What is a good groiund cover for shady 1000 s.f. area that is perennial, chokes out weeds and crabgrass, low?

Question

growing, needs no mowing, preferably sown. Area is sprinkled but soil is sandy and well drained. Tried forget-me-not. but don't care for its appearamce after blooming and crabgrass is taking over.

Answer 1

Here is a small list of low growing, low maintenance ground covers for shade. Hope this helps!

Pachysandra
English Ivy
Asian Jasmine
Vinca Major or Minor
Ajuga

These are the items I sell the most at my Garden Center as shady ground covers. I can't think of anything that can be sown that won't require mowing. Sorry! Good Luck!

Answer 2

Vinca, hands down. Grows fast and spreads fast. Has attractive green foliage and pretty blue flowers when in bloom. Can be a bit invasive, but it is shallow rooted and can be pulled out easily if it shows up somewhere unwanted.
Here is an article with pic. http://landscaping.about.com/od/groundcovervines1/p/vinca_minor.htm

Answer 3

Why don't you try one of those products with the fertilizer attached to the grass seed?

I've tried a product called "Patch Perfect", and I seemed skeptical at first. It ended up working great with just a little bit of watering and hay to keep the birds out.

Here's a link, https://www.officialtvwebsite.com/patch-perfect/index.asp?did=738&refcode=Patch1

It's expensive, but I'm telling you, it seriously looked like sod in about a week.

Answer 4

I have 2 things in my yard that grow and spread both bloom in the spring.One is called Sedum it blooms yellor or red and the other are Perriwinkles they bloom dark blue. Both do well in shade and are low growing.

Answer 5

Crown Vetch, It's the very best!!!

Answer 6

Pachysandra is my choice. It is easy to grow and spreads quite rapidly.

Answer 7

crown-vetch. you can see it along alot of interstates. looks similar to clover.

Answer 8

dont know

Answer 9

My choice for the same situation with sand and shade was to grow three plants in a mixture. I grow Aegopodium podagraria 'Variegatum' or variegated gout weed with Wood Sorrel, Oxalis violacea, and Sweet Woodruff known as Galium odoratum. These are under my fir trees with some water in the summer to keep them from failing during the summer heat. The oxalis and woodruff dominate in spring but when the heat comes on the gout weed is doing its best. The woodruff is evergreen, and fragrant in spring, but the other two are perennial. They seem to have reached a balance with each other and the trees they grow under with the help of a lot of compost & mulch originally. Now I just topdress with mulch thinly to replace what leaches into the sandy soil. If the shade cover is deciduous you could have very early bulbs like Siberian squill, crocus, and snow drops. Lily-of-the-Valley is an aggressive plant that will cover an area and is very pretty in spring but not much the rest of the year. I would interplant this with other ground covers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodruff
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxalis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aegopodium_podagraria

Another lovely choice is Pachysandra terminalis. It does very well in shade with periods of dryness. The leaves are interesting and the coverage is dense. There is even a variegated form that shows up well in shade and at dusk.
http://www.peekskillnurseries.com/pachysandra.html
http://hcs.osu.edu/pocketgardener/source/description/pa_nalis.html
Another evergreen is Euonymous. This is called winter creeper but it gets pretty straggly if in to much shade.

Vinca (periwinkle), will do okay if it gets dry for short periods but this, alone is not a dense cover for my sandy soil. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinca

Kenilworth ivy (this is a trailing plant Cymbalaria muralis with no relation to English ivy) is a delicate ground cover plant. The 'ivy' likes a bit more moisture but will pile quite deeply in the right conditions. This could interplant with 'Irish moss', Sagina subulata. Bright green, low growing like a true moss but with tiny, white, spring flowers like little white spangles sprinkled on emerald velvet. Comes in two green shades, a very bright new grass green or a darker grass green. The dark one is sometimes called 'Scotch Moss'. These 'mosses' like the Kenilworth ivy like it moist with morning light and afternoon shade or dappled shade all day.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cymbalaria_muralis

In the back under trees the violets (Viola odorata, V labradorica) took hold. They stay nicely in bounds by being walked on. They also smell wonderful in spring. I like the labradorica for the purple undertones to the leaves contrasting with V. odorata. Then in spring the flowers are also different in April and May. These are easily sown by seed and they will continue to spread by seed. http://www.thegardenhelper.com/Viola.htm
http://www.canyoncreeknursery.com/violets.html

Wire vine (Muehlenbeckia axillaris) needs to be sheared in spring to refresh and thicken the plants or it will mound up higher in patches. I have that in one bed with afternoon shade. It makes a good natural mulch. http://davesgarden.com/pf/showimage/79393/

http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/2910/

Evergreen strawberry Fragaria 'Pink Panda' or other flowering forms. Strawberries spread rapidly even into shade. I found this out the hard way. No berries in the shade just lots of plants.
http://www.gardenguides.com/how-to/tipstechniques/fruitnuts/strawberries.asp

Another very low grower is sheepburr, Acaena saccaticupula 'Blue Haze,' in a lovely blue-green. There is also a copper colored one 'Kupferteppich' (Acaena microphylla) also called "Copper Carpet" in this country.http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/90357/
http://www.armitageimages.net/index.cfm?fuseaction=stock.detail&itemID=11828
Acaena inermis 'Purpurea' with dark purple coloured foliage is also very low at 3 inches.
http://www.joycreek.com/001-002.htm

For something unusual dwarf bamboo Sasa veitchii 'Nana' commonly called Nagasa bamboo. It grows to 3 ft. if left unmowed. Leaves develop cream margins in Fall. Sasa veitchii minor gets only 12 inches tall. Bamboos can be mowed to control and renew them like any grass, just less often. Note these are running bamboo so vigorous shovel edging is needed to keep any running bamboo in place. These are good for places bounded by cement.
http://pubs.caes.uga.edu/caespubs/horticulture/bamboo.htm
http://www.bamboogarden.com/care.htm
http://www.bamboodirect.com/bamboo/catalog/dwarfctlg.html
http://www.bamboos.com/dwarf%20bamboo.html