Q&A Master Gardeners with the

What are good ground cover ideas for beds in this area?

There are so many groundcovers available, it can be difficult to select the best one for your garden. I think the most important quality is that it has to be easy remove. Groundcovers spread easily and can easily choke out your desired plants. I do not recommend plants including vinca and English ivy for this reason.

Ihaveacoupleofgroundcovers that I rely on. For sun, I enjoy the low-growing sedums. There are numerous varieties, all are easy to pull back when they start to crowd into other plants and aren’t usually bothered by deer. For shade, I enjoy cranesbill, also called perennial geranium. It has flowers in various shades of pink, lavender and white, so it combines easily with most other garden colors. Again, it is easily pulled out with my bare hands. In my yard it may get nibbled by deer, but they don’tusuallypreferit. Sometimespeoplearelooking for a taller groundcover to fill an empty spot. I often rely on daylilies in this case. They need full sun to produce a lot of flowers and yield fewer flowers as shade increases.

There are taller varieties of cranesbill available for those shadyareas.

- Ken Estes, Jr, Cornell Cooperative Extension, Livingston County

To Your Good Health

By Keith Roach, M.D.