[billkater]

I am needing some help with ground cover. I have a drainage ditch that runs though my yard. At the end is a collection area for the culvert that runs under the road. It is mostly dirt with a little bit of riff-raff in it. It is sloped down at about a 45 deg angle and 3-4 ft deep. It only gets floaded with water in the early spring.

My question is this. What would be a good ground cover to plant in here? I want it to block out the weeds and grass to eliminate trimming. I would like for it to hold it's leaves year round. I would like for it to be colorful, not just a plain evergreen type cover. And fast growing is a plus.

i have looked at Purple Wintercreeper, Crownvetch, and Creeping Wintergreen. Any suggestions on what to use?

I live in Southern Illinois, 75 mile dues east of St. Louis.

Thanks for the help

Bill

PS. This is a full sun area. No shade at all.

[trees]

Take a look at Sedum tetractinum (Chinese Sedum). Beautiful red winter color, tolerates periodic flooding and very interesting. Maybe mix that with some Golden Creeping Jenny (Lysimachia nummularia 'Aurea') -- also flood tolerant, though not fully evergreen -- for a very colorful combination.

Both of these will also tolerate drought as well. Super tough plants.

[billkater]

I am unable to find any of these that I can order online. Any suggestions as to where to look. Did a google search.

[waterfall larry]

Consider Ajuga.

I would say to be careful about mail ordering plants, consider the cost of shipping and the possibility that you get hwat ever quality they want to ship.

Are you absolutely set on plant material for ground cover? There are all sorts and colors of rock / stone mulches that might be longer lasting. Then there is the weeds in the plant ground cover problem Even the most dense ground covers can get weeds in them. think about rock or stone mulches with some landscape fabric under them.

[billkater]

I like plants more than I do rock. There is already rock (riff-raff) down and I would like to fill in around the edges and have something grow-up in between

[waterfall larry]

ok if you want to stay with plants, certainly you can get a lot more visual beauty from plants than from rocks. As i mentioned, even the most dense ground covers can get weeds in them. I have seen ground cover banks with weeds so thick you can barely see the plants. You can hand pull weeds and in some cases you can apply selective weed killers and if worse comes to worse, you can rub round up on weeds to kill them without killing desirable plants.

but there are 2 other alternatives that may give you the color and beauty you want without worrying about weeds. I don't have photograph of the area so i am just throwing out suggestions here and letting you figure out what will work.

first, you could plant some upright growing evergreen shrubs preferably a shrub with flowers, azaleas and etc.

Second, you could screen off the area by planting plants around the perimeter of the area - the goal is to 80 to 100% block the view of the area.

you might also consider fast growing invasive perennials. These are perennials that grow and spread rapidly. You let them get established for a year or 2 and then you can start digging clumps off of them and planting them in this or some other area.

other factors to consider are

is this a high or low visibility area?
Will too much or too little water be a problem?
what plants will give me the greatest amount of square feet of coverage for how much money?
while perennials have several benefits or advantages, most die back not to be confused with dying totally. so would you rather have a lot of high quality beauty during the summer and little to no beauty during the winter or would you rather have low quality beauty all year long with a week or 2 of beautiful flowers.

also I call it rip rap - riff raff is a shady or dishonest character

Larry C. Davis
paradisegardens4u.com

[GLAN]

Wow..........totaly well thought out Larry........Kudos....