Ground Covers for Rough Sites

Mary H. Meyer and Michael E. Zins

Copyright ©  2008  Regents of the University of Minnesota. All rights reserved.

A familiar lament among homeowners is that they don't know what to plant on weedy, eroding banks or on sites where regular care is impossible. A well-chosen ground cover may be the answer.

The type of ground cover needed in these difficult sites is one that establishes readily, grows in poor soils, and requires little or no care once established.

Grasses

Grasses are probably the best ground covers on most sunny sites. The following grasses can be used in poor sites and in low maintenance situations. They need not be mowed. For quick but impermanent cover (annual grasses germinate in less than a week but live only until winter) the following annual grasses are best: cereal rye (Secale cereale), field bromegrass (Bromus arvensis), and annual ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum). Use these only as a stopgap measure until a permanent planting can be established.

The following native grasses can be used for permanent cover. You can mix them with other native flowering plants for a more pleasing effect if you wish. Canada wildrye (Elymus canadensis) covers the ground rapidly, spreading from underground stems, and has attractive nodding heads. It is fairly shade-tolerant. Sheep fescue (Festuca ovina) is commonly found in sandy soils and is quite drought- and shade-tolerant. It is bunchy, but it can be seeded with a close but nonnative relative, red fescue (F. rubra). This common lawn grass also is quite site-tolerant. Side-oats grama (Bouteloua curtipendula) is a common dry prairie grass that will form sods and does well on steep slopes. It needs at least partial sun. Sand dropseed (Sporobolus cryptandrus), another dry prairie grass, can be planted either in sand or on heavier soils. It is a pioneer on disturbed areas and is deep-rooted and very drought-tolerant. A nonnative, smooth bromegrass (Bromus inermis) is used commonly by highway departments on poor sites because it covers slopes rapidly. However, the site must be chosen carefully: bromegrass is very invasive and will replace native vegetation. This is why it is not a good choice where native material is available, particularly at lake homes. Another nonnative ornamental grass, Chinese silvergrass (Miscanthus sinensis), makes an excellent ground cover up to 8' tall. It is a strong growing plant with feathery plumes borne at the top of the plant late in the growing season. It is tolerant of wet and dry sites, sun or shade. Propagation by division is very easy.

Ground Covers

A list of suitable ground covers follows. All of them fall in the "workhorse" category and, with few exceptions, are fully hardy in all of Minnesota.

Ditches

Certain grasses also can be used in ditch plantings, where they not only control erosion but reduce and direct water movement. Garrison's Creeping Foxtail (Alopecurus arundinaceus "Garrison's") or Reed Canarygrass (Phalaris arundinacea), a native grass, can withstand wetness and can be seeded on ditch banks. Switchgrass also can be used for ditch slope plantings if a native material is needed to blend into the vegetation above the ditch.

Bird's-foot trefoil, though not a grass, also can be seeded in ditch bottoms and slopes (see ground cover tables 1 and 2). If you need a quick cover to hold the soil, sodding with Kentucky bluegrass may provide a temporary solution. The bluegrass will not provide permanent cover because it cannot take constant inundation over long periods.

Mary H. Meyer

Michael E. Zins
Horticulture Science

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