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Native groundcover
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Posted by Judith_Sydney Sydney (My Page) on Wed, Dec 28, 05 at 8:38
| Hi all,
I'm looking for a native groundcover as an alternative to grass. I was going to use native violet, but the problem I have is the area (2mt x 15mt) is covered with weedmat and I would like to leave it there. (its working well!) Since the violet sends out roots, I guess it would have trouble spreading through the weedmat.
So I need something that I can plant a bunch of plants, and it will spread as far as possible without actually having to send out additional roots. I hope I make sense.
I want to stay native as its in a narrow side of the house which is my native garden against the fence, and this is to make a path with stepping stones through it.
What are these like (I think they are all native)
Dichondra Repens,
Heeria reptans,
Pratia Puberula,
I'd like something preferably no more than 10cm high, some flowers would be nice.
Alternatively, I can pull up the weedmat but if I do that I need something that does grow very vigourously and dense that will stop invasion of weeds in the area.
By the way, I am using 'p' in brackets and 'br' in brackets in my posts, but they are being stripped at preview and not submitting - hence this crappy layout. Do I need other html or is the P and BR codes with '' enough?
Thanks in advance (for everything!)
Martin (the other half of 'judith_sydney') |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Native groundcover
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- Posted by deejaus Melb.Vic. Aust (My Page) on
Wed, Dec 28, 05 at 17:49
| Martin, Just to start with, there is a problem with Gardenweb at the moment with paragraphs and various other things. They say they are fixing it. It's not you!...............Back to the garden; I have all of the above plants and I'm not convinced that any would work terribly well with weed mat....... .. I think the worst one of the group for suppressing weeds would be the Pratia. I have it growing through my lawn and the two mix quite amiably, so I don't think it would stop weeds too well......... I think the others are not bad choices as long as they are not walked on too much. Perhaps if it is a thoroughfare you could place large stepping stones through the area and grow the ground cover around them......Cheers,Dee. |
RE: Native groundcover
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| Thanks Dee, I've never been great with HTML but I thought I was going mad. Yes, I did intend using large pavers as stepping stones. I'm just a little concerned if I remove the weedmat to grow the ground cover the weeds will go nuts. It seems to be one of those areas - theres nothing but natives around, and I carefully use glyphosate on the weeds in the corners etc, but if its left for too long it gets like a jungle with the weeds. Where the hell do they come from???!!! At least most of them are those easy to pull out weeds with the milky stuff in them (mum reckons it is great for warts!) and the weed that looks like pig face. Are any of those groundcovers particularly faster growing than the others?? |
RE: Native groundcover
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| Hi Martin. The weed with the milk in it I call Milk thistle. It has really small seed heads that spread by the wind. If it flowers then these little things fly all over the place and are quite prolific. Horses love this weed at certain times of the year! Have you tried pig face? I have planted it in my garden in Adelaide and it looks lovely. I'm not sure if it will like Sydney however but it seems to be as tough as old boots and would cope with your weed mat too as it only sends out fine roots. Your garden sounds lovely and I do hope that you find a solution, stepping stones sound the way to go as well. I will have a look in one of my books and get back to you! Happy Gardening GreenGrub SA :-) |
RE: Native groundcover
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- Posted by deejaus Melb.Vic. Aust (My Page) on
Wed, Dec 28, 05 at 21:09
| Martin, I might warn you that after weedmat has been down for sometime and you get a build-up of broken down mulch, the weeds will quite happily grow in that. It is not the miracle cure we all hoped for unfortunately. Another problem with it is water penetration..........I was wondering if you might consider removing only part of it to start with and when your groundcover starts to take hold you can gradually remove more and more. Remember too that disturbing the soil will bring all sorts of dormant weed seeds to the surface, so avoid digging except where you have to........I'm really not sure which would be the fastest growing. You didn't mention how much sun the area gets........Cheers, Dee. |
RE: Native groundcover
