|
|
Take cover
1 Jul, 2007 By: Larry Aylward LivescapesGround covers are a growing segment thanks to consumer education
Business is not only blooming at Classic Groundcovers, a 43-year-old wholesale nursery in Athens, GA, it's booming. In fact, the company's sales in 2006 were double those in 1986. If Classic Groundcovers is any indication, the plant products it sells are in strong demand these days.
 |
"There are a lot more people growing ground covers than there used to be," says Wally Pressey, the company's general manager. "I guess ground covers are being specified more on most, if not all, landscape jobs."
Pressey says ground covers have increased in popularity for myriad reasons, one being that more people recognize that they can be incorporated into good landscape design while providing excellent erosion control.
Stabilizing Options
Of course, there are myriad varieties of ground covers, which range in size from 2 in. to 2 ft. tall, and not all of them are suitable for specific functions. Take erosion control, for instance. If an end-user requests a ground cover to provide structural stability on a steep hillside, a plant with a capable root system must be recommended. What constitutes a capable root system? One that is thick with many rhizomes, Pressey says, noting the best ground cover plants for erosion control grow thick roots at least 6 in. deep and have many fibers.
"We're not talking just a tap root that has a couple of branches," Pressey says. "We're talking a net, if you will, spread throughout an area."
Michael Loos, an Ohio State University extension county educator in horticulture, says a ground cover's roots must be thick enough to keep soil in place.
"If I want good erosion control, I want to put in either shrubs or even Dahlia leaves if they are in the sun," Loos says. "Those would really keep the soil from moving around too much because they have thick root systems with rhizomes."
Pressey says Euonymus is a ground cover that's excellent for erosion control because of its fibrous root system. "Once it's established, you can't dig anywhere in the planting without finding its roots," he adds.
It's important for landscape professionals to communicate to end-users that some ground covers require a full growing season before their roots fully mature. Hence, it takes time for them to become reliable as erosion control mechanisms.
"So that time between planting and establishment may scare some people away [from using ground covers]," Pressey says.
The waiting for a new ground cover to take root is the hardest part.
"Because you could have a terrible rainstorm come and just wash away everything you just put in the ground," Pressey says.
Cloth and netting can be used to help hold the soil and new ground cover in place until it becomes established, Pressey notes. But once plants like Liriope, English oak or Euonymus take hold, they stay, he adds.
"They make you forget about the fact that an area may have once had an erosion problem," Pressey says.
Another reason ground covers are more popular in landscape designs is because they are low-maintenance, durable and don't have to be replaced every two years.
"Once installed and established, they are [low maintenance]," Pressey says. "All one has to do is keep them in check as far as [their growth]."
Landscape professionals should recommend to their clients that ground covers be used to replace grass on steep slopes so those areas don't have to be mowed. The grass can be eradicated, and a plant like the Hosta Grand Tiara, which sports apple green heart-shaped leaves and has the root structure to control soil erosion on the slope, can be planted, Loos says.
The Education Factor
1 2
Please send any technical comments or questions to our webmaster.