Mauritanian Morning Glory & Other Delights
A few days ago, my Mauritanian or ground morning glory started to bloom. This is a plant that is hard to resist when you see it in full flower. It has miniature gramophone-shaped flowers of a violet ...
Category Archives: Ground Cover
White Birch & Mexican Evening Primrose
We were in the path of an incredible wind storm last year in the San Gabriel valley. It took out all of our large trees. Since we now get to start from scratch, I would love some advice about ...
Michael Kappel’s Paradise
From an upper story bedroom window, Michael Kappel looks down on his sumptuous garden in Westwood. It is a soothing sight for someone who lives in constant and excruciating pain, the result of a spin...
Colorful, Drought Tolerant Lawn Alternatives
In times of drought — and, despite last weekend’s rain, the concern for water shortages and the steady increase in water prices are not going away — ground covers that don’t need much water and could...
Carpet Roses and Other Select Ground Covers
Q: I live in Northridge, closer to West Van Nuys than to Porter Ranch. My front flower bed faces east and is in the sun from morning until around 3 or 4 p.m. This is fine for my roses and my day lili...
Wedding White Candytuft
It might just be that the whitest flowers in the world grow on the evergreen candytuft, Iberis sempervirens. This low mounding perennial, commonly used for edging walkways and planters, flowers this ...
Mulch
The longer you garden, the more you hate ground cover. Ground cover is a category of spreading plants that includes ivy, iceplant, gazania, pink clover (Polygonum cuspidatum compactum), trailing lant...
Moss, a Pretty Garden Problem
Q: I live in Santa Clarita, which you know is semi-arid. However, my gardening problem is moss, which I thought only grew in moist areas. Is there anything that will kill the moss but will not harm o...
Wood Sorrels (Oxalis species)
Q: I have a problem with a weed growing in my yard. It has leaves similar to a three-leaf clover and produces a pink flower. I have been told it is related to oxalis. It also originates from a bulb s...
Relaible, Non-Invasive Ground Covers
One thing’s for sure: It is better to stay with one ground cover throughout a landscape than to plant many different types in a hodgepodge manner. Ground cover is really supposed to serve as a ...
