . This week is all about groundcovers for shade. This all stemmed from my presentation to the Master Gardeners of Columbia County in September. The request was for a talk about groundcovers, which is a rather large topic so I created an overview of appropriate plants for either situation -- sun or shade -- and I wish now to share the basics of that talk by presenting these two blog posts. What makes a plant a groundcover? I think of them as broad, spreading plants. Some are spreaders and others have a more clumping habit. It's a bit subjective, so what I've tried to put together here are a group of plants that I think of as the shortest, most spreading plants that I have experience growing in my own garden and in the gardens at Joy Creek Nursery. The benefits of groundcovers? They serve as a living mulch, preserving water in the soil by shading it. They add texture and tie a garden together visually. Many have benefits for wildli