Club Benefits
Why spend hours in your garden weeding when you could be tending to your plants or simply enjoying your outside space? With some clever planting, you could free up your time and create a weed-free yard, so that when you’re outside, you’re not fretting about pulling up every weed in sight.
I’m a tidy gardener, and don’t cope well when weeds spring up from nowhere. However, I do succumb and have allotted a wildlife area at the end of my yard. In this dedicated space, I plant wildflower seeds and let the grass grow during No Mow May to encourage pollinators and wildlife into my yard.
My problem with weeds lies in the neater flower beds in my yard. I can never relax and fully enjoy what my outside space has to offer when these little mights pop up. But, instead of adding mulch to my beds or even trying the cardboard method to suppress the weeds, there’s a simple method I’m going to try that will add another level of beauty to my garden.
Suppress weeds with a living carpet
One of the best ways to eliminate weeds from your beds and borders is to grow a living carpet. And they have a dual impact.
Ground covers not only suppress weeds but also add beauty to the garden.
Halina Shamshur, botany expert, Plantum
"Ground covers not only suppress weeds but also add beauty to the garden," explains Halina Shamshur, resident botany expert at Plantum. "Their dense foliage forms a canopy that blocks sunlight from reaching weed seeds, which prevents them from photosynthesizing and sprouting.
"As their root systems spread, they quickly occupy the top layer of soil, taking up water and nutrients and making it harder for weeds to establish and spread."
Lucie Bradley, gardening and greenhouse expert at Easy Garden Irrigation, adds that most ground cover plants are "very fast growing and tenacious, so will absorb the water and nutrients from the soil which weeds would need if they sprout and grow."
Rather than mulching or weeding my yard to keep my beds and border looking neat, I'd much rather add ground cover plants that add color, texture and even scent to my yard while blocking weed growth.
An eco-friendly way to prevent weeds
Ground cover plants are an eco-friendly and chemical-free way to reduce weeds in your yard, and it’s a low-maintenance option, too. Bradley added that ground-cover planting will save you time once the plants have established.
I've chosen to grow creeping thyme
The living carpet that I’m going to be growing in my backyard is creeping thyme — if anything, the name itself confirms the nature of how this plant grows. Apart from being a low-growing, semi-woody perennial that forms a dense mat of foliage, it requires minimal care.
Angelika Zaber, lawn care specialist and garden expert at Online Turf, adds that it’s also drought-tolerant and thrives in shallow soil. And apart from stopping weeds, it's a good-looking plant that flowers in late spring and summer. “It has evergreen aromatic leaves and blooms with flowers that come in multiple colors, including pink, red, purple, and even white,” she says.
Growing creeping thyme
For creeping thyme to thrive, it performs well in USDA growing zones 4-9, where it’s known as an evergreen plant, according to Bradley, and a semi-evergreen in zones 4-5.
Creeping thyme has evergreen aromatic leaves and blooms with flowers that come in multiple colors.
Angelika Zaber, garden expert, Online Turf
Although creeping thyme is drought-tolerant, Bradley says it does need to be kept moist before it is established, which should take between four to six weeks, then it will only need to be watered once a fortnight if the soil gets dry.
According to Shamshur, you’ll also need to plant it in a sunny spot, with 6-8 hours of sunlight per day, as otherwise it may not flower.
Then, to encourage dense growth, Zaber recommends giving it a light prune in late autumn or early spring. “This will improve its overall appearance and stop it from becoming too woody.”
Bradley also suggests shearing off the flowers in mid-summer to keep it looking tidy.
As an added low-maintenance bonus, it shouldn’t need feeding. “Creeping thyme thrives in poor, sunny soil and it's only in very cold regions that you may need to protect it from extreme weather by applying a mulch of leaves or pine straw,” says Bradley.
Which variety to grow?
There are plenty of creeping thymes to select. Bradley sayss, “Choose ‘Archer's Gold’ with its vibrant golden foliage, pink flowers and lemon scent, or ‘Silver Posie’ with aromatic, grey-green leaves and flowers ranging from bright purple through to white.
"When flower color is important, choose ‘Creeping Red’ for its small, vibrant magenta-pink blooms on rich green foliage or classic white with ‘Snowdrift’ whose scented, mid-green foliage will be covered in tiny white flowers in June and July.”
Ground cover planting tips
How to prepare your soil for ground cover plants
“You do need to ensure that the ground they are being planted into is weed-free,” says Bradley. And she adds. “If it’s a large area, then you might find sheet mulching the best way to eradicate any weeds — this needs to be done 6 to 12 months prior to positioning ground cover."
If you’d prefer not to use this method, she suggests removing the weeds manually, as it is the best way to remove perennial weeds with long taproots. She advises, “Any weeds already growing in the ground will be difficult to get rid of once ground cover plants are established.”
Choose the right plant for the right spot
To help ground cover plants thrive in your yard, Bradley says you need to consider the conditions in your garden. For dark spots, she suggests choosing ground cover that will thrive in shade, while for brighter areas, she recommends plants that do well in full sun.
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