Myoporum Lawn: Myoporum parvifolium

Coastal, Drought hardy, Formal gardens, Groundcover

I dislike lawn, not the idea of it but the maintenance aspect; mowing and edging, weeding and watering, fertilising and aerating, all this for a bit of green open space. I do like the idea of ‘green open space’ where you can lay down in the sun or do cartwheels or set up a trampoline or kick a ball or pick up dog poo…

I was going to do this post on lawn substitutes, but I got so caught up in finding excellent examples of Myoporum parvifolium being used as lawn or green open space that I had to drop the other species.

Myoporum parvifolium grows well in full sun, it layers so one plant will fill a large space if you have time to wait. The images above show it planted around sandstone steppers but it will also withstand light foot traffic and is soft and spongy to walk on. Here it is was planted at about 6 plants per m2 so the coverage has been very quick, creating a thick carpet in 6 months.

Above it has been planted as a lawn but is also acting as a spill over carpet down a gradual slope.

There are many different varieties of Myoporum parvifolium that you can use as a lawn substitute, there are large leaf forms for a more textured look and a purple form if you want added colour, it flowers in Summer and may attract bees so beware when walking barefoot.

The best way to plant a Myoporum lawn would be to buy large quantities in tube stock and then divide it as you need, this will be quite a lot cheaper than laying turf also.

Keep the water up for the first few months and then it should fend for itself and you can lay down on it.

Posted

19/08/2014

Coastal, Drought hardy, Formal gardens, Groundcover

Kath Gadd

Tags:

carpeting ground cover, clay soils, lawn substitute, Myoporum parvifolium, white flower, wind tolerant

Comments

4 responses to “Myoporum Lawn: Myoporum parvifolium”

alex don

29/10/2014

grwoing successfully over in adelaide. too successfully at ties, and so it does need a little maintenance – i tnd to look on it as a ‘ground hedge’, so it really does need pruning back about twice a year, especially after rain. it also needs pulling out around other plants as it layers very freely as you point out. the whole thing though, started with about 5 pulled out pieces given to me by my sister-in-law.
one annoyance is that some weeds and grasses (euphorbia, esp) will grow amongst it, so also needs to be weeded.
it seems to do well on raised sand, as well as level clay soils – so quite a good ground cover ‘worker’.
btw, thanks for this great website – wish i coud make it to windsor this weekend.

Reply
alex don

29/10/2014

growing successfully over in adelaide. too successfully at times, and so it does need a little maintenance – i tend to look on it as a ‘ground hedge’, so it really does need pruning back about twice a year, especially after rain. it also needs pulling out around other plants as it layers very freely as you point out. the whole thing though, started with about 5 pulled out pieces given to me by my sister-in-law.
one annoyance is that some weeds and grasses (euphorbia, esp) will grow amongst it, so also needs to be weeded.
it seems to do well on raised sand, as well as level clay soils – so quite a good ground cover ‘worker’.
btw, thanks for this great website – wish i coud make it to windsor this weekend.

Reply
Katherine Todd

21/12/2019

Does this plant grow as well in Sydney as it does in Adelaide and other southern areas? Would love to plant a large area but haven’t seen it grow well in my area.

Reply
1. Kath Gadd
  
  14/01/2020
  
  Hi Katherine,
  
  I find that the Myoporum parvifolium gets a bit bald in the middle and leggy after a dry period and then requires cutting back to fill out again. Perhaps Adelaides Summers are a bit too dry for this species to flourish?
  
  Best Wishes,
  
  Kath
  
  Reply