I live on an acre in the Phoenix area (zone 9) and we have flood irrigation. There's a section of my back yard that's shaded most of the day by large mulberry and cottonwood trees. It's especially dark under there in the summer, when we irrigate every other week. (In the winter we irrigate once a month and there's a six-week dry-up period w/ no water in December.) No grass and very little in the way of weeds grows there, so in the summer it stays muddy most of the time unless it's really hot out. What kind of ground cover would grow there to keep the ground more solid?

UPDATE: I've attached a photo of some ground cover that grows on the perimeter of this area. This plant also has tiny yellow flowers. How can I encourage this to spread?

Also, there's a lot of clover-like and fern-like plants growing amongst our bermuda grass in the area, but even though those kinds of plants have the reputation of spreading everywhere, they're not growing underneath those trees. This makes me wonder if clover and ferns, which people have recommended, will grow there.

This post was edited by GreenDreamhome on Wed, May 14, 14 at 10:49