Did you own a home and regularly mulch flower and tree beds? Five hundred square feet in mulch will cost over $500 installed (apartment dwellers have wisely skipped this expense). Over ten years that is $5000! Of course you would do that yourself. Still, it is a lot of money. And you could do all that stuff. *Or* you can install a power plant one time.

Behold the powerful and lovely pachysandra plant.  In the first year after planting it sleeps, the second year it creeps and by the third year it leaps.

 

It grows in value

A small tray of this  green ground cover will run you about $20 at a landscape store. And that is all you need to start.

We bought ours of someone who had a big  patch of it for $4. We got it in wet newspaper and promptly planted  just a few stems in various places. I have been transplanting seedlings ever since slowly filling in the beds. Each year I have needed less and less mulch as this plant serves as a living mulch. And each spring  we enjoy lovely white flowers and fresh air produced by the plants. And last year a frog moved into to the shady refuge these plants provide.

And unlike mulch which is a drain on the budget, a pachysandra plant is a flowering ground cover that produces more value each year. We now have thousands of these plants worth thousands of dollars.

Many options

And if you don’t like this particular plant no problem – there are lots of ground covers to choose from that spread on their own.  English Ivy and Vinca are good choices but require a bit of care. Once those are in add some flowers and enjoy the beautiful savings

It’s easy being green.

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