Creeping thyme is as beautiful as it is functional. At just three inches tall, it makes an excellent lawn alternative or filler around stepping stones.
An erect, clump-forming flower, perennial cornflower is a taller ground cover at up to two feet high. It spreads by both stolons and self-sowing to form colonies.
Velvety soft, silver-green, elliptical leaves give lamb’s ear its name. This herbaceous perennial forms low, dense clumps that spread by rooting at stem nodes.
Basket-of-gold blooms in spring with masses of tiny yellow flowers in tight panicles. It forms a low mound, up to a foot tall, of narrow, gray-green leaves and spreads by self-sowing.
Also called moss phlox, creeping phlox is an herbaceous perennial native to the eastern and central United States. It grows just six inches tall and has a dense, mat-like, spreading habit.
A taller, clump-forming ground cover, blue catmint grows 18 to 24 inches high and spreads as much as three feet wide. The spikes of lavender-blue flowers bloom from spring through summer.
Stonecrop, or sedum, is an upright, spreading succulent with fleshy, evergreen leaves. Sedum rupestre grows to just four to six inches high but spreads up to two feet wide.
A shrubby, low-growing evergreen herb in the mint family, wall germander averages six to 18 inches tall. It spreads by rhizomes and, like mint, can be difficult to control.