Cover Me

Cover-ups generally take a bad rap, but take a raised bed gardening tip from us, cover plants are an excellent gardening technique. Unlike, say, hiding your true account books, covering up your herbaceous plants with cover plants helps you maintain your raised garden bed easily. You can plant ground cover plants at the start of each planting season or when you notice that your plants need some extra cooling or sun.

Plant phlox, verbenia, thyme (great for herb gardens), mondo grass, and climbing hydrangeas. You may want to increase the sun exposure (mondo grass is great), especially during the weeks of frost--this is a good raised bed gardening technique in beds aligned from east to west.

On the other hand, if you're not afraid of frosty receptions and need to cool your quickly maturing plants, plant creeping evergreen in your raised bed gardening endeavors. Creeping evergreen with its red berries is a year-round attractive ground cover plant that provides shade. If you have plants in several different temperatures and a mix of shade and sun-loving plants, ground cover foliage will balance out any differences in climate.

Your plants may cover up nicely, but if you notice your boss shredding the books, you may want to yank the cover-up out by the roots.