Phoenix Perennials owner Gary Lewis' compendium of 4000 different ground covers plus how to make use of all their many functional, aesthetic, and environmental benefits.

Acaena inermis 'Purpurea' is an excellent ground cover for crawling over gravel paths or stones with gorgeous purple-blue-grey foliage.

Acaena saccaticupula 'Blue Haze' is an excellent ground cover with powder blue foliage.

The evergreen Himalayan maidenhair fern, Adiantum venustum, forms delicate and elegant, slowly expanding mats.

Ajuga Feathered Friends 'Cordial Canary' is a semi-evergreen bugleweed with bright gold foliage and cobalt-blue flowers.

Ajuga Feathered Friends 'Fancy Finch' is a semi-evergreen bugleweed with trifoliate colours of gold, bronze and green with blue flowers.

Ajuga Feathered Friends 'Fierce Falcon' is a semi-evergreen bugleweed with glossy, purple to black foliage and cobalt-blue flowers.

Ajuga Feathered Friends 'Noble Nightingale' is a semi-evergreen bugleweed with metallic black leaves and cobalt with blue flowers.

Ajuga Feathered Friends 'Parrot Paradise' is a semi-evergreen bugleweed with yellow, orange, and red leaves with blue flowers.

Ajuga Feathered Friends 'Tropical Toucan' is a semi-evergreen bugleweed with golden yellow leaves with blue flowers.

Ajuga reptans 'Golden Glow' has gold and cream variegated foliage that is flushed with pink in cooler weather.

Ajuga reptans 'Princess Elsa' is an evergreen bugleweed with shiny, silver foliage and blue-purple flowers.

Ajuga reptans 'Princess Leia' is a tricolour variegated, evergreen bugleweed with silver-green, creamy white and dark green foliage.

Alchemilla ellenbeckii is an unusual, creeping lady's mantle with trailing, reddish stems with tiny leaves and electric green flowers.

Antennaria dioica 'Rubra',pink pussytoes, is small, cold hardy ground cover with silver leaves and fuzzy, pink flowers.

Anthirrhimum sempervirens 'Drew's Folly' is a hardy perennial snapdragon with dusty pink flowers and fuzzy dark green foliage.

Artemisia 'Garden Ghost' is a mounding wormwood with beautiful recurved silver-grey foliage and yellow flowers.

Azorella trifurcata 'Nana', the cushion bolax, has shiny, plastic-like feathery foliage and tiny yellow flowers in summer.

Blechnum penna-marina forms thick evergreen mats of small, upward-facing, once-pinnate, glossy, dark green fronds.

Callirhoe involucrata is an extremely showy, midwestern US native with luscious, glowing, magenta flowers with white centres.

Carex pensylvanica is a fine-textured sedge for shadier spots, including dry shade, as an underplanting or lawn alternative.

Carex socialis is an evergreen sedge for evenly moist to boggy or wet sites with narrow arching foliage.

Convallaria majalis 'Bordeaux' is an improved version of the old-fashioned lily-of-the-valley with larger and more plentiful flowers.

Corydalis lutea has clusters of bright yellow, spurred flowers that bloom above blue-green foliage for months on end.

Corydalis ochroleuca is smothered in fragrant, creamy white, tubular flowers with yellow at the centres for months.

Cynodon 'Dog Tuff' is a Bermuda grass that is a deep-rooted, dense, low-growing turf grass resistant to foot and dog traffic.

Delosperma Ocean Sunset 'Orange Glow' is an ice plant with mats of orange blooms with hot pink tips and bright yellow centres.

Delosperma Jewel of Desert 'Amethyst' is an ice plant with bright magenta flowers with white centres.

Delosperma nubigenum has bright yellow single flowers that burst into colour in early summer and continue right through fall.

Dianthus 'Appleblossom Burst' has fragrant, heavily ruffled, double flowers in white gradually deepening through various pinks.