Low Maintenance Lawn Alternatives and Ground Covers you can Walk on
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- Опубліковано 21 лип 2022
- If you are looking for ground covers for your landscaping, whether it is a ground cover perennials or an evergreen ground cover plants. And you want to know what the best drought tolerant groundcover is? Native Plants? Worried about foot traffic? Some of these options will work for you! Check out these low maintenance landscaping ideas for your Florida Garden! These are the best ground cover plants to get rid of grass and start bringing in beauty and wildlife.
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It’s so much fun to go back and watch these videos, and know how much your yard has evolved from then. Amazing ❤
OMG! I deal with this too in Texas. Every day there is someone mowing, blowing or making some kind of lawn noise. I wish they could at least synchronize so some days would be quite.
Water hyssop grows naturally as ground cover on the low, wetter side of our property, and it attracts so many white peacock butterflies.
Now that the Monarch butterfly have officially made the endangered list I think I need to do a native strip in my front yard heavy with milkweed that is host to them.
Do it! Save our Monarchs. If you aren't picking up milkweed from a native nursery, watch out, because I'm seeing Tropical Milkweed be labeled as Butterflyweed at Lowes and Home Depot.
@@WildFloridian I will not be. There is a patch that is up for sale (😒) that has native milk weed growing from our area. So I have be watching the pods til they get a bit more dry for poper seed development. I'm gonna harvest some of that and add other natives as well to attract their attention.
Nice! 😊
I have also been replacing my lawn with ground cover. We have frogfruit, sunshine mimosa, perineal peanut and creeping sage(really great for shade). Got all of ours from Wilcox nursery. I still have a problem with grass even after 12-14in of mulch underneath the ground cover. Looks good!
I also had perennial peanut and it required no care, walkable, mowed twice a year. Nice little yellow flowers.
That is amazing! I bet it looks gorgeous! That is super frustrating that the grass is still getting through.
Great video! Perennial peanut and frog fruit have done best for us. I wish our whole area was peanut. The mimosa doesn’t compete well with weeds, but sure is pretty. As far as mangos, if you only plan to get one tree, I suggest Glenn mango. It’s a delicious, classic flavored, fiberless mango that is productive, easy to maintain, and doesn’t have disease issues.
Thank you for the mango tip!!! Ben and I go back and forth. He likes sweeter mangos and I like tarter mangos. But I think we will just bite the bullet and get something... we have only been debating this for 5 years 😝 We could have mangoes already!!!! I'll tell him, Glenn mango for the win!
I love how expressive you are. Love your videos
In my last house I planted perrenial peanut after removing the horrible St Augustine grass. It filled in and created a beautiful matte of yellow flowers. Mowed maybe 2-3 times per year. Nitrogen fixing, drought tolerant and looked awesome. Weeds were an occasional problem but easy to manage. Highly recommend.
Thanks for sharing Chris.
Did you plant one gallon pots, plugs - or what? All I can find near me are one gallon pots.
This was several years ago and we planted many 3 gal pots. Laid black plastic and mulch first. Bought the peanut bulk from Council Growers in Wimauma. Not sure if they still sell to the public. Check website.
I'm thinking of trying some perennial peanut for low traffic areas. Thanks for the tip about creeping sage, I have so many shady understory areas that need a ground cover and that looks nice. 👍
I'm glad you are thinking about ditching the grass! Check out some of the Florida Gardening groups on facebook and search perennial peanut. I've seen a bunch throughout time who have not been fans for various reasons. But others love it. (also it isn't native but many will say it is 😂). Can't wait to hear how your transformation of you yard goes! Be the Change! 🥰
I like your mindset and vibe! Good info
You gave some excellent choices for lawn alternatives. I have frog fruit, sunshine mimosa, beach verbena and dune sunflower as ground cover for my mango and blood orange tree. (I also have Carolina petunia but its struggling so I may place it elsewhere). I originally had mulch but it's Aussie's kryptonite. As a result it ends up with him chewing it, getting sick and not as ground cover. I do cut back the dune sunflower the most. But i love my frog fruit! I would like to have less grass but every time i plant something new in the backyard my Aussie looks at the new plantings and then at me like "Really? More? What about my grass?"
Aussie!!!! What a cute name! I'm definetly going to have to keep some flat lawn/groundcover in the back for the kiddos and our new doggie. So I understand Aussie 👀
I don't care what grows in my yard as long as it doesn't stab my feet.
I hear ya 👍
Exactly. Me too
I feel this to my core
The extent of your gardening knowledge blows my mind! Are you a home gardener or do you work in the field (no pun intended) in addition to your own beautiful garden? Is your background or education in agriculture too?
