Various sedums and thyme come to mind. They are all relatively carefree, evergreen, don't need a lot of water. Not sure this is what you are looking for...How much ground is " a lot of ground?" You'd have to buy flats of whatever you want for the ground cover if you have a large area to cover!

Are you just looking for something to prevent erosion until you can plant your permanent garden? I would think a whole yard of just groundcover would be a bit boring - sort of like all the yards that just have grass in them.. Of course, that's just my opinion. :-)

Remember that all plants, no matter how xeric, need extra water in our climate until they are well established. Ajuga (bugle weed) is also a fast growing groundcover, but I don't think it is as "evergreen" as you like and probabaly needs more water than the other plants I mentioned.

Holly

Hi Tina,

I agree with both the suggestions for Sedum and Thyme. If you just want to cover up ground, these will be pretty much the easiest to take care of. Some of the creeping sedums are evergreen and some aren't so if you're shopping around for them, be sure to ask if the ones you like are evergreen or not. Sedum can possibly save you some money too, because when they grow a few inches, you can give them a haircut and stick the clippings into the soil in little groups of 4-8 and if you water them when they get dry for a couple months, they'll root and you have lots more plants. If the stems are long enough when you buy it--3-6" or so--you can do this right away. Sedum is a succulent, so it's pretty drought tolerant even before it's established, but it will spread much more quickly with regular waterings.

The creeping thyme (Thymus praecox and others), is also evergreen and comes with flowers ranging from white to bright pink. My favorite is T.p. 'Coccineus', Red Mother of Thyme which has bright rosy-pink flowers. The toughest one is Woolly Thyme, T.p. 'Pseudolanuginosus'. It's also the most drought tolerant--after it's established, like everything else. It has lavender-pink flowers and the tiny leaves are kinda fuzzy! The foliage is grayer than the others. The Thymes only get a couple inches high. Our soil here in Denver is also alkaline, and these both do quite well here.

If you have a very dry winter, these and most things are going to need an occasional deep watering.

Good luck,
Skybird

wow! Such great advice in no time at all! Thanks so much!

As far as actual square footage... we have a 2 acre lot that my husband I battle over every summer. It's turning into a kind of game, well for me anyway... :) He's attempting to plant a small "grass farm" and I'd like to do more "non-grass" landscaping with rocks, bushes, flowers and maybe a bench. So, I get the hills, slopes and other places he has deemed not acceptable to be part of his grass farm. ha. He's really not that bad, but we do go back and forth. I told him not to plant grass along the northern strip where I've planted my 30+ evergreen tree windbreak and he did it anyway so I covered it with weed barrier and killed it. oh - my - gosh ... was I in trouble. You'd think I'd just killed his best friend. Don't get me wrong, I admire his appreciation and love of the green stuff, I just think it has it's place and it wasn't between my trees!! :)

Seriously though... I have a 700 sq ft. slope to work with although I don't want wall-to-wall bushes/shrubs as I plan to bring in some rocks and add more perennial flowers, flowering bushes and bulbs to get it as low maintenace as possible while still looking nice. (it partially surrounds the circle drive so it's what people see from the front windows and when leaving)

Next I have a 480 sq ft road front to work with that I would like very low evergreen creepers for (80'w x 6'd). The backdrop are huge slabs of sand stone and a hedge of cotoneasters. (just working on curb appeal here)

In addition, I need 25-30 individual plantings for spaces between the evergreens to help cover landscape fabric, retain moisture, etc.. 8 of these may eventually be overshrouded by the colorado blue spruce row of the windbreak but that will be awhile from now (and at that point they will be in partial shade) so I'm hoping to do something there that will cover ground now and provide some kind of color contrast later.

Thanks so much for all the detailed information! I really appreciate the help!!

Happy Planting! Tina

You do indeed have quite a project ahead of you, but I bet it will be very rewarding. Just keep that lawn grass-loving husband of yours under control! Maybe you can divert his grass needs to ornamental grasses?? They are wonderful plants, with 4-season interest, and quite drought tolerant (if you get the right cultivars)once established, unlike lawn grass.

Holly