Campanula
Campanula or bellflowers can make a delightful ground cover plant if varieties are chosen carefully. The first thing to understand though is that this plant will not tolerate any foot traffic. It will break and smash underfoot quite quickly.
Sunlight Needed
Bellflowers grow in in a wide range of sunlight conditions; most will grow from full sun to part shade. The shorter the variety, the more shade it will take. None will flower under evergreen shade but the dappled light from most deciduous trees or shrubs will be fine.
Soils
Something reasonably well drained is perfect. Clay soils will tend to winterkill them and standing water is a no-no.
I used to find the best plants grew in the gravel pathways of my garden where the crowns were held above the soil and the roots could scavenge for moisture below the loosely packed gravel.
Hardiness
In general, most of the commonly available species for ground cover use will be hardy down into USDA zone 3.
Spreading
They spread by self-sowing and will do so in copious quantities if happy (well drained) and kept grass free.
They do not fight grass and grass will have to be kept out of these ground cover beds.
Easy to find varieties
Campanula poscharskyana is a vigorous spreading plant reaching 18-inches across. Growing 6-inches tall with scads of long-lasting sky-blue flowers.
Campanula carpatica is readily available in blue and white. It will grow 12-inches tall and 18-inches wide. The flowers are larger than above.
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