During my never ending quest to discover and understand the best plants for landscapes here in Indiana, I began looking into ground covers.  There are of course the stalwarts like Euonymous, English Ivy and Pachysandra, all of which are fantastic groundcovers.  However, there are other beautiful lesser used types.  This week lets discuss one of these overlooked groundcovers, Ajuga!

Ajuga is a lovely evergreen ground cover that blooms during the spring with 6-8 inch candle like spears of generally blue or purple flowers. Once their blooming period ends Ajuga has wonderful evergreen foliage. Their leaves are a purple and green collage of color that can fill in large spaces in the foreground of a space. Hugging the ground at only 2-3 inches in height, Ajuga brings beautiful Spring color and sustained year round interest that compliments the plants around it. Established Ajuga is a hands free plant, only requiring water during drought periods, which is great! It will tolerate full sun, but planting this groundcover in the shade will keep watering needs at more manageable levels. This comes as a double edged sword, full sun will keep Ajuga from growing too rampantly, but require more watering to keep it healthy.  Shade will make for far less maintenance, but can allow Ajuga to become a bit of a vigorous headache!  What is life(or gardening) without some decision making and thought though!  It’s what makes the landscape more satisfying and beautiful in the end!

Check out more about Ajuga here and see if its the right groundcover for your home!  I have had mixed results using this groundcover myself, but more often then not it has down well, sometimes too well.  I would highly recommend this groundcover to a client, if the right placement presented itself!  Enjoy your week and happy gardening this season!