Banish Weeds From Borders with Beautiful Groundcover Plants That Thrive on Neglect

Weeding borders can be an endless task. All that bare soil, regularly watered, creates a welcoming home for weed seeds to germinate and take full advantage of your garden hospitality. But there’s a very easy answer to suppress weeds and drastically reduce weeding time: add some low-growing groundcover plants that will keep those pesky weeds out of your borders altogether.

This isn’t just a practical solution – it’s pretty, too. The right groundcover adds another layer of color and texture to a border, creating an attractive carpet of flowers and foliage beneath bigger perennial plants and shrubs. All eight of our recommendations are evergreen and perennial, so they’ll look good and keep on top of weeds year in, year out, year-round.

These low-growing lovelies are all low maintenance groundcovers and easy to grow, too, and act as a living mulch, reducing moisture evaporation from bare ground.

When you’re choosing the right border groundcover to grow among other plants, the trick is to pair up their growing habits with your border needs. That way, the groundcover will scoot around existing plants without swamping your herbaceous perennials or shrubs. Which of these best groundcover plants is right for your backyard border?

1. Best Groundcover For a Perennial Border

Creeping Phlox is one of those gardening easy wins, where you have to do very little but the rewards are so generous. There are many cultivars but Phlox subulata ‘Amazing Grace’ is a favorite with a mass of tiny white flowers in spring, each with a magenta centre, that light up a border but leave the spotlight to bigger perennials. The foliage is neat with needle-like leaves, spreading to 2 feet but just 4 inches high, and all you need do to keep the plant looking good is shear off the spent flowers. If any bare patches appear, a quick trim brings a spurt of fresh stems. Creeping phlox is considered evergreen, though it may lose leaves in the coldest zones. Zones 3-9.

2. Best For a Small Garden

Creeping thyme creates beautiful groundcover and red creeping thyme is even better than the rest! Thymus praecox ‘Coccineus’ has bright crimson to magenta-pink flowers all through summer, adding another layer of color to any sunny perennial border. The tiny evergreen leaves are aromatic with a refreshing lemony scent, and grow into a dense, weed-suppressing mat. So 'Coccineus' really earns its space in a small garden but it’s this cultivar’s slow-growing nature that makes it ideal for a compact space. Position plants 18 inches apart and they will gently spread outwards to form a mat over 2–3 years. It spreads by rooting trailing stems, rather than sending out underground runners or aggressively seeding, so once the plant has reached the desired size, it’s super-easy to control by simply pulling up excess growth. Zones 3–9.

3. Best For Unusual Groundcover in Warmer Zones

If you can get your tongue around its name, this evergreen jasmine will fill bare soil with variegated foliage that’s a fabulous mix of pink, white and green. In summer, the small white flowers of Trachelospermum asiaticum Snow-N-Summer (‘Hosns’) will bring a sweet fragrance to your garden, too. The plant only reaches 8–10 inches high but grows to 3 feet wide, and because its growth rate is moderate, it won’t swamp other plants in a border. Grow this perennial in your front yard, in sun or part shade, and everyone will want to know what this highly unusual groundcover plant is! Zones 7–9.

4. Best Pretty Underplanting For Roses

Pop this little sweetie beneath roses and other sizeable shrubs and blue star creeper will scamper around the other plants to form an evergreen carpet. Its tiny flowers bloom a pretty soft blue from spring into summer, often lasting longer in milder climates. Isotoma fluviatilis grows to a petite 3–4 inches high but can spread to two feet. Don't be fooled by this plant's diminutive size: it may be small but it is enthusiastic, so give it a line to grow to: edging your border (a simple no-dig kit like this from Amazon makes it easy) means you can trim excess stems in a trice and keep this creeper where it’s supposed to be. It likes consistent moisture so it’s perfect for borders with plants you need to keep watered through dry spells. Zones 5–9 (it may be semi-evergreen in colder climates.)

5. Best Spreading Groundcover For Shade

Bugle is a super-useful groundcover plant as it thrives in full shade (though it’s happy in sun too), and this cultivar has attractive evergreen leaves in a lovely chocolate-purple shade. The foliage has a slight sheen, so don’t worry about the dark tone of the leaves as they reflect light for a lovely textured effect. Ajuga reptans 'Chocolate Chip' is a dwarf variety so it’s far less rampant than its bigger cousins, only spreading to a foot wide. It’s low-growing to 2–3 inches, forming a dense mat of leaves that block weeds very effectively year-round, and throws up short spikes of lavender-blue flowers in spring. Zones 4–9.

6. Best Clumping Groundcover For Shade

Here’s another handy shade-loving plant that makes excellent groundcover, but this one naturally grows into neat mounds and doesn’t spread, so it’s better for smaller borders. Coral bells ‘Citronelle’ grows to a foot high and two feet wide so to use it as groundcover, simply position multiple plants two feet apart. The well-shaped foliage is a wonderful lime green so it lights up a shady spot and shows off darker plants a treat, and is pretty much evergreen, though severe winters can cause it to temporarily lose its leaves. Heuchera ‘Citronelle’ has sprays of small creamy-white flowers in summer but it’s this fabulous foliage that’s the real star of the show. Zones 4–8.

7. Best For a Bright Border Edge in Dry Soil

You’ve probably heard that ice plants are invasive, but this one isn’t. There are a number of plants that go under the name of ‘ice plant’: Carbobrotus edulis (highway ice plant) and Carpobrotus chilensis are both very invasive, but this is Delosperma and it’s very well behaved. It’s a succulent so it thrives with very little water, so it’ll be happy in a border edge where little else except weeds want to grow. Newer cultivars have been bred to flower prolifically, and Ocean Sunset Orange Glow brings particularly big blooms in incredibly vibrant colors that open in the day and close at night for added interest. It grows in a 4–6 inch-high evergreen mat (though may lose some leaves in extreme winter cold) and spreads to just a foot wide. Zones 5–9.

8. Best Groundcover For Under Big Shrubs

If you’ve got a border of shrubs, then Sedum rupestre ‘Angelina’ is going to be your new best friend. Shrubby borders are usually pretty big and all those roots suck the soil dry, meaning the only plants that want to grow below are weeds – and this characterful succulent! Its evergreen needle-like foliage is a bright chartreuse green for great tone and texture, and grows into a spreading mat dotted with tiny yellow flowers in early summer. A fast and enthusiastic grower, this sedum will cover bare soil in a flash – while each plant spreads to a foot wide, stems will root wherever they’re in contact with the ground. Shallow-rooted, it’s simple to pull up to control its spread, though that strong growth means it’s best suited to pairing with bigger plants. Zones 3–11.