What a beautiful garden Jo!

I have no clue except to use what you already have that is doing well or some soft wavy grasses, or some lavender to go with your provincial sentiment. The low green mounding plant you have under the trees, ground cover like seaside daisy, lomandra of some sort?

Looks like you are in a dry region. Is that right? A native grass cover may work is

Themeda australis -

AKA 'MINGO' Themeda. A type of Kangaroo Grass with blue foliage

We are in McLaren Vale SA & have Clay soil..

Well then grow wine Jo!

I sell it & my husband grows it thats enough lol..

Well I have fond memories of Mclaren Vale visit in particular D'Arenburg Winery but I love white so fortunately they cater for that & now I buy from them direct. What's your specialty?

Looks like Houzz has a bit of a hiccup happening!

Watch out, the Houzz glitches got so bad they corrupted my emails and iPad.

Please complain to support, whatever you notice.

Shiraz is what McLaren Vale is known for but I love most reds. Whites Pinot Gris & a gd riesling always wins me over..

Yeh my messages are doubling up!!!

"Contact us," at bottom of the page. Started Friday, enough already, they need to fix the multiple problems.

I think a nice limestone or small red rock on the ground ( if you don't want to plant it out) would make the path pop

Native Australian Violets. They are good growers almost to the point of being a weed. They can take over a bit if not trimmed but flower almost all year round. Might be worth a look?

Hi Jo depending upon the look you are after check out Bushy Blue Botanic name: Hardenbergia violacea ‘Bushy Blue’ - this info is from Don Burkes page, it looks great grown like this. Some other ideas too convolvulus cneorum (silverbush), also can be grown with purple flower, creeping boobialla, grasses, liriopes, agapanthas, pig face, creeping thyme, good luck!

Description Bushy Blue:

Developed from a selected seedling of the native climber Hardenbergia violacea, Bushy Blue is a low shrub growing to around 60cm x 60cm (2′ x 2′). It has blue/grey leaves and clusters of violet/purple pea-shaped flowers in late winter and early spring.

Best climate:
Bushy Blue grows in most areas of Australia.

Uses:

garden beds
banks and retaining walls
mass plantings
rock gardens
native gardens
containers

Good points:

attractive violet flowers
hardy
wind, drought and frost tolerant
bushy habit
neat, mound shape

Downside:

Flowers are violet/purple, not blue!

Beautiful garden firstly, I say continue with the stone mulch, it doesn't move or blow away and you can either use the same for continuity or some river stones for example to create a "new look" area.

Hi Jo, have you thought of using succulents? They are very drought hardy

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Or this prostrate grevillea with lovely pink flowers for half of the year

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Hi all, Sorry about the doubled up comments. If you see them again, you can banish them away by clicking refresh on your browser. Luke

Or Myoporum parvifolium or the purple version Myoporum parvifolium purpureum. Native, hardy and attractive. What more could a person want? :-))

Hi Jo I would use white rocks or marble off white they look great in any season. They also look great with tall standing white roses. Kind Regsrds Debra Sellen.

Wouldn't that also be hard to sweep the leaves from?

Reconsidering Jo's original question and the fact that there is already rock around the pavers I would worry that will be too much rock & add to the heat factor.

I took ground cover to mean greenery, is that what you want Jo? :))

Recycled wine barrels with citrus, herbs & vegies, hedging along the rest of the garage, low grassy plants along the edge of the path to soften it. Do you have a blower vac? My hubby uses his to make short work of leaves.

Looks good Jo, go forth and plant!

Jo this story and link popped up next to your story & is worth looking at/bookmarking for future info...
[Ground Force: Top 10 Groundcovers for your garden[(https://www.houzz.com.au/magazine/ground-force-top-10-ground-covers-for-your-garden-stsetivw-vs~31767302)

Love this plant thread. So many good ideas.

Dichondra repens (No 4 - Kidney weed) is fabulous. Nice to walk on barefoot too. Be careful your location looks dry and Dichondra sp. dislikes dry.

I love Ajuga too, but it has moisture needs and maintenance issues that you may not want.

As LouieT said... Go forth and plant. You could start with a mix of what you think you might like and see what works for you.

Good Luck.

Let us know how it goes. Very interested. :-)

The White Jo takes it to a new level and line the white stones with White Standing Roses.

Make sure you buy more and make the white rocks really thick and don't buy small stones.

The leafs are easy to get off is you buy thick coverage of stones. The off white looks great too. I did my front garden this way looked amazing as the person before had put white roller shutters on the house. So it all matched.!!!!

Also comes in other colours and a whole bed of them close together is spectacular in flower.

Also Gazanias are water wise and a daisy like flower.

To block weeds plants need to be thick and block the light from the soil. To keep them thick, prune after flowering.

Hi Jo,

Hope you realize that Blue Pacific can grow quite large unless you have a "nana" variety. The standard plant which I have in my garden, can grow almost 2mtrs tall and spread 1.5 mtrs in every direction and very low to the ground.

The area you are showing isn't very big, you may have to keep them trimmed regularly otherwise the trunk can get 20cm thick and the branches 7.5cm thick and it doesn't like pruning when it's got too big. (personal experience).

good luck,

Barbara

What about a swathe of lavender that winds through the moss rocks Jo?

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Otherwise Westringia fruticosa "Mundi"is a hardy native.

Here's a link to Australian Native Ground cover

It would be nice to have some strappy leaf plants like Dianella Dianella caerulea "Cassa Blue" among the smaller leaf varieties.

Maybe you could mound some soil in a couple of areas within the garden near the rocks to give some height and variation to the garden.