My top two groundcover plants

Firstly, what is a groundcover? Botanically, these are a whole variety of plants, but when gardeners talk about groundcovers, they are thinking about plants that are very low-growing, and act as a kind-of living mulch. A living mulch will shade the soil, as well as transpire (release) moisture through its leaves, creating a more humid growing environments for other plants nearby.

I have two top picks for hardy groundcovers for the Plympton area. The first of these is Myoporum parvifolium (Creeping Boobialla). This is a small leaved plant which grows only to about 15cm above the ground, and will spread to three metres in diameter, keeping a large area of soil moist. There is a purple-leaved form, and a bright green leaved form, and both of them have small white flowers, usually during summer and autumn. Prior to colonisation, these would have been part of the ecosystem where North Plympton is now, and less common in the grasslands a bit to the south. It needs almost no maintenance once it is planted, and is easy to remove, if needed ,once other plants have grown up around it.

The other pick is Enchylaena tomentosa (Ruby saltbush). This delightful local plant has berries in either yellow, red, orange, or purple, all of which are edible (and a bit salty-sweet, as the name suggests). The plant attracts native butterflies, and is a good shelter for skinks and small invertebrates. This one grows a bit taller, and will often sprawl up over other plants is it can get away with it. The big plus is that it seeds itself very easily, and is pretty hard to kill, so if you are not an experienced gardener, you won't have to worry about it. Surprisingly, for how far it can sprawl, it is very shallow rooted, and you can pull it out in a matter of moments, if it gets too large for its spot (and of course you can just prune it back if you want it just to play nicely with the other plants. Ruby saltbush was part of the plant community in the Black Forest, which reached as far as South Plympton, so was also local to this area.

So there you have it... two tough local groundcovers, that will help you get a garden established, or help keep it cooler during the hottest times of year.

Enchylaena tomentosa (Ruby saltbush)

Myoporum parvifolium (Creeping boobialla)

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