Caring for Ground Covers

Planting ground cover on your property requires careful consideration of the best type of plant for the location. Ground covers might be the perfect plant for tough locations but they do require maintenance. To perform the correct function of beautifying your landscape, these plants require fertilizing, mulching and weeding like any other plant in the landscape.

Enhancing the Soil

Plant care begins with soil preparation. The best case scenario features adding peat moss, compost or another type of soil conditioner to the garden bed before planting the ground cover. If not, don't panic. You can still carefully stir up the soil between juvenile plants to add organic matter to the soil. Use a rake, hoe or wheeled cultivator between plants. Strain out and remove any weeds during this process.

Low maintenance landscape plants

Landscaping a home can be one of the most rewarding experiences for a homeowner. Designing, planting and nurturing this investment provides untold satisfaction to garden enthusiasts. DIY landscapers often choose to select plants that require little maintenance to limit water use as well as upkeep. Selecting low maintenance plants for landscape gardens requires careful planning and the realization that every plant at some time will require some regular care.

Ornamental Grasses

Few plants equal ornamental grasses for the combination of stunning foliage display and low maintenance. Ornamental grass ranges in size from low-mounding varieties such as variegated liriope to towering stands of pampas grass. The plants offer foliage-centric focus in the landscape without the high maintenance of continual trimming to remove spent flower blooms. Most varieties of ornamental grass requires a single haircut in the early spring right after new shoots appear.