Virginia Creeper Makes a Nice Ground Cover and Lawn Alternative
Experts recommend that we try to reduce our lawn by half and replace it with native alternatives. Let's explore one possibility and its benefits.
This is a small section of my backyard that includes Virginia creeper.
Virginia creeper supports 30 species of caterpillars in my region. It ranks 48th on the list of 310 plant genera that support caterpillars. It ranks just below Joe Pye weed and just above red cedar, in terms of its ability to support caterpillars in my part of Kentucky (Eastern US).
For those of us who seek to support wildlife, plant choice is vital. One of the main indicators of good plant choice is its ability to support caterpillars. Caterpillars are little packets of energy and nutrition that feed birds and predatory insects.
This Virginia creeper supports moths of the sphinx family, including the Pandora’s sphinx, the Abbot’s sphinx, the lettered sphinx and the hog sphinx. If you have these, then that provides pest control, because the predators that eat these caterpillars also eat tomato hornworms, according to entomologist Dr. Doug Tallamy.
These are some of the benefits that native plants provide in your home landscape. The native plants support wildlife, whereas lawn does not, and nonnative ornamental plants and trees (such as ginkgo and zelkova) do not support wildlife.
A robust community of native plants also captures rainfall and filters the water. It is also the site of a growing ecosystem. Growing ecosystems absorb both water and carbon, whereas a declining ecosystem is only going to relinquish valuable water and emit carbon.