Living mulch

Living mulch is a term used for plants that are specifically used to take the place of mulch. I used to mulch all the gardens. We would get it by the truckload and I would schlep it around the yard in a wheel barrel, after shoveling it up from the driveway. Now, don't get me wrong, I really like the way a nicely mulched garden looks, and it does cushion the soil and keep the moisture in for the plants, in addition to keeping out weeds. It serves a great purpose. But I would always be working on carting that mulch all over and before I know it it would be August and I'd still have a pile of mulch still needing to be put somewhere or another.

I am working towards less-maintenance gardens for the long run. We have been doing the same with the house. As we get older we no longer have the stamina to maintain everything the way we used to. So we are now working on the outside of the house. We have been cutting back the lawn, to help save on watering and gas used in the lawnmower. In the garden that means less mulch. Over the years I have been using a lot of different ground covers, which has cut back on mulch, but I also started using a wide variety of plants in groupings, which has resulted in them becoming living mulch all over the gardens.

There are a variety of perennials that work well as living mulch. They are ones that are an easy spreading, yet not totally invasive, species. I have several varieties of Sedum in the gardens. Several of them make great living mulches. This is Sedum acre, Goldmoss Stonecrop, a spring, yellow flowering variety.




It spreads rapidly, loves full sun, but will tolerate shade, and allows other plants to grow up through it. In some areas it even grows up and through taller plants.





This is Sedum spurium, Two-row Stonecrop, which has a pink spiked blossom.




It has created a beautiful carpet effect under my large pink Butterfly Bush.



In this area both types of Sedum come together in front of another Plant which also makes a good ground cover, Cransesbill Geranium. You can see how the Sedum is growing out into the driveway, cascading over the cobblestones and onto the driveway. During the summer I have been thinning the Sedum regularly as people have been wanting it. It is so easy to transplant, with each small piece cabable of rooting itself in just about any type of soil. It has been growing quite readily in the clay soil I had put into some areas of the gardens by mistake.




Here is another example of the Cranesbill Geranium as a great ground cover under the bird feeder. This plant keeps the seeds from reproducing by keeping a dense covering over the soil.


As I get to a mid point in these photos, I realize how much living mulch I have accumulated over the years. Plants which may get thinned on a regular basis by some gardeners might be left to multiply and spread over a wide area to become a living mulch, with no plan as such.