Good Pathway Plants

Best Low-Growing Plants for Pathways

For best results when planting a pathway, amend soil by 25% to 50% with planter mix, suggests Ted Mayeda, owner of M&M Nursery in Orange.
Until they’re established, water plants before they dry out, but be careful not to overwater.

The following low-growing plants are perfect for planting next to or within a pathway.
The ground covers listed can tolerate light foot traffic.

Recommended Pathway Plants

  • Alyssum: Prostrate, trailing plant with nearly continuous clusters of flowers in purple, lavender, and white. Full sun to shade.
  • Aptenia: Trailing ice plant with bright red flowers. Full sun.
  • Baby’s Tears: Creeping plant with tiny round leaves forming a lush green mat. Shade inland; part-sun on the coast.
  • Blue Star Creeper (Laurentia fluviatilis): Low-growing with small, pointed, oval leaves and blue starlike flowers in late spring and summer. Full sun or partial shade.
  • Campanula: Many species with bell-shaped, star-shaped, or cup-shaped flowers in blue, lavender, violet, purple, and white. Shade inland; some sun on the coast.
  • Carex berggrenii: Ornamental clumping grass, 2 to 4 inches tall, with blue-green, metallic gray, or reddish brown foliage. Full sun to part shade.
  • Corsican Mint: Low-growing mint with tiny, round bright green leaves and light purple summer flowers. Fragrant when stepped on. Sun or partial shade.
  • Erodium: Relative of geranium, 3 to 6 inches tall. Blooms from spring through fall in white, rose-pink, or white with lavender veins. Part shade (E. reichardii needs full shade).
  • Ivy: Low-growing, small-leaved types like needlepoint ivy stay compact. Tolerates sun or part shade.
  • Korean Grass (Zoysia tenuifolia): Creeping, fine-textured, mounding grass with a mossy effect. Needs little water once established. Full sun to light shade.
  • Mondo Grass (Ophiopogon japonicus ‘Kyoto Dwarf’): Dark green, straplike leaves, 4–6 inches long, forming tight clumps. Full sun to part shade.
  • Moss (Irish and Scotch): Dense mosslike foliage, ideal for filling in between stepping stones. Irish moss is green; Scotch moss is golden-green. Full sun to partial shade.
  • Pennyroyal: Creeping mint with 1-inch round leaves and small lavender flowers. Strong mint fragrance. Requires moist soil and shade to partial sun.
  • Thyme: Multiple low-growing varieties make excellent ground covers:
    • ‘Doone Valley’: Matting thyme with green and gold-mottled foliage, red-purple flowers, and lemon scent. Grows to 3 inches tall.
    • Woolly Thyme: Forms flat to slightly undulating mat of gray woolly foliage, 2–3 inches tall.
    • Elfin Thyme: Compact matting plant with green foliage and soft pink summer flowers.

    All thymes tolerate sun to partial shade.

Julie Bawden-Davis

Julie Bawden-Davis is a bestselling journalist, novelist, blogger, and YouTuber. A prolific author, Julie writes in several genres. She enjoys creating page-turning suspense served up with a dose of romance, garden books that turn any brown thumb green, and spiritual books meant to enlighten and inspire. Widely published, Julie has written 45 books and more than 4,000 articles for a wide variety of national and international publications. She lives in Southern California, where she enjoys sunny, blue skies most days and year-round gardening. Julie gains inspiration from being surrounded by plants when she writes.