Xeriscape Ground Covers make it easy to turn dry, bare spots into something beautiful.
If you’re tired of patchy soil and high water bills, ground covers can help fill in your yard with texture, color, and charm, without the upkeep.
These tough little plants work hard so you don’t have to.
Xeriscape Ground Covers Key Takeaways
- Xeriscape Ground Covers are low-growing, drought-tolerant plants that help conserve water, reduce weeds, and prevent soil erosion.
- They’re ideal for hot, dry climates and offer year-round visual appeal.
- These ground covers are perfect for replacing thirsty grass and adding texture, color, and function to a low-maintenance landscape.
🌿 Xeriscape Ground Covers: Colorful Water-Saving Plants
Xeriscape Ground Covers are the secret to transforming dry, bare patches into lush, low-water beauty.
Sick of dusty soil and weeds creeping in where grass won’t grow?
These tough little plants cover the ground, save water, and add color, making your yard easier to care for and way more fun to look at.
Let’s explore Xeriscape Ground Covers that save water, stop weeds, and add lasting color to your dry landscape. Easy care, big impact.
🌱 An Introduction to Drought Tolerant Ground Covers
If you’re looking to save water and still have a great-looking yard, Xeriscape Ground Covers are a smart place to start.
These low-growing plants do more than just fill space. They help the soil, block weeds, and keep things cooler and greener where traditional lawns fall short.
In this post, you’ll discover easy-care ground covers that love the heat, thrive on less water, and bring year-round color and texture to your landscape.
💧 Why Use Ground Covers in Xeriscaping?
Swapping thirsty turf for ground covers can make your yard both beautiful and practical.
Here’s why they’re a perfect fit for xeriscaping:
- 💧 Save Water: Ground covers need way less water than lawns or thirsty ornamentals
- 🌾 Prevent Erosion: Their roots hold soil in place on slopes and dry patches
- 🚫 Suppress Weeds: Dense mats crowd out unwanted growth without chemicals
- 🎨 Add Texture & Color: Create layers of visual interest even in full sun
- 🌡️ Regulate Soil Temp: Living ground covers act like mulch, keeping roots cool and moist
🌼 Best Drought Tolerant Ground Covers: Amazing Low-Water Options
Ready to trade in bare spots and dry soil for something beautiful that barely needs a sip of water?
These drought-tolerant ground covers are tough, colorful, and low-maintenance and perfect for filling in spaces where grass just won’t cut it.
Let’s dive into some of the best varieties that bring both form and function to your xeriscape garden.
🌸 Alyssum (Lobularia maritima)
Alyssum Ground Cover Plants: Amazing Curb Appeal – Xeriscaping Basics
Looking for something low, fragrant, and full of charm? Alyssum is a cheerful annual that spreads like a soft floral carpet and thrives in dry, sunny spots.
It’s one of those plants that works hard without needing much from you, and it’s a magnet for pollinators too.
- 🌿 Type: Annual
- 📏 Height: 3–9 inches
- 🌸 Bloom Colors: White, pink, lavender, and purple
- 🐝 Bonus: Attracts bees and butterflies
- 🪴 Best Use: Edging, rock gardens, between pavers
Once established, Alyssum needs very little water and often reseeds itself—so don’t be surprised if it comes back for an encore next season.
❄️ Snow-in-Summer (Cerastium tomentosum)
If you want something that shines in the heat, Snow-in-Summer delivers.
This silvery-leaved perennial creates a soft, frosty look year-round and bursts into a blanket of white flowers in late spring.
It thrives in poor, dry soil and loves full sun, making it a perfect choice for xeriscaping.
Snow In Summer Ground Cover: A Beautiful Must-Have – Xeriscaping Basics
- 🌿 Type: Perennial
- 📏 Height: 6–12 inches
- 🌸 Bloom Time: Late spring to early summer
- 🌞 Best Conditions: Full sun, well-drained soil
- 🪨 Best Use: Slopes, rock gardens, edging
It spreads quickly, so give it room to run—or plant it in contained spaces where you want a soft, cascading look.
🌞 Ice Plant (Delosperma spp.)
Ice Plant is a sun-loving succulent that brings bold color and serious drought resistance to your xeriscape.
With fleshy leaves and daisy-like flowers that sparkle in the sun, it covers the ground quickly and thrives in hot, dry conditions with minimal care.
Ice Plant Ground Cover: Bold Color & Drought-Proof Beauty – Xeriscaping Basics
- 🌿 Type: Perennial
- 📏 Height: 2–6 inches
- 🌸 Bloom Colors: Hot pink, yellow, purple, red, orange
- ☀️ Best Conditions: Full sun, well-drained soil
- 🧱 Best Use: Slopes, rock walls, between stepping stones
This plant hates soggy soil, so keep it dry and give it lots of sun and it’ll return the favor with a carpet of color all summer long.
