Groundcovers provide homes for 1000's of creatures
Do you like the warmth and security of covers? If you do, you’re not alone. In the beautiful wildlife garden, life abounds under the groundcover plants that blanket parts of my front, side and back yards. Lift up any section, and you’ll find worms, ants, spiders, slugs (not so welcome), pill bugs (roly poly bug), centipedes, and many other insects. Many of these insects are great at decomposing the fallen leaves and petals from the plant. They love to make good soil for you! Even playing on top of the covers is fun, as any bee, butterfly or other pollinator will tell you. So many flowers to choose from, smells to savor, and pollen to roll in.
Mid-height groundcovers provide nesting places
Insects aren’t the only wildlife that love groundcovers. Many birds including Wrens, Juncos and Robins use these groundcover areas to find food, safety and nesting materials. Rabbits use these areas to escape from predators, although many times they eat the plants that are protecting them. And don’t forget the garden snakes, they love to wind their way through the plants and eat the insects we don’t want in the garden.
Tall grasses and native parts of the yard provide lots of cover
Even the large wildlife appreciate groundcover, only in this case the cover is provided simply by Mother Nature and the native grasses and shrubs that grow here. This tall cover provides hunting grounds for foxes, coyote and hawks. It also gives food and shelter to the Mule Deer, Bear and many types of birds who dwell in its layers.
Dogs love their own special groundcover
Even a small bit of lawn is considered a great cover by some. Yukon, our Alaskan Malamute, enjoys the Turf Type Tall Fescue we have in part of the backyard. It grows nicely under the Ponderosa Pine, needing very little supplemental water, infrequent mowing, and little fertilizer. Underneath it’s roots are many worms, telling me that our soil is healthy and so is the ecosystem.
What kind covers do you like best? Fluffy, bright, fragrant, textural, mounding, delicate or tough as nails? You can find your favorites at many nurseries around the country, you just have to take a look!
Mother Nature's wildlife garden provides lots of cover
Kathy Green gardens in the Colorado Rocky Mountains at an elevation of 7300′, helping others learn about nature, gardening and the environment
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About Kathy Green
From a seeing wildlife perspective, I’ve always liked big round leaved ground cover in big drifts. Things like Heuchera and Ligularia in numbers. I’m not sure whether these are preferred as habitat by small amphibians and reptiles over other sorts of ground cover or whether its just easier for me to find them with the slightly larger leaves but I do seem to see more animals near this type of plant.
Great blog btw. Found you through Garden Rant.
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And don’t forget rotting logs and flat stones. Leaf litter also provides cover. We leave dead trees standing and enjoy the sight of pileated woodpeckers. But we live in the country and don’t have to deal with a HOA.
Great topic, great blog! I like groundcovers too — especially taller ones. In the spring, I like Indigofera kirilowii. In the winter, even though it’s very aggressive, I like vinca major. Thanks for sharing the great pictures.
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Me too Kathy, I like groundcovers for their benefit and beauty. I’m striving to have cover like you have shared here. BTW Yukon is a beauty!
My favorite groundcover is moss! It’s drought tolerant, evergreen and the shortest groundcover possible or up to 4 inches tall if desired depending on the species. When it comes to benefits for the wildlife, mosses bring a lot to the table too. Birds build their nests from moss, frogs, millipedes, pill bugs, salamanders, daddy longlegs, worms and many more love the moss environment. Oh, but where does one find mosses for our southern gardens? Glad you asked… The Moss Farm is now offering their mosses to the public, you can visit their booth at the North Hills Farmers’ market every Saturday 8:am to noon!
I’ve good stands of Green and Gold (Chrysogonum virginianum ) and Golden Radwort (Senecio aureus) despite the drier soils. Both are attractive to critters and look good most of the year. gail
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Really nice photos, Kathy! That first photo with the mat of blue flowering plants looks as though it’s just gorgeous to behold in the springtime! Is that a blue phlox?
Gail, I also grow Green and Gold (Chrysogonum) but it really suffered with this year’s drought. The groundcover that I REALLY love is the eastern woodland native Foamflower (Tiarella cordifolia) which forms huge mats of nearly evergreen foliage and has those really pretty frothy spring flowers…it is even growing and spreading in the deep shade under a hemlock tree here…