What Counts as a Ground Cover Plant?
A ground cover is generally any low-growing plant used to fill in open soil instead of turf grass, mulch, or bare dirt. Most ground covers stay under a foot or two tall and spread horizontally — by rooting stems, rhizomes, or simple dense branching — to form a mat that shades out weeds and holds the soil surface. The category is broad: it includes herbaceous perennials like creeping phlox and periwinkle, low shrubs like some manzanita cultivars, and even some ornamental grasses used in a spreading, matting way.
Because the category is so broad, the right ground cover for a shady woodland path is rarely the right choice for a sunny, dry slope. The sections below work through the main decision points, then look at a few popular options in more detail, including manzanita, fast spreaders, and slope-friendly choices.
How to Choose a Ground Cover for Your Yard
Sun, Shade, and Soil
Start with what your site actually offers rather than what you’d like it to offer. Full-sun, dry-soil sites (a slope facing south, a gravelly strip along a driveway) favor drought-tolerant options like manzanita, creeping thyme, or sedum. Shadier, moister spots under trees or on the north side of a house tend to suit periwinkle, sweet woodruff, or hardy geraniums instead. Most ground cover failures trace back to a mismatch here — a sun-loving plant struggling in shade, or a dry-soil plant rotting in a spot that stays wet.
Spread Rate and Mature Size
Ground covers vary enormously in how fast they fill in. Some spreading perennials can cover meaningful ground within a season or two, while many shrubby options (including most manzanita cultivars) take several years to reach their mature spread. If you need coverage quickly — for example, to stop erosion before the next rainy season — a fast spreader is usually a better fit than a slow-growing woody plant, even if the woody plant looks more polished once established. Our guide to fast-growing ground cover for erosion control goes into this trade-off in more detail.
Foot Traffic and Maintenance
A few ground covers (certain thymes, for instance) tolerate light foot traffic; most do not and will thin out or die back where people regularly walk. Maintenance also varies — some ground covers need occasional shearing to stay tidy and prevent woody buildup, while others are essentially self-sufficient once established. It’s worth checking a plant’s mature habit before committing a large area to it, since replacing an established ground cover bed is considerably more work than replacing a few perennials.
Manzanita as a Ground Cover
Manzanita (Arctostaphylos species and cultivars) is a western North American native best known for its smooth, reddish bark and small, bell-shaped flowers. While many manzanitas grow as upright shrubs or small trees, several cultivars have been selected specifically for their low, spreading habit, which makes them a popular dry-climate ground cover choice. Emerald Carpet, Pacific Mist, and Carmel Sur are among the most commonly offered ground-cover forms, generally reported to stay under two feet tall while spreading several feet wide once established.
Manzanita tends to do best in full sun with fast-draining, sandy or rocky soil, and most sources describe it as suited to roughly zone 6 through 9, though hardiness reporting varies somewhat by cultivar and source, so treat that as a general range rather than an exact cutoff for your specific site. It’s a slow-to-moderate grower rather than a fast one, so it’s a better fit for a long-term, low-water planting than for a spot that needs quick coverage.
Can Manzanita Grow in Shade?
Manzanita is generally considered a sun-loving plant, and most growing guides recommend full sun, especially near the coast. In hot inland climates, some light afternoon shade is often tolerated or even helpful, but deep or all-day shade tends to produce thin, leggy growth and fewer flowers. If your site is mostly shaded, a different ground cover is likely to perform better.
How Fast Does Emerald Carpet Manzanita Grow?
Emerald Carpet is usually described as a moderate grower rather than a fast one — it can take a few years to fill in its mature spread, which is commonly cited as roughly four to six feet wide, at a height of well under two feet. This is slower than many herbaceous ground covers, so gardeners who need rapid coverage (for a slope that’s actively eroding, for example) often pair it with a faster temporary cover or choose a quicker-spreading plant instead.
Can Humans Eat Manzanita Berries?
Manzanita berries are generally reported as edible, and some Indigenous communities have historically used them for food and drink, often processed rather than eaten raw. That said, the berries are described as mealy, dry, and fairly bland or tart fresh off the plant, and as with any wild plant, it’s worth confirming a correct identification and checking current guidance before eating any part of it, since this article isn’t a substitute for a foraging reference.
Fastest-Growing Creeping Ground Covers
If speed is the priority, a handful of ground covers are repeatedly mentioned as fast spreaders in gardening references: creeping jenny (Lysimachia nummularia), periwinkle (Vinca minor), and creeping phlox (Phlox subulata) are common answers to “what’s the fastest-growing ground cover.” These plants tend to spread by rooting stems or rhizomes and can noticeably fill in within a single growing season under good conditions, though actual speed depends heavily on soil, moisture, and climate. Creeping jenny in particular is an aggressive spreader and is best kept away from beds where it might crowd out less vigorous neighbors.
Ground Cover for Slopes and Erosion Control
Slopes need ground cover that establishes roots quickly, since the first season after planting is usually when a bare slope is most vulnerable to washing out. Plants with vigorous, mat-forming roots — creeping juniper, creeping phlox, and periwinkle come up often in this context — are generally favored over slow-establishing shrubs for this reason. For a closer look at specific plants and slope-planting technique, see our dedicated fast-growing ground cover for erosion control article.
Flowering Ground Cover Options
Many ground covers double as flowering perennials, which is a common reason gardeners choose them over turf or mulch. Creeping phlox puts on a vivid spring bloom, hardy geraniums and catmint flower over a longer summer stretch, and low-growing sedums add late-season color. Cold-hardy gardeners — particularly those gardening in zone 5 — have their own set of considerations, which we cover separately in flowering ground cover for zone 5.
Planting and Establishing Ground Cover
Most ground covers establish best when planted in spring or fall, when temperatures are moderate and rainfall is more reliable than in peak summer. Space plants according to their expected mature spread rather than planting too densely, since overcrowded ground cover tends to compete with itself and can be more prone to disease in the crowded, poorly ventilated center of a bed. Water consistently through the first growing season — even drought-tolerant plants like manzanita need regular water while their root systems are developing — and keep the area weeded until the ground cover is dense enough to suppress weeds on its own. Our guide to why removing weeds matters covers why that early weeding matters so much while a planting is still establishing.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
The most common mistake is mismatching a plant’s sun and moisture needs to the site, which usually shows up as thin, patchy growth rather than outright death. A second common mistake is choosing a slow-establishing plant for a spot that needs fast coverage, such as an actively eroding slope. A third is underestimating mature spread and planting too many plants too close together, which creates maintenance headaches a few years down the line. Taking the time to match the plant to the site generally prevents most of these issues.