Loamy soils are literally not the lightest and present the hobby gardener with a number of challenges. You can find out how you can successfully plant a ground cover plant in clay soil in the following article.
Which ground cover plants are suitable for clay soil?
Flowering varieties such as cushion aster, cranesbill, golden nettle or pineapple mint are suitable for ground cover on clay soil. Alternative options include creeping dwarf trees such as cotoneasters or creeping conifers as well as ferns for shady, moist areas.
The crux of clayey soils
All garden soils contain a certain amount of clay. It also plays an important role in the planting soil by storing water and nutrients. In some places, however, the proportion of clay in the soil is excessive, which leads to very low permeability - both for water and for nutrients and air. For plants this means constant moisture and a lack of root ventilation. Many people don't cope well with this, but some varieties do.
Aside from the limited plant selection that clay soil confronts the gardener with, its dense, cakey consistency also makes it difficult to work with. Improvement by adding sand and compost is therefore a real drudgery and planting is of course more laborious than in loose soil.
The properties of clay soils at a glance:
- holds a lot of water
- stores nutrients
- reduces the air supply
- laborious to work and plant
Clay soil compatible ground cover
If you want to plant a clayey area with a ground cover, the factor of difficult cultivation is particularly important - because in order to be able to fulfill their area-filling task, the low plants ultimately have to be planted in a relatively large number of individual plants. In order to save yourself the backbreaking work of improving the soil, it is even more advisable to select varieties that are compatible with clay soil. And when it comes to ground cover, the choice isn't that limited - at least when it comes to visual diversity.
Flowering deciduous ground cover plants
You can use delicately flowering classics such as cushion aster or most cranesbills. The bright yellow golden nettle, the friendly spotted lungwort and creeping gunsel also cope well with loamy soils. The common soapwort can also grow well on clay soil, as can the aromatic fragrant pineapple mint, which can be used as a seasoning, or the simple snake knotweed. With all of these varieties, however, rather sunny conditions should be ensured so that the clay soil does not remain too wet.
The robust alternative: dwarf trees
Another, perhaps more pragmatic, but certainly decorative option are creeping dwarf trees. Many of them are very undemanding in terms of soil technology, such as the evergreen, very robust and virtually maintenance-free cotoneaster or Zerg conifers such as creeping juniper or yew species.
Swinging Mysticism: Ferns
Ferns like dark, moist habitats and are also suitable as ground cover - with their swinging, delicate leaf structure they also have something to offer visually.