Thanks! That’s quite the compliment. I’m only an at home gardener. My background is Mechanical Engineering 😜
@@WildFloridian 😊
Pew, pew, pew, pew, PHEW!!!! LOL! I so love your videos, entertaining and informative as well.
Your heavy lifting last week paid off; that natural edging looks fabulous.
LOL!!! Ben and I are cracking up... Pew Pew Pew PheW!
I'm voting the doggos are: BIG SUPPORTERS OF NATIVE PLANTS! 🤩 😂 😎
Really enjoyed this!!
So glad!
I planted a clover lawn in my small backyard. Green all year round, dont jave to water it and mowing is optional. It grows maybe 5 inches!
I would put wild flower garden but I have 3 dogs, 2 young ones that would chew them up. I dont have the energy for a veggie garden.
My front lawn is all lavender ane echinacea and I plan on planting creeping thyme in between the lavender grossos and echinacea. ❤
Nice! Love a lawn alternate! Are you in Florida? I know others here are interested.
Hi! Awesome video! I’m learning and slowly replacing my lawn with frog fruit! It was completely accidental as the pollinators poop brought in the frog fruit! Lol! And I love it!
Thanks!
Great info! Thanks!
Sunshine mimosa is that having pink flower,its lovely.
Yessss so happy to find your channel. I am in N. Kenwood St Pete and want to convert my lawn. Hate mowing, love flowers and plants and butterflies.. my neighbors are not happy with me however 😅
I love it! I really appreciated this video as I've been looking at different ground covers around my flower beds. I have noticed that unless we use a heavy garden fabric (which I don't like using), we get a ton of weeds come through near areas where flowers are planted
I thought of you for this video! When we chatted the other day, I almost kicked myself for not recommending beach verbena for the road islands for your neighborhood. I think those would be gorgeous and no standard neighborhood has that.... y'all would be so chique!
thank you
I have Mimosa strigillosa growing in my front yard, along with many plants for our wildlife. I just purchased some Phyla nodiflora seeds. I want that in my yard as well. I am using them as they are both nectar and host plants for butterflies 🦋, and they won't climb over my other plants.
I used to have a nursery and never used insecticides or herbicides, and I still don't.
I love your videos. I also grow non-native, non-invasive plants for my birds, butterflies, bees, etc.
Your Yard is beautiful 😍 Can you do a video on what we should be planting right now….? For all us newbie’s 😉
There are so many mango varieties it can be overwhelming! I purchased three dwarf types, Ice Cream, Julie, and Pickering. Pickering is a good mango that is highly productive and good for people not used to pruning fruit trees on a regular basis.
Thanks for the tips! Our challenge was/is... Ben likes sweeter mangoes and I like tarter mangoes. 🥭 So we have to find a middle ground.
Trying to graft a different mango variety onto one you buy would be a cool UA-cam video though 😎
That's a great idea... I just need to learn how to graft 😝
@@WildFloridian Mangoes are one of the easier grafting trees, I think you will do fine! I’ve had failures and successes with grafting. I like to bag my grafts with paper bags during the dry season right after winter. If you make sure the tree has plenty of water during the dry season the grafts do well.
It's so exciting that your short term/long term goal is to continue to reduce your lawn. I paid a whole bunch of $$$$s to have my small front yard landscaped...waste of time and money. I'd have been better served if I'd spent the money on having raised beds (for vegetables and flowers) put in. I've ended up with crushed shell paths, lots of wood chip mulch, some coontie (the lawn guys managed to kill all the remaining sunshine mimosa) and a small tree/large shrub of yaupon holly. You're definitely going the right direction. I like your creeping sage (shade) and may try to grow some in the back yard, that is shaded by a huge live oak tree. Thanks for the inspiration 😁
I love the journey you are on too! I agree... many landscapers are doing a lot of builder grade gardening when there is so much more we can do. And similar, we paid landscapers to put in a bunch of exotics years ago... that I will be taking out in the next couple of years. Be the Change 😄
😂😂😂 that’s what it sounds like in my neighborhood
Great topic. I hope you show us the transformation process. I know a lot of people in South Florida trying to get rid of their lawn
Hey Juan! And yes, I will take y'all along the way 🥰
Lippia is nice , Kurapia is the more developed form of lippia, ruschia is a succulent type , and dymondia are my favorites.
Perennial peanut, it is worth a look. And it fixes nitrogen, bonus.
Disney has a ground cover in their landscapes that is called peanut plant w small iris like yellow flowers. It is beautiful.
