Gardens: five ways with ground cover

Fill a cottage garden border

Leave bare soil in your borders and you may as well put up a sign saying, "Weeds welcome." The best ground cover plants are the ones that never overreach their boundaries (or, if they do, are easily tamed). Geranium 'Rozanne' is one of these. Equally at home in a mixed border or in a container, it offers masses of vivid, violet-blue blooms with a white centre, against loose mounds of finely-cut foliage. It will cope with most soils and situations. As a sterile hybrid, it won't self-seed.
Height and spread 30cm x 24cm
Buy from See reader offer below

Cover a dry spot

It's easy to overlook bugle. At just a few centimetres tall, it's not exactly in your face, but it is extremely useful for awkward, dry spots where you'd like a lawn but end up with a few scrappy weeds: the base of trees or an earth bank, for instance. You can even use Ajuga reptans as a lawn alternative: just mow it with the blades set high once or twice a year. A. 'Chocolate Chip' is one of the best of the bunch, with chocolate-brown leaves and blue flower spikes.
Height and spread 8cm x 20cm
Buy from gardeningexpress.co.uk

Add edible interest

If you want every inch of your garden to be useful as well as beautiful, Marjoram 'Gold Tip' is a useful addition. Use it to line paths in your veg patch, or simply add clumps of it to a sunny, well-drained mixed border. Its neat green leaves suffused with gold are a highlight of spring, and the unremarkable lilac flowers are a magnet for bees later in the year. Hack it back hard in late winter for the best show in spring.
Height and spread 45 x 55cm
Buy from plantsandapples.co.uk

Light up a dim corner

Pulmonarias are my go-to plants for dim spots: the unloved side return, the gloomy side of the shed. Their hairy leaves come dotted, splashed or flooded with silver, and have the bonus of being more or less evergreen.The spring flowers, in bright blue, white or pink, are a brilliant source of nectar for newly-emerged bees. The best blues are 'Diana Clare' and 'Blue Ensign', or try white-flowered 'Sissinghurst White'. For silveriness, opt for 'Majeste'.
Height and spread 30cm x 45cm
Buy from plantsforshade.co.uk

Complete a sunny gravel garden

Sea thrift (Armeria maritima) is a tough, mat-forming evergreen with pretty pink blooms held like lollipops above a neat mound of green leaves. It's perfect for a sunny, well-drained spot, throwing out flowers from May to September, and tolerant to drought. Use it for edging paths and roadside borders: its coastal pedigree means it shrugs off salty spray. Breeders have created several useful cultivars: try the taller, purple-pink 'Splendens', white-flowered 'Alba' or 'Rubrifolia', with its purple foliage.
Height and spread 15cm x 25cm
Buy from plantify.co.uk

Reader offer

Order three plug plants of Geranium 'Rozanne' for £14.99 or six for £19.98 (prices include free UK mainland p&p). To order call 0330 333 6856, quoting ref GU117, or go to theguardian.com/offers/plants.