Groundcovers for the Spots Where Grass Will Not Grow

Almost every property we take over has one: the strip under the oak, the north side of the house, the bank by the driveway, the corner where the sprinkler does not reach. Grass has been laid there more than once and it has failed more than once. At some point the right answer stops being another pallet of sod and becomes a groundcover that actually suits the spot.

Why the grass keeps failing

Turf needs light, reasonable soil and water, and it needs to be mown. Where any of those is missing, it declines. Deep shade under mature canopy is the most common reason in our area, and our post on grass under trees covers the honest options there. Others are dense tree roots that take all the water, a strip too narrow to mow properly, a slope too steep to mow safely, and soil that is either always wet or pure builder's sand. Replacing the grass with more grass does not change any of those.

Groundcovers that work in Central Florida

• Asiatic jasmine is the standard for shade and part shade. Dense, low, evergreen, tolerant of root competition and drought once established, and it takes the occasional trim to keep it off walks. It is slow to fill in and needs weeding until it closes over, which takes a season or two.
• Perennial peanut is a sun groundcover with small yellow flowers that tolerates poor sandy soil, drought and foot traffic, and can be mown occasionally. It is the closest thing to a low-maintenance lawn substitute for a sunny strip that is not worth irrigating. It goes dormant and thins in a hard freeze.
• Liriope and mondo grass handle shade, root competition and the edges of beds. Liriope forms clumps and suits a border; mondo grass forms a lower, finer carpet in deeper shade.
• Sunshine mimosa is a Florida native for sun, low and spreading with pink flowers, tough in sand and drought, and it takes light mowing.
• Ferns for genuinely wet shade, where almost nothing else is happy. They need moisture and will spread where they have it.
• Juniper for hot, dry, sunny banks where nothing else survives and no one will ever walk.

Match the plant to the reason the grass failed

This is the whole decision. Shade under an oak wants jasmine, mondo grass or liriope. A hot sandy strip along the driveway wants perennial peanut or sunshine mimosa. A wet corner wants ferns or a wet-tolerant planting. A steep sunny bank wants juniper or a spreading groundcover with enough root to hold the slope. A groundcover planted for the wrong reason fails just as reliably as the grass did.

Planting and the first year

Kill or remove the failed turf and the weeds completely first; groundcover planted into a weedy area is weeded by hand for years. Amend sandy soil with organic matter, plant at a spacing that will close in one to two seasons, mulch between the plants to hold moisture and suppress weeds, and irrigate on a drip or micro system through establishment. The first year is mostly weeding and watering. After that, most of these need a trim once or twice a year and little else, which is the point.

Defining the edge

A groundcover area next to turf needs a clear edge or the two grow into each other. A cut edge or a physical border keeps the line, and it makes the change look like a design decision rather than a lawn that gave up. Our post on bed edges and mulch depth covers the detail.

What we do

We convert failed turf to groundcover across the service area, and it is one of the more satisfying jobs because the spot stops being a problem. Request an estimate or see our landscape installation services.