The Riverside Press-Enterprise
These ground covers are drought heroes
QMy quest is to reduce watering, but I like a lawn and we have a mediumsized dog. I see that miniclover has a good root system, takes about half as much water as grass, and resists dog urine. My question is: Does miniclover resist some modest dog activity such as chasing a ball? Also, some people are putting in a very tough ground cover that does not need mowing. Is there one that you would recommend?
— Glenn Hodding,
Long Beach
AWhite clover, including the miniclover variety, makes a wonderful lawn substitute and stands up well, or recovers well, from moderate dog traffic. This is also the ideal time of year to plant clover, now that temperatures are cooling. There is no need to remove your existing lawn or any surviving patches of your former lawn; you can simply overseed the lawn that’s there.
Like clover, kikuyu grass is also resistant to dog urine and even more resistant to drought. Where aesthetics are concerned, miniclover is more attractive due to its deep green foliage, which is only half the size of regular clover’s. Yet kikuyu grass is virtually indestructible. Yes, it will look best if watered two or even three times a week, but it will grow satisfactorily with a single weekly soaking. And even if you could not water it at all for a period of weeks, it would bounce back once it was irrigated again. Occasionally you see kikuyu grass available as sod, but you may have to grow it from seed. Seeding should be done while the weather is still warm, since it is a tropical grass and experiences some dormancy in winter, depending on how cold it gets.
Alas, what makes kikuyu grass so durable is also its biggest criticism, namely its tough, ropy runners that are famous for invading adjacent planter beds, so you will have to be vigilant about keeping it in its place. Incidentally, if you have a friend with kikuyu grass or see it growing in an abandoned field or vacant lot, you may wish to cut pieces for propagation purposes. Fill some containers with ordinary soil and plant runners in them or, alternatively, dig them right into the ground where you want your lawn to grow. It is worth mentioning that kikuyu grass is rapidly becoming a golf course fairway turf of choice due to its drought tolerance.
Speaking of the tough ground cover you seek, if your yard enjoys partial sun, Asian jasmine (Trachelospermum asiaticum) is highly suitable. It’s water-thrifty enough and resistant to dog trampling, growing around a foot tall. This is not a true jasmine but, like star jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides), its cousin, it handles a certain amount of shade quite well and performs best with a half day of direct sun. Asian jasmine’s leaves are half the size of star jasmine’s and, although Asian jasmine does have small, fragrant flowers, they are usually not much in evidence.
Asian jasmine forms a very tight mat so no water can escape from the soil in which it grows. This is similarly true of Vinca minor, which is even more shade-tolerant — or perhaps I should say shadeneedy — than Asian jasmine and less than a foot tall. The handsome, diamond-shaped foliage of these two ground covers is similar in size and appearance, and both would offer a solution to the problem of what to plant in partial sun to shady exposures while requiring minimal irrigation, no more than once or twice a week, when fully established. Neither is bothered by dog urine, and Vinca minor can even accept some foot traffic.
To make your planter beds dog-friendly, select scruffy species where your dog can feel at home without causing damage. The first category of plants that comes to mind is ornamental grasses. Dogs will happily forage in them and, in the taller types, find shade. You do not have to sacrifice color when selecting grasses, as many blues, reds and golds, and variegated types, are available. You can find dozens of species and cultivars at smgrowers.com.
Other plants that are not damaged by dogs and are nontoxic to them include roses, rosemary, thyme, coreopsis, hibiscus, rose of Sharon (Hibiscus syriacus), mahonia, liriope, ice plant, coral bells (Heuchera) and red hot poker (Kniphofia).