A few thoughts on mangos … get one that fruits later in the season. Mine was in flower when the frost hit (north Pinellas) and the tree froze back so no mangos this year. Also if you get one that’s more cold hardy (Pickering I think) and one that is the size you want (Valencia Pride is a giant but pickering and Glenn and a few others are small) then you can order scions and graft other varieties on. Fruitful Trees has good videos on this and directs viewers to resources. A thumbs up as usual!!! Love your videos!!!
Thank you Diane!!! 🥰 Super helpful from a fellow Pinellas resident.
I agree with knowing for sure you want a ground cover in place before planting it. I took out the perennial peanut from my yard quickly because in my test plots it was too aggressive. It had much deeper root systems than normal turf grass and I was worried about it being an issue being too invasive. I’m waiting a couple of years to make sure it’s not listed as an invasive plant one day.
I was just commenting to @Laurie Hessler that I've heard Floridians not happy about their perennial peanut install because it was too aggressive. I haven't found it on the invasive or monitoring for invasive status list.
@@WildFloridian definitely not on an invasive list yet, UF is actually breeding a bunch of varieties. It is actively promoted for pasture use. One of my friends worked on the breeding program in grad school. It’s ability to choke out everything else has kept me from using it so far. I’m still thinking about using it in one strip of my yard.
ua-cam.com/video/dVbMI8_yCKM/v-deo.html UF perennial peanut test program
@@mwnemo you mentioned it’s being recommended for pasture use. Does that include horse pastures? They trample and graze so probably not but one can hope.
@@dianemcdaniel3233 look up videos on it on some of the IFAS UA-cam pages. They have a lot of videos on making peanut into hay crops.
My woodchucks love clover, so the flowers wouldn’t last a NY minute. Cute to see the baby chucks eating them.
Our back yard has slowly lost its Bahai grass and is a big patch of dirt. While we've replaced most areas this section is so shady and hedges didn't do well. We recently decided to make a big oval and look for natives for bees and butterflies. I'm going to search out that creeping sage!
So I’m not sure if mulching will help with Bermuda grass but I’m definitely going to try the Frog Fruit in the process of choking back my Bermuda (low desert zone 9b) I’ve seen frog fruit out here before and I think this could work! TY
Im gonna try and cover my front yard in creeping thyme.im in iowa we have fields of goldenrod just saying lol
im in the midwest we are doing ground cover as i am disabled and have to hire someone to mow it try mazus for the shade its good has cute white or purple flowers
🙌 Way to go Katrina!
Awesome content as always. A mic would help. It’s hard to keep track at times when you turn your head away from camera. 🙏🏼 thank you for all of it. I’m learning a lot.
Thank you KS 😄
Trying to find these dune sunflowers at my local nurseries. Hard to find. Do you have a suggestion?
I've been thinking about artificial grass bc I'm so sick of how much care the lawn requires. All joking aside, thanks for all this valuable info you share with us 💖🙏🌻😁👍
I hear ya! Grass is a pain! Hopefully one of these has you inspired for a prettier lawn alternative than plastic grass 😂 I appreciate you Maria! Happy gardening 😄
@@WildFloridian I'm about to let my mint grow wild instead of this grass Jackie 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Blessings your way🙏💖🙏💖
Are there are native groundcovers that are safe for a septic drain field?
Is the creeping sage that you refer to the same thing as creeping thyme? Nice video by the way.
This was awesome. Not a lawn alternative, but what is your thoughts about Pineapple Guava?
Thanks Marti! 😄 I don't have any thoughts on Pineapple Guava... I don't know if I ever tasted guava... 🤔 what are your thoughts?
Try a Kent mango. Big, juicy and no strings. I love my tree. Hope you can find one.
you don't have to decide on which mango you want, you can graft multiple varieties onto one tree!
I DID NOT KNOW THIS!!!!!! 🤯 I appreciate you.
Did you use established plants from a nursery, or did you plant seeds?
With frog fruit (or just replacements for grass in general) is it okay to use your lawn mower to cut it back like you would grass? Or would that crush it too much (we have a riding lawnmower).
You can use a lawn mower 👍 We and my neighbor cliff mow our Frogfruit lawns
Where can I find crewing sage?
Did you use chip drop for your mulch. If not what type of mulch did you use. I know some mulch looks dyed
Heck yeah Nancy! Chip Drop all day! And yes I only have used chip drop.
Cool Bean Girl. Your videos inspired me so I built a raised bed. 4’ x 14’ x 3 cinder blocks high. I had laid under it and in a larger area weed cloth. Then I framed in around the bed a walking path and filled the path with mulch. May change it to a small stone later.
Now comes the hard part, planning where I put fruit trees and future garden beds placement.