🍋Sedum oreganum
Sedum oreganum: Stunning Native Ground Cover for Dry Gardens
Sedum oreganum: Stunning Native Ground Cover for Dry Gardens – Xeriscaping Basics
Oreganum Sedum or Oregon Stonecrop is a hardy little succulent that hugs the ground and handles dry conditions like a pro.
Native to the Pacific Northwest, it’s one of the most resilient ground covers you can plant in a xeriscape.
It forms a tight mat of greenish-gold foliage that turns reddish in cooler temps and sends up bright yellow star-shaped flowers in summer.
- 🌿 Type: Perennial
- 📏 Height: 2–4 inches
- 🌼 Bloom Time: Mid to late summer
- 🪨 Best Conditions: Full sun to part shade, rocky or sandy soil
- 🌱 Best Use: Rock gardens, dry borders, shallow containers
It’s low maintenance, spreads slowly, and doesn’t mind poor soil—just what you want in a water-wise garden.
💗 Sedum ‘Pride and Joy’ (Stonecrop)
Sedum ‘Pride and Joy’ Stonecrop: Bold & Easy Care Beauty – Xeriscaping Basics
If you want a ground cover that stands out a bit more, Sedum ‘Pride and Joy’ brings height, structure, and bold color to your xeriscape.
This upright stonecrop forms neat, mounded clumps of blue-green foliage topped with rosy-pink flower heads in late summer.
It’s tough, tidy, and totally drought-tolerant once it’s settled in.
- 🌿 Type: Perennial
- 📏 Height: 10–12 inches
- 🌸 Bloom Time: Late summer into fall
- ☀️ Best Conditions: Full sun, well-drained soil
- 🌿 Best Use: Borders, dry garden beds, pollinator patches
Bees love it, and so will you—it keeps your garden looking fresh even when the heat’s turned up.
🌈 Portulaca (Moss Rose)
Moss Rose Ground Cover: Easy Care & Amazing Results – Xeriscaping Basics
Portulaca, also known as Moss Rose, is a bright and cheerful annual that thrives in the hottest, driest corners of your garden.
With its juicy succulent leaves and vivid blooms, it creates a colorful mat that keeps going even when the weather won’t cooperate.
- 🌿 Type: Annual
- 📏 Height: 6–8 inches
- 🌸 Bloom Colors: Hot pink, orange, yellow, red, white
- ☀️ Best Conditions: Full sun, sandy or rocky soil
- 🌻 Best Use: Front of beds, borders, containers, dry slopes
It opens its blooms each morning and closes them at night—kind of like a plant with a built-in bedtime. Easy, eye-catching, and practically carefree.
🌾 Herniaria Glabra (Rupturewort)
Green Carpet Rupturewort: Stunning Lawn Alternative – Xeriscaping Basics
Herniaria Glabra might not be a showstopper, but it’s one of the toughest, lowest ground covers you can plant.
This dense, bright green carpet hugs the soil and handles heat, dryness, and foot traffic with ease.
It’s ideal for filling gaps in paths or softening the look of hardscape areas.
- 🌿 Type: Perennial
- 📏 Height: 2–3 inches
- 🌿 Foliage: Fine-textured, turns reddish in fall
- ☀️ Best Conditions: Full sun, poor or sandy soil
- 🚶 Best Use: Between stepping stones, patios, and along walkways
It’s not flashy, but it’s practical, pretty, and performs like a champ in even the harshest spots.
🍀 Irish Moss (Sagina subulata)
Irish Moss Sagina subulata: Easy Lush Lawn Alternative – Xeriscaping Basics
Irish Moss adds a soft, cushiony texture to your xeriscape with its rich green foliage and delicate white flowers.
While it looks like real moss, it’s actually a hardy flowering plant that forms a low, dense mat.
It does best with a bit of shade and some occasional moisture, making it a good fit for cooler corners of your dry garden.
- 🌿 Type: Perennial
- 📏 Height: 1–2 inches
- 🌸 Bloom Time: Late spring to early summer
- ☀️ Best Conditions: Part sun to part shade, well-drained soil
- 🌿 Best Use: Between pavers, borders, or as a lawn alternative
It’s soft underfoot, naturally weed-smothering, and adds a tidy, finished look to any space it touches.
💜 Moss Verbena (Glandularia canadensis)
Moss Verbena Ground Cover: Easy & Vibrant Low Water Groundcover
Moss Verbena Ground Cover: Easy & Vibrant Low Water Groundcover – Xeriscaping Basics
Moss Verbena is a sprawling, sun-loving perennial that adds long-lasting color to your xeriscape.
