I've got some type of ground cover which lately has been overrun by some kind of weed. I'm attaching a picture and you can note the lighter leafed plants with about 6-7 leaves instead of the ground cover which has 4 and is darker. The new stuff is hard to pull out because it is mixed up with the ground cover. The plants themselves are easy to pull out. Is there anything that will kill this stuff without my ground cover? What else can I do to encourage the ground cover to spread into some bare areas?
goatman--does that weed stick to you and your clothing--I have something similar that runs thru the flower beds. Also has round seeds that stick onto everything. As you mention, it pulls out easily, and this has been my only strategy. Because of it's stickiness, it's actually pretty quick to start at one end and pull and roll the plant up into a giant ball. Never totally eliminate it, but the sooner you start pulling the less those seeds will be dropping and starting more. The vinca just loves regular watering, it should fill in and becomes a bit of a weed as well...the kind of ground cover you want for some areas, right! Glen
I have that sticky ground cover/weed and it is really easy to pull out even inbetween plants ..just do what growest said to do .. i hate the stuff .. ya just lightly walk by and it sticks to ya .. will even scratch your skin .. Marn
OK guy's, this stuff doesn't stick to you. (Unless it does it during a different time of year or something.) I've attached a closer picture to show it better. Looks like about 5 levels of leaves per plant. For now I'll have at it by pulling them out but it's pretty tedious work in and among the other ground cover. Got the message of watering the ground cover. I've never done that as the area it's in is fairly shady and wooded. I'll start watering now and try and get it to spread. Btw, I'm thinking where the weeds came up may be where I watered some Miriacle Grow once. Maybe that helped the weed somehow. I don't think I'll use that anymore. It's probably not needed huh. Thanks for the responses. Mitch
i think this is what growest was talking about reall sticky thing .. cant really tell from your pic if it is the same .. Marn
No Marn, that's not it. After enlarging your picture I can see the little barbs on the leaves which cause the thing to grab hold of stuff, but mine has none and each plant looks pretty much like the photo I provided. Each level of leaves is about 1 1/2" apart. Mitch
Hello Goatman24, Your ground cover is vinca. I think your "weed" looks like sweet woodruff, which is often planted in shade gardens. Could it be this? http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/consumer/factsheets/herbs/galium_odoratum.html
Goat i knew mine was not yours .. i posted the pic cause i figured that was what growest was talking about .. Marn
I think this is what growest was referring to: Galium aparine Some co-workers who shall go unnamed like to throw it on the back of my shirt when we walk around the garden.
It seems we figured out there are 2 kinds of people in the world those with one type of Galium and those with the other! At least I now have a name for my sticky weed, Sticky Willy, hmmm, sounds almost R rated. So, Marn do you want to get rid of the sweet woodruff. Here it is sometimes planted as a groundcover, tho not a real common one. I wonder if it is dense enough to work as a weed suppressant on it's own, like the vinca for e.g. Will the vinca look bad with the woodruff sprinkled thru it, maybe so eh? I think I have heard the woodruff mentioned as kind of a weedy plant, and therefore discouraged in cultivation. Also probably depends on the zone and climate...I think I have seen it in the woods locally so it's probably adapted to our area anyway. As for a specific and selective control, I just can't think of anything that will discourage or kill the woodruff but leave vinca alone. That leaves only the tedious job of hand pulling...groan. Glen
i dont have to much of it around now .. pulled alot of it out last yr and this yr it didnt get watered much .. it is really easy to pull actually .. and also i dont own the house so im gonna go thru the bother of gettin rid of it ... Marn
Kudo's to you guy's for figuring it out. That's it. Funny how similar it is to the sticky stuff. Basically the same thing but without the grabbers. Well, at least I don't have that version. Hey, maybe if you take some velcro and slide it along that stuff it would be an easy way to get rid of it. Blasted stuff must be hearty. The piece I pulled out yesterday looks virtually the same. Mitch
I just joined UBC Botanical Garden and have the sme terrible sticky weed problem you has last year. How did you resolve it? Charleysmomcat
Personally, here in the woods, I find that the vinca is much more of a problem than the sweet woodruff (actually, I thought that what we have is Galium odorata). First, I will note that the native soil here is compact glacial till, which given the madrona/Douglas fir/salal dominance, suggests a low nitrogen soil. Having noted that, I must warn that it is the vinca that will continue to spread into the woods and other plantings, which I have read can be true, generally, of vinca in shaded woodland. Perhaps allowing a competing groundcover could be beneficial?
Had a customer that had several varieties of vinca. Didn't find much of anything that outgrew it save for maybe grass or weeds. Even the weeds had to be something that grew taller than the vinca. Tended to be very difficult to eradicate once it got a good start. Digging is an option but still not an easy solution. And since the roots are many, it is even difficult to pull the weeds out of it. Harry
I planted Galium odorata in our old garden about twenty years ago, under planting it to mostly rhododendrons. As the G. odorata spread, which it did quite rapidly in Langley, B.C., the number of weevils on the rhodies definitely diminished. It could have been strictly coincidental, but I'm intending on planting G. odorata here at our new place to see if there is a connection.
