Chumasande MatiwaneThere is never a good time for a garden to be without a cover of leaves blanketing the ground in your garden. Whether faced with a cold winter, fierce summer sun, drought, wind, or torrential rains, the right plant cover can keep the garden intact and add beauty all year-round. They are the problem solvers of the garden, spreading out where nothing else will grow.
In addition to the practicality they introduce, ground-covers provide a habitat for beneficial insects, including pollinators and predatory insects that help control pest populations.
Blue daisy bush
Scientifically known as the Felicia amelloides. There is little to rival this shade of blue in your garden. Performing best in the day-long sun, the blue daisy bush retains a soft, mounding form well-suited for border edges, banks, and rockeries that spread throughout the garden bed. The Blue daisy bush thrives well in windy places and sandy soils and will tolerate a moderate frost during the cold months. Perfect for the Cape rainy winters.
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Trailing Phlox
The Trailing Phlox is a magical ground-cover that performs beautifully in both sun and shade, in both inland and coastal areas. This ground-cover will hug the ground, forming low mounds that will spread to cover the space in your garden. Single white flowers with a characteristic yellow centre, growing in the leaf axil, often tucked among the leaves. There are often a few flowers seen year-round, but the main bright flowering season is spring.
Buttons or Knoppies
One of the most charming ground-cover selections to add to your garden. This versatile and delightful evergreen ground-cover forms soft, feathery mounds in sun or semi-shade. The button ground-covers grow to around 20–40 mm tall but are more commonly low-growing with a spreading habit. Bright sun-yellow flowers are on show for most of the year, with the main flush from spring to mid-autumn. These groundcovers stand well above attractive feathery grey-green leaves. Commonly found along the Eastern Cape coast from Mossel Bay to East London, it does well in both summer and winter rainfall regions.
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Trailing Gazania
With green and grey-leaved varieties, most people see these trailing Gazanias as just an old standby, to use where nothing else will. They are some of the toughest ground-covers doing well in humid climates, and thriving in the dry, shallow soils along the coast.
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