As promised, I will now reveal my epic fail of this latest growing season. You see, my lawn was overrun by ground-ivy. This is not the popular (but not native) English Ivy, that I gleefully dispatch with a hatchet. No, this is known by such names as creeping Charlie or gill over the ground, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glechoma_hederacea . It is a perennial and a creeping evergreen. Creepy! I began last Spring with the best intentions. This was the year I was going to make peace with the lawn and co-exist with it After all, the lawn was where those native violets show up. Year after year, they are generally the first native flower of Spring. And bloom they did. I even host a patch of white and purple variegated ones. The violets are sacred to me. They were my grandmother’s favorite flower and so each year I wait for them. I have daffodils and other early blooming bulbs, but it is always the violets that make my heart sing. So I had plans. Then the Town passed a blight law in mid-March. Reading it carefully, I concluded that the broken fence from Sandy had to be priority one. And the downed arborvitae from the Fall, it was “tree branches” and thus a violable offense. (Honestly, I do not think this was the intention of the law, but my reaction was get it done, now, having once had a lengthy neighbor/Town initiated dispute over pine branches at another home.) As we directed our attention to clearing up any property blemishes... the ground-ivy, took root. By root I mean, stolon. A sneaky, thin underground root that propagates this invader prolifically. If you have ever had hairs clog a vacuum in your house, then you can picture what this does to an aerator. There are just a few ways to get rid of my enemy, especially with growing conditions like clay, shade and dampness. And short of rototilling the yard completely and starting anew, with some herbicides thrown in... or using a defoliant that will kill the violets.... the only way is manual. I am not the only gardener to bemoan this devil in disguise. I follow some garden message boards and came upon a hysterical (unless it is you) thread about how to reclaim your lawn. Here is one: http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/yarddoctor/msg0612033826424.html. Some folks use boron, but honestly it is a chemical that I do not know much about, so scratch that. Another tip was a flame thrower. Seriously. And just to prove that people Do this, here is link: https://www.flameengineering.com/products.php?category_id=2 I just cannot picture anyone I know using such a thing. Not on Long Island anyway. It is probably against some sort of town, County or State code. Another suggestion on the thread was injecting bleach via a needle into the plants. Now, this came from an RN, and so she might have access and experience with this I do not. And I have Way Too Much of this stuff for that approach. No, it comes down to removing it by hand. And hopefully before it shoots out those cheery blue flowers that you might mistake for a plant of value. It is not. In fact, I have never seen any sort of an animal eat it, or take pollen from it (Though I will check next year, because, I am sure some will get away from me, and the folks at Wikipedia say some native to somewhere bees do feed on it. ). And believe it or not, the innocent little weed can be deadly to horses and cattle. So cancel borrowing your friend’s goat. In some cultures, humans eat it. If you belong to one of these, please come over... any time. If it needs to be harvested by the dark of moon at midnight, I will be happy to provide flood lights and coffee. Seriously. I am with the animals that live here. Only in a post-Apocalyptic scenario would I eat this weed. However, if you want to try ... the folks at Wikipedia do not recommend this, (it seems ground-ivy may have cause GI problems in humans). And my favorite wild to table guy, http://www.wildmanstevebrill.com/ doesn’t care for the taste So with trepidation, I share this: http://www.thekitchn.com/edible-weeds-ground-ivy-149396. How to eradicate it then ? I have been absent from blogging of late, because that is what I have been doing. I have a rake - provenance unknown - well suited to the task of grabbing the stolons (root threads) beneath the ground. I am not sure how the tool arrived, it might have been here doing battle with ground-ivy 60 years ago.. but it’s tines (a slight curve to the eight of them on the seven and a half inch head) and length (three feet of wood handle, six inches of shaft) do the job. Slowly I am getting through the largest patches. Eventually, it will be a hands and knees with a butter knife project. I wouldn’t know how to replace my ground-ivy rake if *shudder* it were to disappear. The closest I have come searching online is this: http://www.thetoolworkshop.com/ruggmfgkidslevelheadrakec01.aspx . They might be found in the Spring in a box or tool store. Look for children’s gardening equipment. I think a longer shaft would interfere with the action that I use to get beneath the roots. And I am not going to Youtube this, so you are on your own. It does have a rhythm, eventually ! I do not think any of those sold on TV things that allege to get rid of everything weed would work, what with the stolons like hair problem. Of course, there is always shedding the lawn altogether. I look to my compadres at http://www.wildones.org/ for suggestions there. Meanwhile other household members have a vote and so far, it is nay. Have you gone lawnless ? How did your neighbors react ? What weeds get your goat ? (Even in the garden, ground-ivy pops up there too.) Do you use a herbicide? Or are you old fashioned like me ? One benefit to my way is I can cross Aerobic Exercise off the daily to do list. As always, I love to hear from readers. And so, I leave you to your leaves. That is my next project. You are mulching them, right ? I will be back on the next rainy/snowy/icy day to share more on gardening for wildlife.
