Cover the ground with a beautiful carpet of foliage, thereby reducing erosion and providing a mat that inhibits weeds. Good ground covers spread easily and quickly and will grow underneath other edible plants. They need weeding and or mulching and watering to get established. Since it is often not affordable to plant groundcovers so close together that they cover the ground immediately, people often plant 1-2 feet apart. Plants fill in and cover the ground in a year or two. Chunks of most established ground covers can be removed to extend a planting.
(Lavandula angustifolia) Developed in Oregon, this very fragrant lavender is a two-timer: the shrub blomms twice, once in late spring and again in the fall. It has two-color blooms too, elongated flower spikes that have dark blue calyxes and lighter blue corollas. Flower stems make great, long lasting, dried bouquets, and cooks use the blooms to enhance the flavor of savory dishes and sweet deserts. It can also be used as a rub, along with rosemary, for honey-glazed salmon or harvested for its oil.