With clusters of bright purple, pink, or lavender flowers, it creates a soft, trailing mat that blooms from spring through fall.
It’s especially loved by butterflies and thrives in heat and drought once established.
- 🌿 Type: Perennial (zones 7+), grown as an annual in cooler zones
- 📏 Height: 6–12 inches
- 🌸 Bloom Time: Spring to first frost
- ☀️ Best Conditions: Full sun, dry to sandy soil
- 🦋 Best Use: Slopes, large borders, pollinator gardens
It’s low-fuss, fast-spreading, and a great pick for filling in large sunny areas with a splash of color that just keeps going.
🌿 Mother of Thyme (Thymus serpyllum) / Creeping Thyme
Mother of Thyme Ground Cover: Beautiful & Bold & Fragrant – Xeriscaping Basics
Mother of Thyme, also known as Creeping Thyme, is a fragrant, flowering ground cover that’s as practical as it is pretty.
It forms a dense mat of tiny leaves and blooms with soft purple-pink flowers in summer.
Bonus: it’s edible, attracts pollinators, and even handles light foot traffic.
- 🌿 Type: Perennial
- 📏 Height: 2–4 inches
- 🌸 Bloom Time: Mid to late summer
- ☀️ Best Conditions: Full sun, dry rocky soil
- 🐝 Best Use: Between flagstones, borders, herb gardens
This one’s a triple threat. It’s beautiful, tough, and useful. Plant it once and enjoy the scent and soft cover for years to come.
🌻 Gazania (Treasure Flower)
Gazania, often called Treasure Flower, is a bold and bright bloomer that thrives in the heat and shrugs off drought like a pro.
Its daisy-like flowers open with the sun and come in brilliant shades of yellow, orange, pink, and red.
Gazania stays compact but makes a big impact in dry, sunny spots.
- 🌿 Type: Perennial in warm zones, annual in cooler areas
- 📏 Height: 6–12 inches
- 🌸 Bloom Time: Late spring to fall
- ☀️ Best Conditions: Full sun, dry sandy soil
- 🌼 Best Use: Edging, curb strips, containers, front borders
This plant doesn’t just survive dry weather, it puts on a show. Great for hot driveways, sidewalk edges, or anywhere that needs a splash of drama.
🌼 Creeping Phlox (Phlox subulata)
Creeping Phlox is a springtime superstar that blankets the ground with dense mats of colorful blooms.
It’s one of the best choices for covering slopes, tucking into rock walls, or spilling over the edge of a raised bed.
Once it finishes blooming, it still looks good with its evergreen foliage.
- 🌿 Type: Perennial
- 📏 Height: 4–6 inches
- 🌸 Bloom Time: Early to mid-spring
- ☀️ Best Conditions: Full sun, well-drained soil
- 🪨 Best Use: Rock gardens, slopes, borders
This ground cover spreads steadily and comes back strong each year. Perfect for adding early color to your xeriscape while keeping the weeds at bay.
🌟 More Great Xeriscape Ground Covers
We’ve already covered the classics but there are even more drought tolerant ground covers worth a look.
Some are a little less common, but just as tough and useful. These bonus picks bring interesting textures, bold colors, and extra resilience to your water-wise landscape.
Let’s take a quick look at a few more standouts you might want to try.
🌿 Silver Carpet (Dymondia margaretae)
Silver Carpet is a slow-spreading, ultra-low ground cover with soft, silver-green foliage and tiny yellow daisy-like flowers.
Native to South Africa, it’s made for tough conditions handling full sun, heat, and dry soil with ease.
It also tolerates foot traffic, making it a great choice for pathways and curb strips.
- 🌿 Type: Perennial
- 📏 Height: 1–3 inches
- 🌼 Bloom Time: Summer
- ☀️ Best Conditions: Full sun, sandy or well-drained soil
- 🚶 Best Use: Between pavers, dry borders, walkways
Its silvery leaves reflect light and stay cool, giving your xeriscape a soft, elegant look with hardly any maintenance.
🌳 Ajuga ‘Chocolate Chip’
Ajuga ‘Chocolate Chip’ is a compact, low-growing ground cover with glossy, chocolate-purple leaves and short spikes of blue flowers.
While it prefers moist soil, it can handle moderately dry conditions once established, especially in part shade.
It’s a great choice if you want to add rich color and texture to shadier areas of your xeriscape.
- 🌿 Type: Perennial
- 📏 Height: 3–4 inches
- 🌸 Bloom Time: Spring to early summer
- 🌤️ Best Conditions: Part shade, well-drained soil
- 🍂 Best Use: Under trees, along shady paths, mixed beds
It spreads by runners and forms a dense mat that blocks weeds and stays colorful even when it’s not in bloom.
