Cathy Ludden Around the Grounds, Native Plants

Forever Green: Native Groundcovers That Stay All Winter

Given our recent weather, you may well ask, “why should I care whether a ground cover is green if it’s under a foot of snow”? Fair question! 

In our milder winters, when snow comes and goes, evergreen groundcovers do offer structure and winter interest in the garden. And they benefit birds and small mammals, providing cover from predators and shelter from icy winds. But not so with ivy or pachysandra! Both are invasive, non-native plants that must be prevented from running into wooded areas where they smother everything! Fortunately, there are native evergreen groundcovers much better suited to our landscapes and helpful, rather than harmful, to the ecosystem.

We recently described Leucothoe, a native evergreen that can replace pachysandra as a ground cover under trees and shrubs and in wooded areas.

Another evergreen woodland plant we love is Christmas fern (Polystichum acrostichoides). Not truly a groundcover, because it stays in place rather than spreading itself around, Christmas fern can be planted densely to fill in a shady area. Deer won’t eat it, and it’s such a pleasure to see a green fern in the dead of winter.

Evergreen Christmas fern brightens the winter landscape

Perhaps the best known native evergreen groundcover in our region is Creeping Juniper (Juniperis horizontalis). Juniper is a versatile shrub that provides significant value for wildlife year-round. Its dense branches provide good hiding places, and its berries feed the birds. It prefers dry soil and full sun, but it tolerates some shade as long as the soil is well-drained. It spreads at a moderate rate, and effectively suppresses weeds. Juniper is also tough — it handles being buried by snowplow build-up, even with road salt! It’s a good choice for curb-side plantings and along sidewalks and driveways.

Creeping Juniper is attractive all winter along a property line

You can see another of our favorite evergreen groundcovers in the foundation planting at the Nature Center’s Manor House. Carex laxiculmis ‘Hobb,’ often sold as ‘Bunny Blue’ sedge, is a great groundcover for shade. It’s maybe more “everblue” than evergreen, so its eye-catching color is striking around and under shrubs, and even under shade trees. It will live happily with dense tree roots and spread itself slowly by short runners that sprout new little plants over time. It holds its blue-green strappy leaves all winter long. You don’t have to cut it back in the spring, but if it looks a bit ragged, you can trim the old leaves before new growth begins. Like most grasses and sedges, it is avoided by deer.

‘Bunny Blue’ sedge in winter under shrubs at the Manor House

Plant ‘Bunny Blue’ sedge with other native shade-lovers for a mix of textures. When the other plants go dormant in the fall, ‘Bunny Blue’ will hold the spot until they return

‘Bunny Blue’ sedge in summer in with Maidenhair Fern and Wild Canadian Ginger 

For a sunny area, we like Waldsteinia (or Geum) fragaroides, commonly called “Barren Strawberry” because its leaves look similar to strawberry, but it doesn’t bear fruit. Waldsteinia is a deer-resistant evergreen groundcover that likes sunny dry sites and blooms in early spring with bright yellow flowers. It only gets a few inches tall, so it’s great at the front of a flower bed. We planted it last year at the very front of the Nature Center’s new Pollinator Garden. Be sure to come see it bloom this spring!

Spring growth covers bronzed winter foliage of Waldsteinia

Waldsteinia spreads slowly by shallow runners. Use it around a mailbox or lamp post, or along a sunny path. Snow cover and freezing cold do not bother it, and it is hardy to Zone 4. Its leaves may turn bronze by late winter, but new growth will cover the old in spring and form a weed-suppressing mat. And when April showers bring May flowers, you’ll want to be there.

Waldsteinia blooms in late April to early May

This blog is authored weekly by Cathy Ludden, conservationist and native plant educator; and Board Member, Greenburgh Nature Center. Follow Cathy on Instagram for more photos and gardening tips @cathyludden.

Cathy Ludden Around the Grounds, Pollinators

How Can We Help?

News of threats to butterflies, bees, and song-birds is everywhere. We hear that pesticides, climate change, and habitat loss are contributing to shocking declines in bird and insect populations, especially bees needed to fertilize food crops. Scientists report that insects are disappearing. We notice that moths don’t hang around our porch lights anymore, and bugs don’t splatter our car windshields as they once did. We may notice that bird species we often saw as kids are no longer around. We worry about what is happening, but we assume the solutions are beyond our individual control. 

“The Insect Apocalypse”
New York Times Magazine, December 2, 2018

The good news is we can make a big difference right in our own back yards! Simple changes in the way we maintain our property – especially in the fall – can have an amazing benefit to birds, butterflies, and bees. We just have to understand what they need and make it available. Birds and insects need food and shelter all year long. Too many of our yards offer neither. 

Nothing to eat and nowhere to hide

Many of us enjoy seeing winter visitors at our bird-feeders. But birds are vulnerable if they don’t have nearby places to hide. Planting densely with native trees and shrubs, and letting them take their natural shapes, provides shelter and much safer habitat than trimming too tightly to make trees and shrubs artificially neat. Birds need insects they find in holes and crevices in the bark of trees and shrubs, even in winter. So we need to have lots of trees and shrubs all around us, not just up against the house. 

Birds need places to hide from weather and predators

Our flower beds and pollinator gardens can be valuable all winter long, too. There are more nutritious seed varieties in native flowers and grasses than in commercial bird seed mixes, so we should leave flower beds uncut until spring.

Free bird seed!

Most of our native bees over-winter in the ground. Shredded bark mulch prevents burrowing bees from finding the safety they need. Other bee species nest in hollow plant stems. By leaving flower stalks standing through the winter, we can provide habitat for many bee species. At the Nature Center, we have a “bee hotel” to demonstrate that nesting behavior. But it’s easier and far more effective just to leave the stalks of flowers and grasses up all winter long for nest sites.

Artificial native bee winter habitat – note occupied rooms!
Natural winter habitat – uncut flower beds!
Hollow stems ready for winter residents

Beetles make holes in old tree stumps or fallen logs that are later used by cavity-nesting bees for winter. Brush piles provide winter cover for birds as well as nest sites for bees, butterfly larvae, firefly larvae, and loads of beneficial insects. 

Tree stumps are precious habitat
Find an out-of-the-way place and stack a winter brush pile

It’s actually easier to create essential habitat for birds and beneficial insects than to strip your yard of all the good stuff in the fall. So, don’t remove your leaves. Don’t over-prune your shrubs. Don’t cut back your flowers and grasses. Don’t bundle up your twigs and branches and put them at the curb. Relax a little instead! There will be time in the spring, after everybody has left their winter beds, to tidy up for the new season. Let’s move toward a more natural look for our winter landscapes and a better environment for the creatures sharing it with us.

We really believe that’s beautiful.

For more information on the value of keeping fall leaves on your property, see our December 2 post here. 

This blog is authored weekly by Cathy Ludden, local expert and advocate for native plants; and Board Member, Greenburgh Nature Center. Follow Cathy on Instagram for more photos and gardening tips @cathyludden.