‘Tis the season for garden tours, Open Garden Days and enjoying all that our horticultural laboring produces.

Last weekend I enjoyed touring several beautiful gardens in the mountain town of Kimberley. Every garden sits on a hill of some variety, some are steep mountain sides and others gentle slopes on what amounts to mostly rock. A person needs to be creative to garden on this kind of terrain and one of the most enjoyable parts of this year’s tour for me was seeing how many different ground covers were used in pathways especially. Flagstone patios and walkways are common in this type of landscape because the ground freely offers up a lot of natural flagstone and rocks without looking for them.

To create some green space, a cooling colour in the gravel spaces between stones and cascading down over rocks, a variety of plants are required. There are an abundance of deer in this mountain town as there are in mine and so these plants need to be drought tolerant in summer, thrive in poor soil, survive human traffic and be disliked by deer.

Kimberley sits at a height of 1120m or 3,674.541ft and receives a lot more snow than where I live at 920m or3,000ft. in the Columbia Valley. What has struck me over the years is how much better many plants do because of this insulating snow cover. Horse Chestnut Trees are more healthy and I saw Corsican Hellebores which are rated as Zone 5 and have certainly never survived in my garden. The plants that follow were all thriving.

My favourite discovery was a prostrate form of Lady’s Mantle, I had not seen before.

Once checking up on it, I am really surprised to have not seen more of it. Alchemilla alpina. I must add to my wish list.

Yellow Stonecrop or Sedum stenopetalum or lanceolatum was another favourite being used on pathways. This plant is native to our region on rocky outcrops so if into gardening with native plants this one is a great choice. There are many varieties of Sedum suited to our cold climate and dry summers because as a succulent it can store water in the heat of summer, its bitter taste keeps the deer off and its waxy coat helps protect it through the winter.

Below: Growing naturally in its own habitat locally, planted in a trough of alpines and between Lavender and Dianthus in a rock wall.

Thyme is a ubiquitous favourite for use between flag stones and patio stone. I saw it in abundance on this tour and what amazed me was how weed-free it was. Admittedly it was Open Garden Day and those showing their gardens had been manicuring for weeks but nevertheless, for me this is always one of the most difficult things to achieve with ground covers. There always seems to be an unwelcome  guest that creeps in. Picking out weeds from embedded Thyme requires patience, time and sitting on your bottom for long periods!

Cascading down between boulders was a favourite of mine, Galium odoratum, Sweet Woodruff. It is a low growing ground cover maybe not so much suited for walking on but beautiful in this type of location, where its white flowers and pretty foliage are shown to advantage.

Another native to the area and perfect for similar situations is MossPhlox or Phlox subulata seen below.

There are several other ground covers suitable for zone three, Cerastium, Snow-In-Summer; Ajuga reptans or BugleWeed; Lamium maculatum which grows invasively in my garden; Creeping Jenny, Lysimachia nummularia; Bear Berry, Kinnikinnik Arctostaphylos uva-ursi a native choice.