[lmendenhall]

Hi
When I bought my house, no one had even raked the yard for years and I knew I had a lot of work ahead of me. Fortunately, I had been perennial gardening for some time. This was a new challenge, however, because the lot is heavily wooded, and the trees are old growth that were not cut when the house was built in th late 40s.
The yard was actually filled with interesting growth, but had not been cared for a in a very long time. I allowed myself 5 years to get it into shape and at the end of 5 years, I admitted it would be another 5 before I had things the way I wanted.
Because of the dense tree growth and therefore shade in 90+ percent of the lawn, I decided to keep things very natural and allow the yard to remain "woodsy" with plant beds and borders for blooming plants and shrubs and lots of native plants throughout the entire yard.
All gardens are an ongoing project, but I am pleased with my results after 15 years.
Then, last spring the city decided it was time to repair the storm drain system, which had never worked in my 15 years of residency. When the rain was particularly heavy, I would have water standing several inches deep on one side of the house and when it was really a deluge, the water would cover the side street because it could not pass through the drain on my property, under the street to the creek across the road.
I am on a corner lot and the system included a grate in front of the house that joined another diagonally across a large part of my property. That huge concrete pipe was completely filled with dirt and roots, so no water was passing through at all. Rather than allow them to dig up the old pipe which would have required removing several very large trees, I suggested that they take a different route and avoid the trees altogether. The result is that I have a huge concrete cover at the driveway, another at the side street where the drain goes under the street to the creek and in the middle, where the pipe needed to angle, following the new route.
The two on the street are not a problem, but I would really like to disguise the one in the middle of the side yard by allowing some sort of ground cover or creeping plant to grow onto the concrete. It is elevated just a few inches from the ground and measures about 5 feet square. I have had success growing Creeping Jenny (2 varieties) in containers, so that was one of my ideas. I actually thought I might plant several different things and see which did best, or if they all contributed to the camouflage. Moneywort (bugleweed) is a plant I happen to like and it is heat tolerant which is important in South Carolina in the summer. And there are several varieties so I could try different colors to see which might work and maybe end up with some color variations. Someone suggested Creeping Fig, but I have never grown it and I think it may need more sun than I can offer. Plus, I think it prefers growing vertically, but maybe not. I know there are several herbs that may work, that grow prostrate like rosemary and there are some varieties of thyme that might also work.
I have copious amounts of ivy throughout the yard, except for that particular area, and really do not want more ivy. I also have virginia creeper, cross vine, and lots of wisteria, but I really want something to cling to and cover the concrete, without adding any height.
So, obviously, I have some ideas, but before I begin, I wanted to ask if anyone could offer advice who had managed a similar project. I don't want to waste time or money with trial and error, if I can avoid it.
I plan to keep the growth confined to the square and not allow it to spread into the lawn, not that there is actually grass. My thought was to maybe plant some things in clay pots and if they worked, I could remove the pots. If not I could also remove the pots.
So, what I need is help choosing plants that will grow prostrate onto a concrete slab from a sandy top layer of soil over clay, in a hot and humid summer but mild winter environment. There are no trees or other plants very close to the location. It receives dappled sun until late in the day and then the most sun is late afternoon, as the sun begins to set. There are pines and oaks and hickory trees, oak leaf hydrangeas and regular hydrangeas, carolina sweet shrub and native azaleas in the surrounding area. Plus some very old variety japonica camellias. I have also planted in a border not far from the location wood aster, black eyed susan, pagoda plant, and there are of course wisteria, contained and trained, but that gives you an idea of the plants that grow well in the area. The Black Eyed Susan are native and they are in the only sunny area, on the corner by the street, but that sunlight does not reach the area in question. I have never made this sort of inquiry, so my apologies if I have gone on too long, but I wanted to give a good idea of what the environment was like and the sort of companions these new plants would be joining. Any recommendations would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

[tickle]

I have engelmans ivy which is a clinger and I use it was ground cover, does not add height just coverage. Fast growing and low maintenance and of course, you just snip if off where you don't want it.