Dichondra Species, Kidney Weed

I am trying to get this to cover my front yard. I bought seed from OutsidePride along with a herbicide to kill off grass
and weed...Read Mores. One side of my yard is almost fully covered
and hoping to get both sides covered by the end of this summer. It is a native plant in the area and I really don't mind if a few dollar weeds come up amongst it as I mow
it about once every six weeks. So far no critter damage but I am told gophers like it. I should have prepared my
soil bed better and put down the weed killer first but got
impatient so now I have to just hope I can keep the few
weeds that are left will be killed by their weed killer. I
loved that it stayed green all winter and is growing in
Pensacola sand.

A few years ago I saw this happy little "weed" in my yard. Put a bit of it in a pot to see what would do. Had no idea what it was though....Read More After seeing it fill the pot with its lovely, uniform leaves and low height, I did some online snooping. Finally found out it was dichondra and its alternate name is, adorably, "Ponyfoot." Purchased a one pound bag of seeds online, followed instrux and they've popped up between pavers on a path I put in, filling the space between with a truly low-growing, lush green.
In fact, I have a few small pots of what I call 'appealing weeds' that I've dug out of the yard: cheery little variants of wild portulacas, and a mini red sweet-pea-flower-like plant.

I've just planted D. Repens as ground cover in my very sunny and summer-parched garden in southern Spain. Is this a good idea?

I really like this ground cover in Jacksonville, FL USA. Pretty and carefree
I hope that with some encouragement it will be a no-...Read Moremow lawn replacer!

This stuff came up voluntarily in one of my flower beds - I think it may have hitched a ride home on something else.

All ...Read MoreI know is that I can NOT get rid of it. Every time I think I have gotten it all, it pops back up.--On the other hand, it makes a very good, cute ground cover (like little lily pads) so i just decided to give up and let it have a small area.

Dichondra repens leaves have green undersides; whereas, Asian kidney weed (Dichondra micrantha) leaves have a grayish undersides.

I absolutely love this groundcover. Although it is reported to be less rugged than 'regular' grass, I've found the opposite to be true. T...Read Morehsi stuff can withstand kids playing on it constantly, too much water, too little water, hot sun, shade, whatever you want to throw at it. In hotter, dryer environments, it simply grows shorter and the leaves are smaller. In shade and wetter soil, it grows taller and the leaves get bigger. But it's nearly impossible to kill it. The only thing that ever came close for me killing it was accidentally spilling dry fertilizer on it. But even that only turned the spot brown for 2 weeks and then it came back as beautiful as before. I have nothing but positive things to say about this stuff.

I did want to add that this is perhaps more commonly listed as Dichondra micrantha...and sometimes also as Dichondra carolinensis.

We were told that years ago, our house had a dichondra lawn. Even now, when we clear out grass for a flower bed or vegetable garden, som...Read Moree dichondra will sprout. I have never seen it bloom, but it keeps coming back. Rather than seeing it as a weed, I see it as a link to the past history of the house. A few streets away from us there was a house that had a dichondra lawn until recently. The yard was above the level of the street, and from the sidewalk, the lawn was just about at eye level. It was like looking across a lake covered with tiny lily pads.

This is used as lawns in frostfree regions.
Propagation is by seeds or plugs, same as grass.