Article and photo by Monika Smith
If you’re thinking of reducing the amount of grass in your yard, and maybe a rethink of what your yard looks like, there are quite a few groundcovers that might give you the foundation for an inspiring yard.
Here’s one that needs minimal care, is hardy, and has four-season attractiveness: what all nice gardens should have.
Bearberry or Kinnikinnick (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi) is a species from the Heather (Ericaceae) family. The plant is found circumpolar, mostly below the treeline, and is a Zone 2 to 6 (USDA) plant. It’s also drought tolerant. The City of Calgary gives it a thumbs up and lists it in their YardSmart plants.
This is a plant you can easily find on walks or hikes. Edworthy Park has some nice patches. Or check with me for a personal tour.
Bearberry is a deciduous evergreen! In spring and summer, see green leaves; and, in the fall and winter, bronze-coloured foliage. Its thick leathery leaves are designed to handle our dry summer and winter weather. It’s a woody perennial and has a life span of some 20 years. It is a slow grower, but worth the wait.
It creeps! And it is determined to seek new ground to cover. It is low to the ground, six to fifteen centimetres, and can form mats meters across. This plant has two cool reproductive strategies. One, when a branch finds the right soil, it’ll drop roots and forms a new plant. Also, Bearberry has attractive flowers and fruit. The flowers are recognizable with their urn-shaped white flowers with blushing pink lobes. Distinctively, they hang down like little bells. The flowering is early spring and results in bright red berries, actually drupes, that form a lovely contrast to the green leaves. They hang on for quite a while without looking bedraggled or rotten. The fruit is edible, but mealy and tasteless. Bears like them; humans can eat them. It’s bee friendly and is a host plant for certain butterflies. It’s also a plant that is used medicinally.
If you are thinking of including a dry creek bed, this charming roaming plant adores rocks and will grow over and around them. Leave some soil between the rocks for the plants to set new roots. This plant is also able to grow on sand dunes! Soil preparation is a consideration. While some literature talks about it needing acidic soil—Calgary is ‘alkaline’—plants seem to have figured out how to adjust the pH by themselves. We have lots of evergreens that need acidic soils without a lot of fussing on our part. But it can be a finicky plant.
If you’re looking for short, colourful, and tough plant, Bearberry is a nice option to the usual spreading or horizontal junipers used in landscaping.
Try it out! Add this wow factor to your yard; you won’t be disappointed. It’s available in local nurseries. Native plants have the best potential to grow; you can procure plugs through local native plant growers.
If you’re interested in showing your garden to a friendly troop of plant lovers who want to learn and exchange knowledge, tell us about successes and get some shoulders to sob on? Contact me! Been there and done that.
Recommendation: Check out the City of Calgary’s YardSmart plant recommendations. We’re probably heading into a very dry summer, and having attractive, drought-tolerant plants will not disappoint.
Until next time,
Monika’s Grove
Click here to the Glendale Community News home page for the latest Glendale community updates.
