Product Description

Open sweeps of lawn are a large part of most home landscapes, but imagine turning those stretches of lawn into striking swathes of beautifully planted ground covers. Barbara W. Ellis explores hundreds of wonderful possibilities in her new guide, helping readers create eyecatching splashes of color and texture in unexpected places.

More than just broad expanses of a single plant, ground covers can bring a fresh look to dozens of landscaping challenges and opportunities. Flowering plants, herbs, mosses, groundhugging shrubs, and heathers, planted singly or in creative combinations, can cover all sorts of ground situations with unexpected drama and add an elegant, professional look to otherwise dull and ordinary areas. Additionally, hardscape lawn alternatives such as bluestone, crushed gravel, brick, or shredded bark mulch introduce pathways and help create defined borders.

Working with the theory that ground covers should be hardworking as well as beautiful, Part One, Rolling Out the Carpet, inspires readers with low-maintenance, creative ideas. Simplify lawn mowing by filling in awkward corners with easy-to-care-for colorful plants. Edge walkways to keep them neat and attractive. Use broad drifts to control erosion along streams. Ground covers can fit anywhere.

Part Two, Landscaping with Ground Covers, matches plants to specific site requirements. Looking for herbs hardy enough to thrive between stepping stones? Shrubby plants that tolerate full sun? Native ferns for a woodland floor or moss gardens for acid shade? Ellis has all the answers and the experience to combine appropriate plants in stunning combinations. Part Three includes in-depth how-to for planting, growing, and propagating, with special emphasis on site preparation, plant selection, and weed control.

From single-plant drifts to unexpected plant combinations and new uses for natural hardscaping, ground covers are an exciting, low maintenance alternative to traditional lawns.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #70297 in Books
• Published on: 2007-07-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Review

“Barbara W. Ellis transforms yards into flowering pieces of art…offering low-maintenance schemes, plant combinations, and in-depth advice on nurturing verdant landscapes.”

Home Magazine

“Covering Ground will inspire with its wonderful possibilities for creating eye-catching color and texture in unexpected places.  Ellis has the answers to the toughest garden situations…”

East Coast Gardener

“If you’re making the decision to get rid of some water-thirsty lawn, here’s help.  Here are plenty of alternatives, as simple or as show as you want, for sun or shade, around pavers, along edges, fragrant or not, fast- or slow-growing, high- or low-maintenance.”

St. Petersburg Times

“There's life beyond lawn grass, and even beyond English ivy and pachysandra. You'll find lots of good ideas in Covering Ground.”

“Barbara Ellis … elevates utilitarian ground cover plants to garden stars.”

From the Back Cover
REIMAGINE the Possibilities for Covering Your Ground

REPLACE GRASS on hard-to-mow slopes

CONNECT scattered flower beds, trees, and shrubs

CONTROL erosion along stream banks

CARPET the patches between stepping stones

STABILIZE boggy areas

EDGE walkways, curbs, and driveways

CREATE natural alternatives to traditional lawns

ADD A SPLASH OF COLOR anywhere you need it!

About the Author
Barbara W. Ellis, a freelance writer and editor and lifelong gardener, is the author of Covering Ground, Deckscaping, and Taylor's Guide to Growing North America's Favorite Plants, as well as several other volumes in the popular Taylor's Guide gardening series. Ellis lives in Maryland on the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay with her husband and an assortment of dogs, cats, and parrots. Her garden is a perpetual work in progress.

Customer Reviews

Covering Ground
This book is a wonderful picture book full of information on any plant or plant combination you might use to cover an area of your garden. From borders to large expanse open areas. I was happy to find that it was not just the standard 'ground cover' plants that were discussed. Instead, it covered beautiful plant combinations that could be used to fill-in bare spots and trouble spots in the garden. It's the perfect book for garden planning and dreaming during the dreary winter.

Informative, helpful
Nice variety of plants discussed, most easy to find at local nurseries, Lowes, Home Depot. Excellent photos. Plants are well-grouped, ie dry shade, wet soil, shrubs for sun and shade, acid soil, alkaline soil, etc. Discusses how ground covers work, but provides little info on invasives. Overall creativity factor is low to medium (nothing too new or innovative is presented). Best used as a sourcebook, it will get you out to the stores in search of what fits your landscape.

The best landscaping book I've read
This is hands-down the most useful landscaping book I've ever read. After finding it at the library, I wanted my own copy. I have a large ravine next to my house that I'm slowly trying to convert from a weed-filled ditch to a vision of beauty and this book is my guide. It includes a vast catalog of groundcovers complete with needs for sun, soil type, climate zone, and photos. It goes beyond the usual assortment, including shrubs, grasses, and combination of hardscape and groundcovers. There is also a lot of information on native plants and invasive ones (many of which can be useful in the right place!) I salute Barbara Ellis for this masterful work. If I could only have one gardening book, this would be it.