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Acacia pravissima as ground cover.
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Posted by wollemia NSW (My Page) on Fri, Feb 9, 07 at 10:08
1. I aspire to rid the front yard of lawn. So I have put in rock mulch, comprising of all the small sandstone rocks I have dug up when creating decent sized holes for native bush and tree plantings. Yep - there are many, ranging from 20 by 20 mm through to 150 by 150 mm. As an experiment, in between some rocks, I have planted a few Ovens Wattle (A. pravissima) at 45 degrees, and intend pinning it down as it grows with U-shaped stainless steel wire, AKA; cut-up coathangers, and carefully pruning the unseen underside of the plant, to maintain its two-dimensional effect.
Can a shrub that grows 3 to 5 metres in height be 'forced' into a prostrate form? Will it grow at the normal rate? Will pinned down stems against soil turn to root systems?
I am partially inspired by a page in 'Pruning and Training' (Brickell and Joyce, 1996), in which varying fruit tree forms are shown, wired as Espalier form, and described as growing in a '2-dimensional' Fan-form hard up against a wall - I hope my Ovens wattles will be like this, but on the ground. |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Acacia pravissima as ground cover.
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- Posted by pos02 NSW Aust (My Page) on
Mon, Feb 12, 07 at 16:43
| ...or you could save yourself a lot of trouble and choose a prostrate variety. Go to your local native nursery, and they will have plenty of prostrate acacias. I have a couple, but the names escape me. They look fantastic tumbling down rocks. |
RE: Acacia pravissima as ground cover.
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| Plenty of other prostrate species you can use as a lawn alternative: 1) The native turf "Griffin" Microlaena stipoides
2) The native turf Bothriochloa macra
3) Aceana novae-zealandiae / Bidgee Widgee
4) Myoporum parvifolium
5) Prostrate forms of Eutaxia microphylla
6) Atriplex semibacata
7) Einadia nutans
8) Enchylena tormentosa
9) Glycine tabacina
10) Kennedia prostrata
11) Brachyscome |
RE: Acacia pravissima as ground cover.
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- Posted by gonow NSW AUST (My Page) on
Thu, Feb 15, 07 at 3:02
| It will probably root for you but every stem that emerges will try to grow vertivally- its genetically inbred. It will take a lifetimes dedication to keep it prostrate. If you do not require hard wearing characteristics you could go for one of the prostrate wattles but why not some of the plants on gregs list, or a blend. The most succesful prostrates I have found are chrysocephalum apiculatum, Hardenbergia Flat Whits and Scaevola aemula but none of them have the wear properties of grass. |
RE: Acacia pravissima as ground cover.
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| Maybe wollemia (isn't there already a Wollemia, from Qld?) was thinking of the semi-prostrate cultivar of A. pravissima, 'Golden Carpet'. Accarding to Wrigley & Fagg it "will spread to 5 m at a height of 60 cm" |
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