5 Best Plants for High Foot Traffic Areas on Commercial Properties

When you’re in charge of a commercial property, you want people to come over. 

You want customers to come shop, renters to move in, patients to come get medical care, students to show up and learn.

That means a lot of walking feet. And they don’t always stay on the sidewalks, right?

Some areas can take a beating. Sometimes you need groundcover you can walk on. 
Luckily, some plants are up to the challenge, offering both beauty and toughness in your high-traffic landscape.

Level Green landscaping designer Richard Sweeney shares his five favorite plants that tolerate foot traffic. They all thrive in full to part sun, he says, and can stand up to heavy foot traffic as long as they get water.

Need plants for high traffic areas? Walk this way…

First, What Are Your Problem Areas? 

Commercial properties often have areas where lots of people walk through: Entrances and exits. Cut-throughs that lead from parking areas. Outdoor gathering places where shoppers plop down to rest, employees grab a lunch break, students romp at recess. Hardscape areas where not everybody stays on the sidewalk. 

Use Sweeney’s fave five high traffic ground covers in all of these challenging spots. 

“I could see them on city rooftops, and in courtyards with lots of walkways,” he says.

1. Creeping Thyme (Thymus serpyllum)

This dense, soft carpet of delicate, fuzzy foliage comes with a fun bonus — step on it, and it releases a pleasant, herby scent. 

Creeping thyme’s pointed blue-green leaves spread out to softly blanket the ground, and it produces tiny flowers in assorted colors, depending on the type.

Poor soil? No matter. It’ll still thrive. It grows best in full sun, but will tolerate some shade.

Use this high-traffic ground cover to fill gaps between stepping stones, as a sturdy border to sidewalks or pavers, or to replace more delicate plants in areas with high foot traffic. 

2. Creeping Blue Mazus (Mazus reptans)

This fast-spreading plant blooms in May and June with pale purple flowers with yellow and white speckled centers. Perfect for between stepping stones, it’s often used as a lawn substitute. That’s how sturdy it is. It thrives in sun to part sun and is a great groundcover you can walk on. 

Because it’s pretty, use it in areas where you also want to make a good impression, close to entrances or around signage. 

3. Sidewalk Moss (Bryum caespiticium)

If its name is sidewalk moss, you know it’s cool with people stepping on it. 

When it’s wet or damp this striking moss turns a brilliant emerald green. But unlike most moss varieties it can also tolerate direct sunlight.

It stays low, at about two inches or less in height.

Use this high-traffic ground cover adjacent to concrete or between pavers — it won’t grow over the pavers. 

4. Rupturewort  (Herniaria glabra)

Also called green carpet, there’s a great clue to how to use it — where people walk. 

The carpet-forming perennial has tiny green leaves that turn slightly bronze in winter and barely noticeable white star-shaped flowers in summer.

It’s great between stepping stones or as a sturdy high-traffic ground cover anywhere people tend to stray off the path. 

5. Creeping White Cup (Nierembergia repens)

This low-growing, mat-forming perennial ground cover has spoon-shaped light green leaves and pretty white, bell-shaped flowers. It almost seems too nice to walk on, but go ahead. It doesn’t mind.

It can tolerate part shade or sun, but will have more flowers if it gets more sun.

Among the prettiest plants that tolerate foot traffic, use it in high-visibility areas where you want to show off a little. It’s also a great plant for your problem areas where nothing else seems to grow. 

Use it as a lawn substitute, between stones and anywhere things are looking shabby because of too much foot traffic. 

Using Plants To Direct Foot Traffic

Plants can actually direct pedestrians in high foot traffic areas. 

We’ve planted thorny barberries and pyracantha as a way to direct pedestrian traffic away from landscaped beds, encouraging people to use an existing path. Nobody likes getting snagged by thorns.

A grouping of large planters can steer people in the direction you want them to go. Hedges or rows of closely-planted shrubs have a way of keeping people out. Most people prefer not to hurdle.

Sometimes, Hardscape Comes to the Rescue 

When people just won’t stop cutting through and trampling the landscaping, even plants that tolerate foot traffic might throw in the towel. 

Give your trampled plants a break and go with hardscaping instead.

Pavers encourage people to walk that way, providing a path to get them where they need to go on your property. 

If the area tends to collect water, go with permeable pavers. They reduce runoff by trapping and slowly releasing rainfall into the ground instead of allowing it to flow off into storm drains and erode nearby areas.

Need Plants for High-Traffic Areas? Trust Level Green for Your Property’s Needs 

Frustrated with trampled landscaping, muddy foot paths, dead grass where people keep cutting through?

We love solving the peskiest landscaping predicaments. Let’s figure out a solution. 

If you’re not already a Level Green Landscaping client, we’d love to add you to our growing list of happy customers. Our focus is on commercial properties like offices, mixed-use sites, HOAs, municipalities and institutions in Maryland, Washington DC and parts of Virginia.

Contact us at 202-544-0968. You can also request a free consultation online to meet with us one-on-one.

We’d love to hear from you.

Sources: Creeping Thyme, Creeping Blue, Rupturewort, Creeping White