Growing Plants in Pavement Cracks?

Category Advice

A petunia growing in a crack in pavement.

Sometime you may want to have fragrant or pretty plants growing in the spaces of the driveway, paving stones, or sidewalks. This page is about growing plants in pavement cracks.

Questions

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Question: Something to Plant in Cracks in Pavement?

April 13, 2006

Question:

I have just moved into a rental property which had grass growing in all the cracks in the pavement and drive way. I have pulled up all the grass and I would like to plant something in the cracks by seed preferably (large area) that will either look pretty, or smell good when you tread on it. This would also keep the grass from growing back. I need something very hardy as it will have foot traffic. Any suggestions? I was thinking mint or Johnny jump ups.

Hardiness Zone: 11

Sally from Sydney Australia

Answer:

Hi Sally,

If your looking for blooms with a nice fragrance that will stand up to foot traffic, you might consider miniature wormwood (Artemisia viridis). It has interesting pale green foliage, small gold/cream flowers and a pleasant smell. It's also drought tolerant and seems to stand up to plenty abuse. You may also want to try creeping oregano (bright green), creeping golden marjoram (golden green) or mounding marjoram (darker green), which has a minty fragrance and small pink flowers.

All should be hardy to your zone and stand up to moderate traffic. Creeping thyme, carpet bugleweed and star creeper are also all fragrant with lovely little pink, purple or white flowers. Here are three web resources to explore: Stepables.com, classygroundcovers.com and jeeperscreepers.info Good luck!

Ellen

Answers

By (Guest Post)

March 23, 20060 found this helpful

something like creeping thyme would smell good and keep the grass from comming back

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By T (Guest Post)

March 23, 20060 found this helpful

Go to www.stepables.com for suggestions. They sell plants, but you can get the plant names and go to www.burpee.com to get seeds.

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By vicka (Guest Post)

March 23, 20060 found this helpful

Sorry, I don't know about the gardening zones. Check out low growing herbs.

They are aromatic and come back every year after the snow. We have creeping thyme and oregano in a brick walk. Smells very nice.

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By tessie31 (Guest Post)

March 24, 20060 found this helpful

try stonecrop,it is in the sedum family. it is a bright green trailing plant that is about 4-6" long. i have it between cracks in pavement and in cracks between rocks of my pond. i dont know about living in your zone. i do know it will take a beating and thrive. sedum usually will grow just about anywhere.

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