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| Hi greengrub & deejaus, GREENGRUB - no wonder the milk thistle spreads so badly - I was wondering where they seed from as I have never noticed seeds. I need to buy a horse by the sounds. Don't know what the local council (let alone the neighbours) would say!!! Even though it was staring me in the face, no I have not even thought of pigface. I think it should do OK. ***DEE*** - yes, I have experienced the mulch on weedmat problem, or very fine weeds growing up through it and when they get big they are impossible to get out. The area was until recently pretty much ignored and the weed mat was to keep it tidy until I did something about prettying it up. We don't like using woodchips etc as the area is BAD for termites. We took a tonne (literally) of woodchips to the tip when we found our whole gardens and paling fences were infested with the b*stards. Luckily they have kept out of the house and we now have no woodchips and colourbond fences. Water penetration I have not found to be a problem. In fact another garden that was struggling, was weed infested, we poisoned, weedmat and sugar cane mulched on top, and the garden is now FERAL - with plants, not weeds - you can hardly get into it! Lift the weedmat and the soil is beautiful, dark and moist. Best thing we could have done. I still need to go around with a sprayer once a month in the warmer months, every so often in the cooler months for the few weeds that do still come up around the edges etc. And the sugar cane mulch doesn't really attract termites as the water goes through the weedmat and the mulch stays dry on top. Its FANTASTIC. I should have used that in the natives instead of pebbles in the garden - BAD MISTAKE (does anyone want to come and collect some pebbles from a garden, FREE?? Seriously. The garden part of the area gets pretty much full sun, the pathway area gets fullish sun after lunch. |
RE: Native groundcover
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| It might be a bit too much sun for the violets but the others should be okay. They all have pretty much the same spreading type of growth as the violets though, so you're back to the original problem I think. Sorry, I'm not helping much!....Cheers, Dee. |
RE: Native groundcover
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| The milky weed is petty spurge, Euphorbia peplus. |
RE: Native groundcover
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| Hello Martin, ....................................................... I recently put in a Goodenia species that is associated with the "Edna Walling" range of plants. It's quick growing and has good coverage but weed seeds still sprout through it. It has small yellow flowers and does not rely on new root nodes for spreading like native violet. ................................................................ However bits break off easily. I stuck a piece that broke off when I planted it in some potting mix, covered with a plastic bag and it grew roots quite quickly. So now I have two plants. I don't have much success with propagation so if I can do that, anyone can. .............................................................................. Cheers, Frank |
RE: Native groundcover
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| Hi Martin, Sounds like you have plenty of suggestions. I must admit I am a big fan of pig face, terrible name but lovely plant. On a bike ride today I noticed that when the plant gets no water it's leaves turn a lovely shade of red. Stressed but still pretty. I collected some from a nearby park here and neglected it for about 3 weeks then covered it with soil and wow it grew and is now in need of some containment. It's growing in some of the worst soil I have ever inherited. It's water repellant, sandy and until recently was covered with black plastic and blue metal gravel! Yes it was nasty. I have never tried weedmat but I would worry about water getting in to the soil below, but as you mention it does seem to get through. I wonder if you could also try creeping boobiala...think that's the right name! My memory for names is not the best. There's also a couple of really good websites that I visit to get ideas when I am in plant planning stage. One is SA state flora home page, I am sure there would be the equivalent in your state. They have a catalogue of plants with soil, pH and water etc requirements. It makes choosing plants so much easier. Hope you have some luck with your planting....and yes having a horse in suburbia would be interesting! I am only 5 minutes walk from a stables in suburbia....wonderful council planning of a bygone era, so I can get my hands on manure and lovely stable straw for my compost. But having a horse! Not at the moment! Also a note of warning, when you are weeding petty spurge, thanks Nathan, make sure if it is in flower you cover the plant with a plastic bag before you pull it out. If the flower is still yellow it's less likely to shed seeds BUT if the flower looks "fluffy" and white that's the danger time and the bag should be used to enable you to pull the weed out without shedding millions of seeds at the same time! Cheerio for now GreenGrub :-) |
RE: Native groundcover
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hi martin. If you arent going to be walking on the area, have u looked into prostate grevillea's. There is one on the top of my tounge ( cant quite get it out ) that is extremely thick and will block out anything underneath it. Grevillea cagiana comes to mind but its probably wrong, mite be worth looking into. The one im thinking of is suited to all soils, and is a very fast grower, even has pretty red flowers. if i do think of what its called i will repost. Just something to ponder i guess.
Brad |
RE: Native groundcover
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Hey mate... try "prostrate Grevlllias"
I dont spose that you have a prostrate form of " Moonlight" |
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