DMG Trades in My Front Lawn Photos; ground covers in rocks

1) Thanks all DMG plant-seed traders for all the gorgeous plants - especially to TrishaG, Mtnmama, Pajaritomt, Roybird, KTalia, DenverJude, Dahlianut, Bsavage, JamesCO. Who did I miss that gave me a plant - others who were there please let me know! My pictures of my front lawn with your plants are on my BLOG - please check it out because much of it is thanks to you. Sorry I haven't posted earlier but this backbreaking dirt moving rendered me a walking exhausted dirtball for about a month so I figured it was best not to be around my computer. Recall that I removed front yard sod and replaced with all low water plants.

2) Big question now is also on my blog - see the picture of my rock patch problem with weeds growing in it. Considering letting one weed (in picture on my blog) take over as a ground cover. Hot dry area and I'm sick of using sprays. Please let me know your cautionary tales on this plant after you see its photo - and let me know if you really think I should go back to using spray!

I trust my Dblog is public - I EDITED THIS to say THANKS PAJ for how to read a person's blog - by clicking person's name.
PS I tried dmailing all those listed above together but it appears dmail only lets you email one person at a time. If you know how to dmail multiple people at a time please let me know. Thanks!



This message was edited Jun 14, 2009 9:28 PM

This message was edited Jun 14, 2009 10:08 PM

Could you post the url of your blog? I would love to see your photos!

Yes Paj my point exacly: The URL of my blog is only this generic one - which I thought was odd when I posted the initial post: http://davesgarden.com/tools/blog/
Can anyone help tell me how to make my blog public and give a URL that is not the generic one above? Thanks!

I figured it out. I didn't realize you were talking about your DG blog. To see someone's blog, click on their name. I clicked on arlene303. That takes me to "My info". Then it says See Arlene303's garden diary. Click on that and you are there. You can make it private somewhere in it, but the default is that it is open to the world.
Now I will look at it!

Thanks for the tip Paj. I just clicked on your name and diary and yours is great - easy to navigate. Yours gives me lots of good ideas.

Try my journal. That is where I am putting stuff now. It actually works better for me, but it was a little difficult to figure out at first, but eventually I got it. I have a lot more in my journal than my blog. I haven't made anything private. What's private about a garden?

Concerning your mulch -- looks like pine needles mixed with manure. Did you let it sit and compost for a while before spreading it? Hopefully you did so you could get the weed seed out of the manure. If not, you may have a lot of weeds this year.
As for the weed. That is purslane, a delicious edible loaded with nutrients. Put it in salads or pots of beans when you cook them. Actually, cooked, it is rather bland, but very healthy. In Spanish it is called verdolagas and is eaten in the Southwest and in Spain. The trouble with trying to grow it as grass is that it is an annual. In other words it won't grow in the winter at all. The perennial weeds would tend to root and eventually crowd it out. Probably the best thing you can do with your rocks, if you want to keep them, is to spread a large tarp or plastic sheet, shovel all the rocks on them, put down some plastic -- I prefer black and leave it on for about 4 - 6 weeks in the heat of the summer. Once you have killed the weeds, remove the plastic, put down the heaviest landscaping fabric you can buy, wash your rocks and put them back. When you wash them the neighbors' dirt will go to the bottom of the stack and you can throw it in your yard. I have to do that with my hell strip, too. It's a pain but it is the only good way to do it that I know of. You can put thyme there -- I am not sure if there really is such a thing as walk-on thyme -- but if it exists, get rid of the rocks. Improve the soil they cover and plant your thyme. I am not sure how well it would do planted among the rocks. Is there any plastic or landscaping fabric under the rocks? That is badly needed.
As for the plants. I am reasonably sure that plant #1 is one of roybird's pink violets. Looks like it is doing well.
Plant #2, I am less sure of. It might be veronica. Does it have blue flowers? Are the leaves tiny and does it creep along the ground? That would be veronica. If that isn't it, then ask kTalia. It is hard to tell from the picture how big the leaves are.
Your landscaping project looks great! Sorry for the bad news about the rocks. But at least the weeds are edible!
Here is an article about the weeds.
http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/1547/

Just looked at plant #2 again. If the leaves are larger than about 1/2 inch long, it is probably myrtle or periwinkle, a very nice ground cover with blue flowers about 1 1/2 inches across.

