The Popular Ground Cover That Doubles As Living Mulch In Your Garden

Mulch is great, right? Commercial mulches are used by gardeners across the country as a ground cover or to surround and accentuate larger plants, both edible and decorative, in a garden. Mulch does a good job at retaining moisture in the soil and suppressing weed growth, but there are some drawbacks to this gardeners' go-to. Most mulches — organic mulches in particular — must be applied in a thick layer to be effective. If you need a lot of mulch to cover a large garden, it can quickly get expensive, while also potentially housing unwanted pests.

Gardeners, rejoice! You may have just stumbled upon the next addition to your backyard flora collection. There's a beautiful, low-maintenance alternative to using mulch as ground cover. Galium odoratum (syn. Asperula odorata), commonly known as sweet woodruff, wild baby's breath, or sweetscented bedstraw, is a low growing, dense perennial ground cover that produces pretty white blooms throughout the spring and early summer (April through June). There are many benefits to using sweet woodruff in place of mulch, including its low maintenance and pollinator friendliness.

Sweet woodruff is the ideal living mulch for shady spots where other ground covers may struggle to thrive, and its roving root system is good for crowding out smaller plants. Say goodbye to unwanted weeds! The leaves remain green throughout the year in warmer climates, though the plant may take a while to bounce back after a cold winter. It can also struggle in heavy, humid heat. As such, sweet woodruff does best in USDA Plant Hardiness Zones 4 to 8.

This hardy perennial is on the taller side as far as ground covers go, reaching heights of up to 12 inches. That makes it better suited for planting under trees or shrubs; it creates too much shade for short statured plants to tolerate. It's also a pollinator-friendly plant, with its teeny white blooms bringing more pollinators into your yard and garden (and further benefiting your plants) by providing sustenance and safe haven for bees and butterflies.

While sweet woodruff is generally considered a low-maintenance perennial plant that hardly needs any attention to thrive, it still has some quirks worth noting when grown as ground cover. The plant doesn't like being underfoot, so if you're planning to use it in a high traffic area of your garden, consider investing in some perfectly spaced stepping stones to ease any stress on the plant. Sweet woodruff also has an expansive root system when mature. Starters do best when planted 12 inches apart, which leaves enough room for underground growth.

While this pretty plant isn't officially considered invasive, it can spread somewhat aggressively given the right conditions. It propagates through the spread of tiny bristle-covered berries, red-purple in color, that catch on the fur of passing animals. Luckily, it's rapid growth is relatively easy to manage: Using a small shovel or trowel, dig any errant plants from the ground, taking care to remove the entire shallow root system.