Bare patches in your garden can make even the prettiest yard look unfinished and messy. Ground covers solve this problem by spreading quickly across empty spaces while adding color and texture to your landscape.
Finding plants that thrive in Illinois weather means choosing varieties that can handle cold winters and hot summers without much fuss.
1. Creeping Thyme
Walking across a carpet of creeping thyme releases a wonderful fragrance that makes gardening even more enjoyable. This tough little plant forms dense mats only a few inches tall, creating a living mulch that chokes out weeds naturally.
Butterflies and bees absolutely love the tiny purple or pink flowers that appear in early summer. Creeping thyme tolerates foot traffic better than grass, making it perfect for pathways between garden beds or stepping stones where nothing else seems to grow well in your Illinois landscape.
2. Ajuga (Bugleweed)
Shady spots under trees often turn into bare dirt patches where grass refuses to grow, but ajuga thrives in exactly these conditions. Its glossy leaves come in shades of green, bronze, or deep purple, providing year-round visual interest even when flowers fade.
Springtime brings tall spikes of blue, purple, or white flowers that stand above the foliage like tiny candles. Ajuga spreads through runners, filling spaces quickly without becoming impossible to control, making maintenance simple for busy Illinois gardeners.
3. Sedum (Stonecrop)
Dry, rocky areas where other plants struggle become showcases when you plant sedum varieties. These succulent ground covers store water in their thick leaves, meaning you can forget about watering once they establish roots in your garden beds.
Different types offer leaves in green, red, gold, or even blue-gray shades that create natural artwork across bare ground. Star-shaped flowers attract pollinators during late summer when many other plants have finished blooming, extending your garden’s season beautifully.
4. Sweet Woodruff
European gardeners have treasured sweet woodruff for centuries, and Illinois gardeners are discovering why this plant deserves more attention. Whorls of bright green leaves create a lush carpet under trees where grass gives up trying to compete with roots for nutrients.
Delicate white flowers shaped like tiny stars blanket the foliage each spring, creating a magical effect in woodland gardens. Sweet woodruff spreads steadily without becoming aggressive, and its vanilla-scented leaves were traditionally used to flavor May wine in celebrations.
5. Vinca Minor (Periwinkle)
Slopes and banks that erode with every rainstorm need a ground cover with serious staying power, and periwinkle delivers exactly that. Its trailing stems root wherever they touch soil, creating a living blanket that holds earth in place while looking beautiful year-round.
Glossy evergreen leaves stay attractive even during Illinois winters when most plants look dead or dormant. Blue-violet flowers appear in spring and often rebloom sporadically through summer, adding cheerful color to areas that might otherwise look boring and neglected.
6. Lamium (Dead Nettle)
Forget boring solid green foliage when you can have lamium’s silvery leaves that brighten shady corners like natural spotlights. Despite its unfortunate common name, this plant has no relation to stinging nettles and is completely safe to handle while gardening.
Pink, white, or purple hooded flowers bloom from spring through fall, providing consistent color for months rather than just weeks. Lamium tolerates dry shade remarkably well once established, solving one of the trickiest problems Illinois gardeners face under mature trees and building overhangs.
7. Mazus Reptans
Gaps between pavers and stepping stones become miniature flower gardens when you tuck mazus into these tight spaces. Growing only an inch or two tall, this ground cover handles light foot traffic without complaining, making it practical as well as pretty for pathways.
Purple-blue flowers with cheerful yellow throats cover the plant in late spring, creating a carpet of color at ground level. Mazus spreads quickly in moist soil but stays well-behaved in drier conditions, giving you control over how aggressively it fills your Illinois garden spaces.
8. Phlox Subulata (Moss Phlox)
Imagine your garden draped in a quilt of brilliant pink, purple, white, or red flowers each spring. Moss phlox delivers exactly this spectacular display, transforming boring slopes and rock gardens into neighborhood showstoppers that make passersby stop and stare.
Needle-like evergreen foliage forms dense mats that suppress weeds effectively throughout the year. This sun-loving spreader thrives in well-drained soil and tolerates drought once established, making it perfect for Illinois gardens where summer heat can stress less adaptable ground covers significantly.
9. Canadian Wild Ginger
Native Illinois woodlands hold the secret to solving shade problems naturally, and wild ginger is one of nature’s best solutions. Large heart-shaped leaves overlap to create a lush green carpet that looks tropical despite being completely winter-hardy in Midwestern climates.
Hidden beneath the foliage, unusual maroon flowers bloom near ground level in spring, delighting curious gardeners who take time to peek underneath. Wild ginger spreads slowly but steadily through rhizomes, never becoming invasive while filling bare spots with elegant foliage that deer typically leave alone.
10. Pachysandra Terminalis
Deep shade under evergreen trees creates challenging conditions where almost nothing grows, but pachysandra thrives in exactly these difficult spots. Its glossy evergreen leaves stay attractive through all four seasons, providing consistent coverage when deciduous ground covers disappear during winter months.
White flower spikes emerge in spring, adding subtle interest without overwhelming the clean, uniform appearance that makes pachysandra a classic choice. Spreading through underground stems, it fills bare areas reliably while staying contained enough that you won’t spend weekends battling unwanted growth in Illinois gardens.