Congratulations to Travis Overend for his People’s Choice Award winning entry in the 2019 Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show! Entered in the Avenue of Achievable Gardens, Travis used our Plant Tiles of native Dichondra repens to infill between the pavers, softening the hardscape.
“Wouldn’t of looked like this without your help. Thanks so much to your team.”
– Travis Overend from @travisoverend
White Star Creeper is now available in Plant Tiles! This evergreen ground cover has dainty flowers is ideal for sunny or part shaded areas. As it can handle light traffic, plant it between paving stones, bordering garden beds, or let it cascade over rockeries.
The variety is known under several names including White Star Creeper, Lobelia angulata, Pratia angulata, White Stars, Stars, Panakenake, Pratia pusila or Trailing pratia.
White Star Creeper has a small, deep green, rounded leaf and gently creeps out to form a dense, low growing carpet.
Imagine! A sea of wee white flowers!
“Managed to finish off this epic driveway today with the inclusion of the Dichondra @planttiles. About 35000 @bamstone_bluestonecobbles laid at this incredible project that we have been involved in over the past 12 months for a great client! Garden designed by @mudoffice Architecture by @robsonrakarchitects” – Greener Visions
The above quote is from Greener Visions landscaping Instagram. Plant Tiles of native ground cover, Dichondra repens were used to line the driveway. It makes a great segway between the hedging and paving.
Use Living Mulch to protect plants! It is well known that gardeners are encouraged to use mulch to cover the bare soil in garden beds. Mulching promotes several positive factors including
So basically, plants that have their root zones covered in mulch grow better!
Mulch can be inorganic such as pebbles or gravel or can be organic such as bark chips or sugarcane mulch. However, both can be messy or may break down over time and re-mulching can be an on-going chore.
HOT TIP!
Many landscapers, landscape architects and permaculturalists promote the use ground covers as a living mulch.
A living mulch is a low growing ground cover that not only assists with the list of the positive factors mentioned above, but also provides a softer backdrop to the larger plants. The roots of ground covers also help to bind, the soil together . This is particularly useful during storms or floods when other mulches may wash away.
Living mulches can be ground covers with interesting textured or coloured leaves and flowers. Depending on the variety, the ground covers may add humus and nutrients into the soil. This provides a micro environment to harbour, and attract, beneficial insects such as bees to your garden.
Ground covers are any low growing, mat forming plants. This may include herbs such as thyme or Corsican mint or the many other perennial plants which are easily available from most nurseries.
As many urban house lots become smaller, so do the size of the gardens. Many people still want an open space but do not want the maintenance of the historical backyard lawn. Just the cost of purchasing a mower for a small area is not economical and time poor owners do not want the ongoing chore of mowing a lawn.
ON TREND!
Ground cover plants can make wonderful no mow lawn alternatives and are right on trend.
Establishing large areas of ground covers for living mulch or an alternative lawn was extremely time consuming and a lot of work.
To cover even a small area, gardeners needed to purchase many small pots or plugs, which had to be laboriously planted individually, and tended for weeds, whilst waiting months for the plants to slowly grow together. Areas not covered by ground covers had to be regularly tended for weeds.
NOW
Our unique Plant Tiles of low growing ground covers come in custom designed ™ trays measuring 330 mm x 330 mm and just 22 mm deep.
The Tiles are incredibly easy to install, can be cut or shaped as required, and, having air pruned roots, will take to the bed you have prepared or sculptured in no time! Instant results!
Plant Tiles provide full ground cover for the area giving the immediate, positive effects of mulching.
There are several varieties available to suit your particular situation. For more information to assist you in choosing which variety is right for you visit https://www.planttiles.com.au/plant-selection/ or email imagine@planttiles.com.au
The Horticulturists for the Roma Street Parklands in Brisbane were delighted with the quick result when they used our Plant Tiles of no mow Zoysia tenuifolia to infill the Parks Alive signage.
“The Zoysia (tenuifolia) worked a treat in the sign and drew lots of attention. ” – Matthew Hayes, Assistant Horticultural Supervisor, ROMA STREET PARKLAND.
Living Signs attract people’s attention as it is fresh, green and, at this stage, unusual. It was a wonderful idea to use this to set the scene as it creates a visual impact directly relating the outdoor event. The whole space around a Living Sign is more attractive simply because of the plants used as opposed to traditional man made plastic signage.
“Parks Alive is a fantastic free event showcasing the stunning splendour of Roma Street Parkland. Set over two days, the event is jam-packed with engaging and unique displays, family-friendly activities, guided Parkland tours, demonstrations by experts, horticulture workshops, live music and gourmet food.” – www.parksalive.com.au
Newly installed Plant Tiles cut into strips and put in between paving by Josh Norman Landscapes www.normanlandscapes.com.au
Looks wonderful Josh!
Great design by Mud Office www.mudoffice.com.au using native Dichondra repens to soften the hardscape. Find out more about Dichondra repens here.
Depicting After/Before photos of a gorgeous, alternative, native lawn laid using our Plant Tiles of Dichondra repens. “Our children love walking on it”, said the delighted client.
Super easy to lay, Plant Tiles of Dichondra repens quickly changed this front garden into a wonderful space for kids to play. The small soft leaves feel cool to bare feet and children love to roll around on this native ground cover. Even better: they don’t get itchy which is what often happens after rolling on traditional grass lawns.
Swimming pool makeover? Our unique Plant Tiles of no mow Dichondra repens look fantastic around this plunge pool. The owner put the gentle undulations in the prepared garden bed to get the soft rolling effect. Pic by REMpro Photography, house design by Fluxe Architecture Studio www.fluxearchitecture.com.au
The seedlings for our Plant Tiles are nice and warm in our specially designed Germination Room. With a growing temperature of 23 degrees and humidity of 90%, our staff want to stay in there too!
Our unique Plant Tiles of Native hardy groundcover, Dichondra repens, also make a fantastic instant alternative no mow lawn. Children love to walk and roll on the little lily pad like leaves.
