Zone 10a walkable ground cover: sun and partial shade

last year

I would love some recommendations for a walkable, perennial, drought resistant California native ground cover to be used between large pavers.

We are in Zone 10a in the Bay Area/Peninsula
Areas will include between houses in partial shade that leads to the backyard that has a mix of partial shade and full sun. I was thinking to have 2 types of ground cover that do well in each sun exposure and fill in where the other did not do as well.
We don’t have large stepping stones/pavers yet, but the idea is to have the pavers as a more solid walkway between the also-walkable ground over.
With the options, can we make-do without irrigation long-term?

Thanks in advance for the help!

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Comments (5)

gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
last year
I'd look at brass buttons, Leptinella squalida. Not a CA native but an attractive, tough and very foot traffic tolerant GC from New Zealand. Very mat-like and low growing, it's like walking on tiny, fluffy little feathers :-) Very accommodating to bare feet!! Not fussy about soil other than it be well draining, tolerates from full sun to a fair amount of shade and is relatively drought tolerant once established but would appreciate a good soak occasionally during extended dry periods.
Mrs. S
last year
In SoCal, we put in Dymondia margaretae, which looks like this:

We rarely see those little yellow flowers. Just like in the photo, we have it weaving around the pavers. It looks pretty nice all the time, and is in nearly full shade and also in mostly sun, so seems pretty hardy. Also, it barely gets any water. I really like the silvery/blue-ish tint.
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I am surprised no one mentioned Aptenia cordifolia, about the easiest to grow virtually no-maintenance ground cover for sun there is. Another one is the Myoporum parvifolium 'Dwarf Pink' form, which is smaller scaled foliage and more refined looking. While it does bloom occasionally, it is not all that showy, and would probably serve the purpose for Stephanie or the original poster. Both of these fill in densely enough to suppress weeds, need little water once established, and don't require much in the way of pruning except to cut them back where you don't want them growing into, once or twice a year. Neither is hardy where it gets too cold in winter, but work well in most of urban California.
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Thank you yaardvark. i just uploaded some pics as you suggested for the front yard. new user so bear with me - for some reason houzz wouldn't let me upload more than two. i will try and edit/add more through comments. hooveb - that's exactly right. Several contractors would not even come out to give a quote unless the project was a minimum $50k. Your drip irrigation story sounds awesome. I think we know what we want but the lowest possible option still comes out to about $45k. I am drawing a blank as to what we need to outsource to the contractor and what part we can do ourselves. We have been mulling over this project for over a year now. Spoken with 3 or 4 contractors, looked at lots of houses and millions of pictures. Information overload perhaps because i still can't seem to make it work. As I said, we know what we want. we want to extend the patio area (concrete/pavers) to twice the existing size to provide entertaining/play space. Cost of that is $10k minimum, possibly more. The other half of the backyard would have remained lawn/turf but with better irrigation since artificial turf would be even more expensive and we don't like it much. Some sort of focal point in the backyard would be nice but an appropriately sized water fountain would add another $5-$8k so nixed that. We were considering adding a retaining wall on the back end of the backyard and on the right side and extend the sidewalk but that's another $10k so nixed most of it. We want to add a fire pit and some seating. We want to extend the concrete sidewalk (sideyard), build steps going up to the front of the house, add some trees that will eventually provide shade. Veggie garden on the other side of the side yard. We ruled out bbq/island etc. We had also ruled out gravel/decomposed granite (except in the veggie garden area) as being hard on the feet and tough to maintain but I am wondering if we can work that into the design somehow to keep costs down. kiminipl - house faces North east. Backyard faces southwest and as I said, we get relentless sun. There were three ficus trees in the corners of the backyard that we had to take down because the roots were terribly invasive but it made things worse from a shade perspective. garden gal - thank you for your perspective. I will check out the link. I have scoured pics on bewaterwise.com, houzz for drought tolerant plants etc... just can't seem to figure out the right plan for us with the budget we have in mind. As I said.. help/ideas/perspective on actual situation (looking at the pics) would be much appreciated. thank you all so much!
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Thank you very much! Very kind of you to say so. It's taken some time to even get to this point. I took the plunge a couple of months ago and bought some larger planters that I absolutely love and help define the space a bit better. I also added some new species like the asparagus ferns, a few fuchsia thymifolia, fuchsia arboresens and setcreasea pallida, and rearranged the plants, also elevating one of my scented geraniums onto a nicely rusted plant stand, I love the space now more than ever. It's a pleasure to see it as I come home each day. Even if my geraniums are sort of leggy. :-) Now to tackle that blank expanse of wall. Here's a better shot of the space:
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what problem do you have with the hedge.. that requires you to fix such??? how long has the hedge been there ... when you start trying to fix problems that dont exist ... i suggest you might be trying to love a plant to death ... lol how long does the water 'stand' after a rain??? .. a couple of hours.. or even a couple days.. really shouldnt be a problem.. unless the hedge is suffering ... any chance at some pix ... we could id the hedge.. and that would be a good start ... ken
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ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
last year
one variable will be how much heat the pavers collect and retain deep onto the night ... night is usually a cool recovery period for the onslaught of the day ...

in the pic directly above.. the plant is easily 60 to 75% dominant.. compared to the stone.. so it thrives with ease ...

if you use large blocks.. with just tiny plant material in the cracks.. you MIGHT have a hard time maintaining proper moisture.. during the heat of the day ...

so when you say: " but the idea is to have the pavers as a more solid walkway between the also-walkable ground over. " ... then note this is the variable you will be dealing with ...

if you find the proper plant. it should need no irrigation after it gets fully established ... which is usually after the first growing season.. subject of course to use.. if the marching band will be using the walkway.. it will need more water .. due to the heavy use ...

if it were me.. and being a hard core plant COLLECTOR .... id probably try numerous plants over the length of the walkway.. and over the years figure out which is the most carefree for the situation ...

the alternative.. is that you are an interior designer dabbling outside.. and want one perfect plant.. and sometimes those are hard to find ... since most of the variables particular to your installation are not common to anyone who answers .... but are limited to your garden ....

good luck

ken
HU-102238656
Original Author
last year
Thanks so much to each of you for the recommended plants and also mindfulness of allowing nature to help “choose” the ground cover that thrives, so long as we give it enough space around the pavers to do so. This is a great starting point. Looking forward to seeing how our space evolves over time.
HU-102238656
Original Author
last year
Any recommendations for what material to use for walking stones that don’t get too hot or suck up the moisture from surrounding ground cover?

Zone 10a walkable ground cover: sun and partial shade

Comments (5)

gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)

Mrs. S

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Zone 10a walkable ground cover: sun and partial shade

Comments (5)

gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)

Mrs. S

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ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5

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