Loamy soils are not the lightest in the truest sense of the word and present the hobby gardener with a number of challenges. You can find out how to successfully establish a groundcover on a clay soil in the following article.
The cushion aster also tolerates loamy soil
The crux with loamy soils
There is a certain amount of clay in all garden soils. With the storage of water and nutrients, it also takes on an important task in the planting ground. In some places, however, the proportion of clay in the soil is excessive, which leads to very low permeability - both for water and for nutrients and air. For plants, this means constant moisture and insufficient root ventilation. Many cope with it badly, but some varieties do.
Aside from the limited plant choices that clay soil presents the gardener with, its dense, caked consistency makes it difficult to work with. Improvements by working in sand and compost is therefore a real drudgery and planting is of course more laborious than in loose soil.
The properties of clay soils at a glance:
- holds a lot of water
- stores nutrients
- reduces airflow
- difficult to edit and plant
Loamy soil compatible ground cover
If you want to plant a loamy area with a ground cover, the difficult processing factor is particularly important - because in order to be able to fulfill their task of filling the area, the low plants have to be planted in a relatively large number of individual plants. In order to save yourself back-breaking soil-improving work, it is all the more advisable to select varieties that are compatible with loamy soil. And when it comes to ground cover, the choice is not that limited - at least as far as the visual variety is concerned.
Flowering deciduous ground cover
For example, you can fall back on delicately flowering classics such as the cushion aster or most cranesbills. The bright yellow nettle, the likeable spotted lungwort and creeping bugle also do well in loamy soil. Common soapwort can also thrive well in clay soil, as can pineapple mint, which has an aromatic scent and can be used as a spice, or common snake knotweed. With all these varieties, however, rather sunny conditions should be guaranteed so that the clay soil does not remain too wet.
The robust alternative: dwarf shrubs
Another, maybe a bit more pragmatic, but also decorative option are creeping dwarf shrubs. Many of them are very undemanding in terms of soil technology, such as the evergreen, very robust and virtually maintenance-free cotoneaster or Zerg conifers such as creeping juniper or yew species.
Swinging mysticism: ferns
Ferns like dark, damp habitats and are also well suited as ground cover - with their swinging, filigree leaf structure, they also have something to offer visually.