How to Grow Sedum as a Ground Cover Plant
When low maintenance and beauty are your desires for a ground cover, you can achieve both goals by selecting a low-growing sedum variety. Sedum rupestre "Angelina," Sedum sarmentosum "Gold Moss" and Sedum hispanicum "Blue Carpet" grow as ground covers, preferring a sunny location to quickly spread over a growing area. Drought tolerant and heat resistant, yet attractive with showy blossoms, sedum can bring the bees and butterflies to your landscape with its tiny flowers. Grow sedum as ground cover plants when you select the correct variety. Does this Spark an idea?
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Things You'll Need
- Garden spade
- Aged compost
- Rake
- Shovel
- Mulch (pebbles or gravel)
- Water-soluble fertilizer (10-10-10)
- Pruning shears
Instructions
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Prepare the sunny garden area in the spring. Cultivate the soil with the garden spade down to a depth of about 4 inches, breaking up large chunks of soil. Add 2 to 3 inches of aged compost over the top of the soil to improve the drainage and make the soil richer. Mix the compost and the soil well with the garden spade and then smooth the soil surface with the rake.
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Plant the sedum plants over the growing area. Dig holes for each sedum plant with the shovel, spacing the holes 2 feet apart in rows 2 feet apart. Make the holes deep enough to plant the sedums at the same depth as they were growing in the temporary containers.
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3
Place the sedum plants into the prepared holes and fill soil in around the roots gently. Pat the soil down firmly with your hands and water the sedums immediately after planting.
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4
Apply about 2 to 3 inches of mulch over the soil to prevent weed growth. Sedum prefers dry growing conditions with a rock or pebble mulch. Using wood chips or shredded bark will keep the soil too moist for growing sedum.
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5
Mix the fertilizer with water according to package recommendations. Pour fertilizer over the soil to feed the sedums in late spring and again in late summer. Feed the sedums again at the beginning of the next growing season. Fertilize sedums three times each growing season thereafter.
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6
Prune sedums at the end of the winter to remove spent blossoms and old foliage from the plants.
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