🌵 Sedum Acre (Goldmoss Stonecrop)
Sedum Acre, also called Goldmoss Stonecrop, is a tiny but mighty succulent that thrives in dry, rocky soil.
Its bright green, moss-like foliage forms a dense mat, and in late spring, it explodes with tiny star-shaped yellow flowers.
It’s tough, spreads fast, and is nearly impossible to kill once it settles in.
- 🌿 Type: Perennial
- 📏 Height: 2–4 inches
- 🌼 Bloom Time: Late spring to early summer
- ☀️ Best Conditions: Full sun, sandy or rocky soil
- 🪨 Best Use: Rock gardens, cracks in stone paths, slopes
This sedum is perfect if you want a rugged, no-fuss ground cover that doesn’t mind heat, poor soil, or being left alone.
🍒 Bearberry (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi)
Bearberry is a native evergreen ground cover that brings year-round interest to dry landscapes.
It has small, glossy leaves, pink bell-shaped flowers in spring, and red berries in fall that birds love.
This plant is incredibly drought-tolerant and works well on slopes or rocky soil where erosion is a concern.
- 🌿 Type: Perennial (Evergreen)
- 📏 Height: 6–12 inches
- 🌸 Bloom Time: Spring
- ☀️ Best Conditions: Full sun to light shade, well-drained soil
- 🪵 Best Use: Erosion control, native gardens, woodland edges
Bearberry spreads slowly by underground stems, creating a soft, natural look that blends well with wild or rustic landscapes.
⛰️ White Rock (Cerastium tomentosum)
White Rock, often grouped with Snow-in-Summer, is a tough perennial that thrives in dry, sunny spaces.
It’s known for its silvery-gray foliage and cloud of tiny white flowers in late spring.
The soft, cascading growth habit makes it perfect for softening edges, walls, and rocky slopes.
- 🌿 Type: Perennial
- 📏 Height: 6–12 inches
- 🌸 Bloom Time: Late spring to early summer
- ☀️ Best Conditions: Full sun, sandy or gravelly soil
- 🪨 Best Use: Rock gardens, walls, dry slopes
It’s low-maintenance, spreads quickly, and gives your xeriscape a cool-toned contrast that pops in bright light.
💛 Cushion Spurge (Euphorbia polychroma)
Cushion Spurge adds bold shape and glowing color to your xeriscape.
In spring, it forms rounded mounds of bright chartreuse blooms that fade into soft green foliage for the summer.
This drought-tolerant perennial is perfect for adding structure and contrast to gravel beds or dry borders.
- 🌿 Type: Perennial
- 📏 Height: 12–18 inches
- 🌼 Bloom Time: Early to mid-spring
- ☀️ Best Conditions: Full sun, well-drained sandy or rocky soil
- 🌾 Best Use: Mixed borders, front-of-bed focal points, dry perennial gardens
It’s striking, compact, and thrives on neglect—just be sure to wear gloves when handling, as the sap can be irritating.
🪴 Conclusion: Creating a Ground-Hugging, Water-Wise Landscape
Ground covers might be low to the ground, but their impact on your xeriscape is anything but small.
From silvery mats to bright floral carpets, these drought-tolerant plants bring life, structure, and resilience to your space without adding more work.
🌿 Ground Covers That Work for You
These plants are more than just pretty fillers. They help lock in moisture, crowd out weeds, protect your soil, and soften the look of hardscapes.
Whether you’re replacing thirsty grass or just want to bring texture to your beds and borders, there’s a ground cover for every corner of your yard.
🌸 Start Small, Grow Big
You don’t need to plant an entire yard overnight. Try starting with one or two varieties that fit your conditions, something that’ll thrive in the sunniest, driest spot you’ve got.
As you see how well they do, it’s easy to expand.
💧 Less Water, More Beauty
With the right mix of Xeriscape Ground Covers, you’ll get a landscape that looks good year-round, supports pollinators, and keeps water use low.
It’s a smart, sustainable way to build beauty from the ground up.
Drought Tolerant Ground Covers – Xeriscaping Basics
References
What is Xeriscaping? (Including Best Plants for Your Zone) – Nevada NID
Designing Landscapes for Northern Nevada’s Arid Climate – Nevada Extension
South Texas Wildscape and Xeriscape-plants/ Texas A&M Extension
New Mexico Xeric Guide – NM.Gov
Low Water Use/Drought Tolerant Plant List – Arizona Department of Water Resources
The Beginners Guide to Xeriscape in Denver – 5280 Magazine Denver’s Mile High Magazine
What is xeriscaping? A beginner’s guide to drought-tolerant landscaping – Colorado State University
What is xeriscaping? A beginner’s guide to drought-tolerant landscaping – Colorado State University
UCCE Master Gardeners of San Joaquin County – Low Water Use Landscapes