lara got me thinking with her suggestion of other groundcovers instead of grass...

we have this odd corner in our garden that is seperate to everything else where we are going to put up a washing line. the washing line will JUST fit, so that gives you an idea of the size of it. the area should get mostly sun during the day, though there may be quite shaded areas for half the day.

anyway, i'd love to plant a variety of small ground covers that are very very hardy (as i'd be treading on them regularly) and small in both height and width (so things like grevillias and hardenbergias are probably out)

oh i forgot to start with - natives preferred, especially locals!

any suggestions????!

Have you thought of mondo grass or native violets or a combination of both?

we had violets and mondo grasses in our last place and yes, they'd be lovely sprinkled amongst it though i found it's a bit cold for either to spread out too far (the mondo grasses had only got to about 15cm around after 3 years!) perhaps i should just go for a varied look and put lots of foot size river rocks in between.... that would be very nice.

oooh what a nice idea! i haven't heard of them before though.... will have to do some googling.

does anyone know if the native plant markets are still on at the yarralumla nursery and if so when?

Hi Karen
Have you thought about regular strawberries in two rows so that you can miss treading on them? In between you could plant Pennyroyal (which is part of the mint family).The natives I know of do not like getting trod on. Having said that maybe Brachyschome (but that has flowers).

Also, yes the native plant sales are still on at the Yarra nursery. They had the first one for the season in the first w/end of Sep, so I reckon the next will be the first w/end in Oct.

You should ring the nursery and ask their opinion about what would be good in that spot. They have great staff there.

Happy gardening,

Khia

Had a look in my "Australian plants for Canberra Region gardens" book (available from Botanic Gardens bookshop) and there is one native listed that is a lawn alternative - Dichondra repens

more info here

I've also seen another plant growing over mulch in place of lawn at a friend's house many years back but sorry don't know what it was.

Steph
DD Alex (March 04)

Hi Karen,

I was browsing through the latest Bunnings catalogue, and thought of this post when I saw something called 'Step-ables'. The description reads: "100mm pot. Range of groundcovers able to take foot traffic. $3.98."

Might be worth having a look at ...

Karen

thanks guys! (and thanks for bumping karen, i'd forgotten about this thread - memory of a goldfish and all that.... )