Mulching is a wonderful thing to do for the health of your soil and plants can function as a living mulch. Some plants create shallow rooted carpets that happily grow away under your bigger perennials, shrubs, and trees.

Katrina Flad of frock n wellies suggests her top 5 ground cover plants.

Bugle, Ajuga Reptans

A favourite with the bees, it stands out because of the lovely dark colour. It grows on pretty much any soil when shaded and sheltered by surrounding plants and is great to soften the edges between soft and hard landscaping.

Alpine Strawberry, Fragaria Vesca

Unassuming until the tiny, super delicious fruit starts to grow. Compared to woodlands strawberries, they fruit a lot more profusely and tend to do well in high altitude Scottish gardens.

Heuchera ‘Coral Bells’

Heucheras come in so many different colours, creating a tapestry of colour hues throughout the border. Even better when the frothy white flowers on almost invisible stems pop up like little sparkles everywhere. 

Thymus Vulgaris

In dry, poor soil there is nothing better than the wonderfully fragrant thyme which keeps its green dome shape all through the year. Take care though not to overshade it with taller plants, as it does love a bit of sunlight.

Lady’s Mantle, Alchemilla Mollis

This one can self seed everywhere, so you will need to be prepared to edit. A bit taller than most ground cover plants, it does a great job at keeping soil covered throughout the growing season. The lime green colour is a great contrast to darker green foliage and the flowers go well with purple or pink hues. 

Katrina Flad runs a sustainable garden design and landscaping business frock n wellies from her home in Aberdeenshire. Passionate about the planet and all things that live on it, she wanted to make a real difference to her environment ever since she can remember. In her regular column, Katrina will bring you design solutions for your garden which are sustainable, practical, and beautiful. Follow Katrina at frock n wellies on Instagramand Facebook.