The Beautiful Purple Ground Cover That's Great As A Grass Alternative For A Colorful Lawn

Are you fed up with spending all your weekends mowing and tending your lawn? Manicured lawns are high maintenance, not to mention their regular water and fertilizer needs. If you've had enough, there's a much better alternative that you're going to love. As a bonus, you'll end up with a colorful grass substitute that will give you more hours on the weekends to spend doing things you enjoy. This beautiful purple grass alternative is a low-growing evergreen plant known as creeping speedwell (Veronica 'Waterperry Blue'). It's a much better ground cover grass alternative to grow instead of Pachysandra because it's well-behaved and unlikely to take over your garden.

Creeping speedwell has dainty, mauve-colored blooms that appear in spring and continue through the summer. Equally as impressive are the small dark green leaves that adopt a burgundy hue in spring and fall. This attractive ground cover can be grown in USDA hardiness zones 4 through 8 and is both deer and rabbit resistant. Another bonus for eco-conscious gardeners is that, not only will it draw butterflies, but it's also one of those sun-tolerant perennials that will attract hummingbirds to your yard when in bloom. Plus, creeping speedwell can handle some light foot traffic. 

Creeping speedwell prefers to grow in full sun but can handle a little shade. It does best in well-drained soils and isn't too fussy about pH levels. As a ground cover, it maxes out in height at around 6 inches, which is another reason this is such a great lawn alternative. Each plant can spread to a distance of 12 to 24 inches, so you'll want to mass-plant it to get good coverage. Ideal spacing is around 16 to 24 inches.

Creeping speedwell spreads through above-ground stems that put down roots as they grow. This makes it quite easy to gently dig up individual sections and plant them wherever you happen to find a bare patch. If you notice creeping speedwell spreading beyond the lawn, or you're not happy with the height it's grown, it can easily be cut back after it's finished flowering. You'll also want to rake out any fallen leaves in early spring before the new growth starts — doing so keeps the ground cover nice and neat looking. Finally, if you've fallen in love with this low-maintenance variety, you might be interested in other non-invasive speedwell flowers that are perfect for a drought tolerant garden and have stunning tall-growing blossoming spikes.