Ground cover plants are considered an easy-care greening solution for the lazy. However, a more targeted use of the creeping plant carpets can require a little maintenance work - not excluding occasional fertilization.
Do you have to fertilize ground cover plants?
Should ground cover plants be fertilized? As a rule, ground cover plants require little care and no fertilizing. However, with targeted decorative use and frequent pruning, moderate fertilization, preferably with organic fertilizer such as compost (€10.00 on Amazon) or horn shavings, can be helpful during the main vegetation phase.
When ground cover plants should be fertilized
The ground cover plants are particularly popular for their uncomplicated nature. Most varieties require little care due to their growth and robustness. They are also voluntary weed controllers on larger areas, promote soil quality through a continuous supply of moisture and nutrients with their shallow roots and harmonize the garden appearance through their even plant cover.
Basically the following applies to ground cover:
- need little care
- thrive largely self-sufficiently
- also regulate their immediate vegetative environment
All of these properties actually speak against fertilizing. Rather, excessive growth stimulation can lead to faster but structurally weak development and also to damage.
The more demanding ground cover crop
Cultivating a ground cover is a little different when it is used specifically for ornamental purposes. For example, in carefully arranged beds with alternating tall and short plants, in decorative rock gardens or in artistic pattern plantings on graves. Here, ground cover plants have to look neat and should be cared for accordingly.
Moderate fertilization with a lot of pruning
Especially if you place small, precisely defined cushions of ground cover as deliberate structural elements between other plants, you should regularly compact them and keep them in shape through surface and edge trimming. Depending on how fine the contours should be in order to fit into the overall look of the garden, this can happen about four times a year.
In this case, you should give the ground cover a little fertilizer at the same time. Because constant cutting can weaken it. Nevertheless, fertilizer should definitely be applied in moderation and only the main vegetation phase should last over the summer and into mid-autumn. In order to avoid over-fertilization, it is advisable to first give the ground cover a continuous fertilization in early spring, ideally in the form of organic fertilizer such as compost (€10.00 on Amazon) or horn shavings.
But you should also stay away from artificial fertilizers when fertilizing beyond the growth phase. They focus too much on rapid growth, which can actually burn the ground cover. In addition, the effect of artificial fertilizers only lasts for a short time. If the ground cover is damaged by excessive cutting, you can also give it a moderate amount of universal liquid fertilizer.