Leaves are mostly 1/4" or even 3/16", and there is a small bit of Purslane in the photo, but the majority of the weed is a flatter leafed weed that has a splotch of red in the middle of its green leaf (and red stems like Purslane). Also, its leaf is more dry and bends (instead of water-filled like the Purslane leaf, almost rubbery-cells that cracks in half when folded).

Ah Purslane - I heard it had vitamin C but thanks for name and confirming its properties. Maybe the Purslane would re-seed itself if I allowed it to get larger, and take over. I can try and then if it doesn't work out, do the big construction project (tarp, wash rocks, sterilization of weeds, heavy landscaping fabric, etc).... Ugh.

The manure was aged 1.5 years, so no weed seed should grow in it. Good luck so far in 2.5 weeks - no weeds. No, I didn't compost it in a pile with the pine before spreading because I was told the weed seeds were already taken care of in the aging process (hope they were right). Also, the pine mulch appears aged due to it being completely brown and the huge pile was steaming in colder weather when I picked it up, but I didn't ask them how old the pile was. Thanks.


This message was edited Jun 15, 2009 7:57 AM

Sounds like your manure & pine mulch is perfect. If it was steaming and was 1.5 years old it is a gardener's dream. It will probably disappear in a few months -- absorbed by your happy soil. Keep adding it as it disappears and you will have very rich and healthy soil.
As for the other weed -- I would have to have a picture of it -- and am not completely sure I would be able to identify it, but am willing to try. I lucked out on the purslane. I am not a great identifier.
The plant with the small leaves is probably veronica of some sort. It makes a wonderful ground cover and lovely tiny blue flowers in the early spring. It loves sun and is a wonderful addition to the garden.
I don't think you can discourage purslane. If it has the right growing conditions it will grow merrily. Only problem is that it dies each year and isn't there in the winter. Maybe you don't mind. I have it in a sunny spot in my garden and pull it and throw it away and more comes back in no time. I decided to start adding it to salads and even then, you can't tell I picked any. But not a horrid weed at all.

I have both the purslane and the other weed. It (the other, smaller leafed one) is fairly durable and is fine with being walked on. I don't know if it is invasive or not as I haven't let mine go that far.

There are actually about 3 other weeds in that picture as far as I can tell. I am not good with weeds, but one looks like a sort of grass-- maybe cheat grass -- but very small. One looks like a wild form of verbena, not to bad, you can walk on it, not to hard to remove if you are so inclined. The purslane is a gem. put it in your salads every day in order to supply your omega -3s and vitamin C. After you pick it, you won't be able to find the hole it was in.

Hi Arlene,
Your little spotted weed is spotted spurge Chamaesyce maculata http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/56867/. It's not hard to pull out and is not that aggressive. It tolerates being walked on and not watered. The grass in the photo is something in the pancoideae tribe, maybe crabgrass, panicum, lovegrass, millet, etc. It's hard to tell when they're little but that tribe is all warm season grasses so it will be a month or so before you have mature seeds.

Good work, Katlian. My first thought was that I had never seen it before. Now I am less sure. I wonder if I don't have it at my house as well. It certainly covers well and has nice color in winter. Maybe we should all be cultivating it! One of the plant files photos makes it look like an attractive ground cover.

Hi Arlene, in response to your question in your diary- "What is this and who gave it to me #2"

That is Lysimachia nummularia http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/677/. I am pretty sure it came from kTalia.

Does anyone remember what this is?

Someone said it stinks but I think it kind of smells like oregano.

It looks like the Himalayan mint that I got from Mtn. Mama. Mint is related to oregano so that might explain the fragrance.
I like that lysimachia nummularia. It is just invasive enough that it might live here. Don't know if I got it or not. I have a little plastic sack of seedlings in a wet paper towel that are still alive, but unlabeled. I have no idea what they are. It was tucked in my box of pots. If anybody knows who gave out such plants, let me know. I will pot them and see if I can grow them and figure out what they are if none of you know.