Thanks for that tip, I will pass that along to the Lawn Guy. He is anxious for the pachysandra to grow in because he will then be able to lay the stone paths, which is a lucrative job for him. :-) We had mondo grass growing between the stones on the path to the tennis court, but it was so hot on that side the grasses died towards the court, so we filled those lower spaces with pea gravel. I am looking forward to having shady paths where the mondo with be thick and luxurious between the stones. Thank you again for all your help! I forgot to add the existing path photo, this was taken a few months after it was installed. After one summer the mondo from the middle of the length through to the lowest point was completely dead--- even with twice weekly watering, and was replaced with pea gravel. Even the mondo between the stones at the gate end has not thrived as we had hoped it would. This post was edited by kswl on Sat, Nov 30, 13 at 8:24

This is pretty much an impossible question to respond to because there is no ivy-type ground cover that will thrive in a hot, sunny location in our climate. There is a reason that you don't see ivy ground covers in hot, sunny, dry locations with poor soil and that is because they can't survive in those conditions. If your grandmother has English Ivy or Persian Ivy in shade in good soil in the back yard, she's not going to find a comparable ground cover that gives her a similar look in bad soil in a hot, sunny location. The closest thing I can think of would be Boston Ivy (Parthenocissus tricuspidata) and I am not even sure it could handle the conditions. Also, it is a climber, and it is going to want to climb the shrubs, the house, etc. It is green in spring and summer, turns red in fall, and then loses its leaves. Virginia creeper (Partheocissus quinquefolia) might be able to survive, but it doesn't really look like ivy....it has 5 leaves and looks more like poison ivy than anything else (it has 5 leaves and poison ivy has 3). It has a relative, Hiedra or Thicket Creeper, (Parthenocissus inserta or P. vitacea) that can take even more sun and is more drought-tolerant, but it is very hard to find and I am not sure if it is commercially available anywhere in Oklahoma. Both Virginia Creeper and Thicket Creeper are deciduous. Their foliage is green in the spring and summer and turns red, puple or mauve in the fall before the leaves fall. And, like Boston Ivy, they will want to climb plants and walls too. You probably need to do your best to improve the soil before you plant whichever ground cover y'all ultimately choose. Better soil that retains moisture will help a plant grow somewhat better in the conditions you've described. Dawn

My whole life I have hated bind weed. But now, I would really like to grow it as a ground cover to replace my lawns. I love how thick it grows, how it feels on my bare feet. I love the flowers. I love how fast it spreads. I love that the only known things that can kill it are intense nuclear radiation or Round-Up. It stays low to the ground. It doesn't require water, or mowing. It's beautiful. There is nothing NOT to love about bind weed..... except that it is uncontrollable, kills all other plant life in it's path and it can't be killed without a lot of Round-Up or hard to get nuclear materials. My neighbors would hate me. Oh but I wish.

I got an organic herbicide last year (before the price skyrocketed) under the brand name Biosafe weed control. It contains Ammonium Nonanoate, I notice Ortho is now selling this under the name Ground Clear OMRI and it does work on poison ivy. It only kills the portion of the plant above ground that has been sprayed. Killing all the foliage a few times will kill it off over time. It seems to work best when the plant is recieving the most sun it gets during the day. Just the other day I gloved up, put on long sleeves, and manually pulled out a lot of poison ivy vines (I am very allergic). I dont spend more than 20-30 minutes manually pulling before I wash up with dish soap and cold water. I have successfully used cut stem roundup concentrate applied with a foam brush on large poison ivy vines as well, cutting a segment out first with long handle loppers and using the loppers to handle the vine. I get kind of paranoid about spraying triclopyr around trees.