What are the best groundcover species?

In my mind, the ideal groundcover would prevent any unwanted seeds from making contact with the soil, would draw in and seal in all moisture from precipitation, and would have entirely undemanding roots that offer no competition or inhibition to whatever else I have intentionally planted. Any additional benefits such as soil building (e.g. clover) or edible parts are nice but are not part of the core mission.

Of course we don't live in a perfect world, and nothing is going to live up to those high standards, but I'd love to hear about the plants that come closest in your experience.

Thanks.

Short answer: for annual vegetables, purslane. Possibly chickweed.

Long answer:

Mosses could also be possible. But they’re hard to cultivate.

I would say that a very good ground cover is tree leaves dropped from above. Especially big ones like maple, sycamore, oak, cottonwood, et cetera. Nut trees have good leaves for this: oak, hickory, chestnut especially. (Have you seen how enormous a good shagbark hickory leaf gets?)

In an established perennial ecosystem there should be no particular need for ground cover because the plants themselves cover the ground. Path plants are another question, and many of those come in on the basis of being well adapted to a particular situation.

If you can get ahold of large quantities of sawdust, that would also be quite excellent for your purposes. This is an input from elsewhere, but one that is considered a waste product. In my valley it is available in gigantic quantity from a factory—they have a big shed with a chute and all the sawdust goes down the chute, free for the taking, with shovels provided. There is nothing, nothing like sawdust mulch for holding water and trapping evaporation. The only issue is that it can bind up nitrogen if you’re not careful, which could be a good thing or a bad thing depending on where you put it. The worms will accept it as an open invitation to plough your soil with gusto.

If we look to natural ecosystems, we can see that the most persistent perennials (trees) get to be the tallest, and then there are herbaceous perennials at their feet. Between the herbaceous perennials are ground covers, typically in sparse quantities. If the ecosystem has regular disturbance from drought, grazing, mowing, stagnant water, cold, etc., then these ground covers become stronger, because they are ground hugging, they escape from the harshness by being small. Mosses, lichens, low herbs and creeping plants inhabit the droughty ridges and boulders where nothing else can make its home. Then new seeds come in and, in the more nurturing environment created by these plants, brambles and gooseberries, birches, maples, young trees are able to establish. So the ground covers are only tending to be naturally dominant in ecosystems characterised by environmental harshness or persistent disturbance that does not let taller perennials become dominant, which would shade them out.

What a ground cover means when you are growing annual veggies is one thing; perennials, another; and trees, yet another still.

So… most of these ground covers, the perennial ones at least—like clover or ground ivy—are a successional stage up from the majority of common annual vegetables, and are likely to outcompete them and prevent their germination and growth in my experience. Not purslane, though. Strong, deep-rooted perennial species can survive in the midst of perennial ground cover species, and if left to their own will overtop and partially shade them out. And trees can deal with a gardener’s nightmare ground cover, like ground elder/bishopweed/goutweed or carpet bugle.

 I like  creeping charlie, because it is easy to remove if necessary.
I haven't been able to transplant it, much less cultivate it.
I sow diakon radishes under tomatoes plants and the like.
The seed is cheap, the leaves shade out weed seeds, they grow quickly and they taste great.

I think perennial peanuts could be great as ground cover, but not in colder climates.

Strawberries, especially the wilder varieties like the alpine ones could be ideal ground over.

Edward Finch wrote:In my mind, the ideal groundcover would prevent any unwanted seeds from making contact with the soil, would draw in and seal in all moisture from precipitation, and would have entirely undemanding roots that offer no competition or inhibition to whatever else I have intentionally planted. Any additional benefits such as soil building (e.g. clover) or edible parts are nice but are not part of the core mission.

Of course we don't live in a perfect world, and nothing is going to live up to those high standards, but I'd love to hear about the plants that come closest in your experience.

Thanks.

What's the end goal? Is it just ground cover? If so then single species is not really the best idea. Mix it up, variety almost always works best!