Ditch the bark, try a living mulch

Mulch is practical but not particularly ornamental.

I'm OK with mulched rows in the vegetable garden, but in my flower gardens I'd rather look at plants than a sea of mulch.

Increasingly I'm using low, creeping plants as a living mulch around taller ornamentals. I've still got a long way to go, but I'm having fun experimenting. And I can't help noticing that my plants seem particularly happy with this arrangement.

Noted plantsman Roy Diblik, co-owner of Northwind Perennial Farm, agrees that a plant prefers to live in a close-knit community rather than be grown as a specimen surrounded by mulch. What a plant wants, he says, is buddies.

"Are you asking a plant to be true to itself, or to perform some kind of miracle?" he asks.

A friend in Missouri uses all kinds of creeping sedums as a living groundcover around her perennials. Since these low sedums are generally recommended for hot, sunny spots, I was surprised how well they were doing in the partial shade of her taller plants. But it looked good and it was working, so lately I've been copying her idea and I love the results.

For the shadiest spots, I've found that the native white-blooming wild sedum, sedum ternatum, works particularly well.

In sunnier spots, such as the front of a bed, I'm partial to a creeping sedum named Angelina. It lights up the scene with foliage that is chartreuse in summer, reddish-orange in winter.

The best plants for a living ground cover are perennials that will grow in peace with their neighbors, without overwhelming them.

Here are a few more of my favorites:

• Foamflower, tiarella, has bottlebrush flowers of white or pale pink in spring, but its handsome foliage remains attractive throughout the growing season. At its best in partial or full shade, a clumping or creeping variety makes an ideal plant partner.

One of my favorites is Jeepers Creepers, with white flowers and attractive variegated foliage.

• Perennial geranium weaves in and out among plants, effectively tying a flower border together. There are a lot of beautiful varieties and a choice of colors, but it's hard to beat Rozanne. With long-blooming, violet-blue flowers, it is this year's Perennial Plant Association's Perennial Plant of the Year. Perennial geraniums grow and bloom well in sun or partial shade. Another plus: deer and rabbits usually avoid them.

• Bugleweed, ajuga, offers colorful leaves that make a beautiful background for perennials. Although a vigorous spreader when conditions are right, bugleweed is shallow-rooted and easy to pull out if it's threatening to crowd its neighbors. My favorite is a variety called Burgundy Glow, with tri-colored leaves of burgundy, white and green.

• Jan Riggenbach's column appears every Sunday. Write to her in care of the Daily Herald, P.O. Box 280, Arlington Heights IL 60006. Enclose a self-addressed, stamped envelope for a personal reply.