Plants you can walk on
The few plants that take being walked on: for between stepping stones, the cracks in a path and soft edges.
Very few plants put up with feet. The ones that do are low and mat-forming, with stems that root as they go, so a crushed piece grows back from the side. They are for between stepping stones, the joints of a path and the edge where a lawn meets a bed, not for a lawn's worth of traffic.
Most want sun and good drainage. Plant small pieces into grit in the gaps, and water until they knit. Several, such as the thymes, smell as they are trodden on.
23 plants: 20 perennials and 3 grasses.
The dozen to start with
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Bugleweed
6 in · early May to late May
Glossy, dark rosettes knit into a dense carpet that smothers weeds in shade.
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Lilyturf
16 in · early August to mid September
Evergreen clumps of dark, strap-shaped, grassy leaves, with spikes of violet flowers like grape hyacinths in late summer, followed by black berries.
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Red creeping thyme
2 in · early June to mid July
A flat, dark green mat that turns bronze in winter and is hidden under magenta-red flowers for three weeks in early summer.
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Roman chamomile
6 in · late June to early August
A low, creeping mat of feathery leaves that smell of apples when trodden on, with small white daisies in summer.
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Purple love grass
16 in · early August to mid September
In late summer a low tuft of leaves vanishes under a haze of tiny, reddish-purple flowers, like a rosy mist lying on the ground.
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Prairie dropseed
2½ ft · mid August to mid September
A fountain of hair-fine, emerald leaves, topped in late summer by an airy haze of flowers that smell of coriander or popcorn.
All 23 plants
Front of a bed 21
- Blue star creeper 3 in · late May to early August
- Bugleweed 6 in · early May to late May
- Bugleweed 'Black Scallop' 6 in · early May to late May
- Bugleweed 'Burgundy Glow' 6 in · early May to late May
- Bugleweed 'Catlin's Giant' 8 in · early May to late May
- Common thyme 10 in · late May to late June
- Creeping lilyturf 12 in · grown for its leaves
- Golden oregano 12 in · grown for its leaves
- Goldmoss stonecrop 3 in · late May to late June
- Irish moss 1 in · mid May to late June
- Lemon thyme 10 in · mid June to mid July
- Lilyturf 16 in · early August to mid September
- Mazus 2 in · early May to mid June
- Mondo grass 8 in · grown for its leaves
- Prairie dropseed 'Tara' 24 in · early August to mid September
- Purple love grass 16 in · early August to mid September
- Red creeping thyme 2 in · early June to mid July
- Roman chamomile 6 in · late June to early August
- Variegated lilyturf 14 in · early August to mid September
- Woolly thyme 2 in · grown for its leaves
- Woolly yarrow 8 in · late May to early July
Middle of a bed 2
- Oregano 20 in · early July to late August
- Prairie dropseed 2½ ft · mid August to mid September