I should been your neighbor so I could pick your brain. 🤣 Our neighbors would either envy our work or think we were crazy. 🙃 I’m going to use your grid to try and plan things out. Keep up the videos girl. I need them 🤣🤣🤣
I have made a few flower beds in my yard and the grass is relentless. I have laid tons of mulch and even cardboard and the grass keeps coming up. Do you have any other suggestions?
I would take some pictures of the grass and get it id'd by the extension office. It sounds like you have something more than the typical grass I worked with. They will also have the most eco friendly solutions if it needs more than a heavy mulch.
Whispering: Sometimes you just gotta use a herbicide. In my experience, ACE brand is best on grasses. And I’ve only had to spray troubled areas once. Also, I have old St Augustine (old yard) and the older cultivars were much more “hardy” - so much more difficult to kill. Even where it seems dead, I’ll still get runners popping up. If I can’t easily hand weed it out, I spot spray. It’s been 3 years for my first wild flowers beds - and I’m still having to spot spray sometimes. But much, much, less. And only once a year - like now when it’s hot and rainy
What kind was the sunflower plant?
Dune Sunflower 🌻
Can't decide on a mango type? Just get 3 or 4 🙂
So do you have to remove the grass before planting the ground cover?
You can but I just cover it with mulch 6+ inches
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Would you be willing to sell some native seeds to a fellow floridian? 😀
Also we have a problem with snakes. And not just the good ones. I had to kill a moccasin just yesterday.
Oh no! A moccasin! Yikes! 😬
So you know anything about Ruschia Nana?
I never heard of it. So I went a hunting... I couldn't find any University of Florida articles or other Florida institutions. So I would be very careful with this one. And the reason, it hasn't been studied for impact on our ecosystems. Thanks for sharing! 😄
North American Butterfly Association are you a member?
I'm not. I'm a big supporter/member/business partner of Florida Native Plant Society. Their work is amazing and will in the end help all of our Florida butterflies, birds, and pollinators.
What is the name of the ground cover at 15 minute mark?
Beach verbena
Do they stay out of your raised beds?
The sunshine mimosa is running through my in ground bed... which actually helps the veggies' soil maintain moisture. It also may be nitrogen fixing... but I won't hang my hat on that. Frogfruit would not make it into my raised bed. I would watch dune sunflower because it can sorta climb. But overall yes they all stay out of raised beds.
@@WildFloridian thanks
Have you tried Perennial Peanut as ground cover?
No I haven't. It isn't native. And I'm trying to put in as many native plants as possible. Overall per square foot, native is the best option for our wildlife. I did look into it years ago, when I was earlier in my gardening journey. What moved me away from it was there were many sharing their experiences of it being more aggressive than they expected and getting into garden beds... I remember people saying it was popping up feet away. And then, those who were trying to remove it were very unhappy. If you go on Facebook groups and search some of the Florida Gardening groups about it, I'm sure the posts will pop up. Hope that helps! 😄
I see lots of people recommending perennial peanut, and while it is probably better for the environment than lawn grass, it is not native to Florida.
Agree. I looked into perennial peanut years ago. Some people had implied it was native. Which, like you said, it isn't. I've also seen people in the Florida Gardening groups very unhappy about the perennial peanut installs and being very frustrated. And overall won't be as beneficial for our wildlife.
yeah, I don't want more wasps in my yard nor want something that grows to fast or gets stuck on your pants. so want something that is slow growning, very low height and not so greedy for water.
Cetriya@ Artificial grass sounds great!..
One time expense and done!
The beach verbena is slowest of all the ones I showed. And I don't think any of these have anything that will stick to you.
Good morning, I posted a comment the other day and it was deleted. I'm OK if you did it not trying to make waves. Just wondering if it was you or UA-cam.
Oh no! No I haven’t deleted any comments except for spam bot comments. The only other comments I delete are people who curse and people who are just being nasty. But those are super rare. Maybe only 10 in the last two years. Honestly the last one was months ago. And definetly not you Heather ☺️
@@WildFloridian that's a relief. Did you happen to get my email?
Yeppers! I think you have replied now 🥰
People need to remember that mowing has to happen every week...with natives, weeding keeps it looking groomed.
What a babe
Looks like a unkept lawn looks rough
They need battery powered lawn equipment lol. Much quieter.
But not good for bare feet. Bees hurt
Unfortunately that wasn’t a lawn mower. It was a leaf blower… horrid contraption.
Hurry up and start working on your back yard. I’m sooooooooooooooo tired of just hearing you talk about !!!!!! I want video of you working! Chop !!!! Chop !!!!! 😄
Alright! Alright! 😂 Just because you demand it 😝 But honestly... I'm not touching it until winter. Too hot!!!!! 🥵
@@WildFloridian Wimp.
4 minutes and still hasn’t got to the reason I clicked on this video.