garden
Grow an outdoor ‘carpet’ There are so many plants that work well in between paving and will act as a creeping carpet. This is useful if you don’t have or want a lawn, as it adds greenery and allows water to drain away. Pictured here is Ajuga reptans, but campanulas also work well as ground cover, and are classified as either annuals, herbaceous or evergreen perennials. Campanula poscharskyana is semi-evergreen and a spreading perennial form of this trailing bellflower, which creates a low mound of rounded leaves. The stems bear lovely blue-violet, star-shaped flowers from spring well into autumn. Campanula looks lovely popping up between steps and stones, and forms a beautiful blue and green carpet. You could also opt for Campanula portenschlagiana, which is a very vigorous form. It has less of a trailing habit, but it still bears bell- or star-shaped flowers on branching stems, forming a dense, low-growing mat.
Cover shady areas It can be difficult for grass to flourish in patches that get little sun, but there are various plants that do well in shady areas and can act as a soft, spreading lawn. Ajuga reptans, for example, is a great plant for shady areas of the garden and is usually grown for its evergreen foliage rather than the flower. However, in late spring and early summer, you’ll be delighted by the short spikes of deep blue-violet flowers. This plant makes a lovely low-maintenance ground cover to keep your space green. A good choice would be Ajuga reptans ‘Black Scallop’, which can also tolerate sunlight. Pratia pedunculata has tiny, pretty, star-shaped blue flowers. However, it can be very invasive and many people complain they can’t get rid of it once it’s entered the garden. The mat-forming and evergreen Pachysandra terminalis (Japanese spurge) is also a great plant for shady areas. It flowers in the summer, producing upright clusters of tiny white flowers, but most of the year you’re blessed with rosettes of dark-green leaves serrated at the edges. This plant does very well in areas of bare ground between deciduous shrubs and trees.
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