Another Ground Cover Question
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SoccerCzar
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| Hello, my back yard has a nice nice flat area and then it rises like a bowl. The hill sides are about 20 yards. The bottom half of the hill (bowl) is grass. The top 10 yards or so is a mixture of ground covers. Pachysandra, English Ivy but probably 90% vinca. It's been fine for years but the last few years this vine, which I believe is honeysuckle, is growing up through it even though the vinca is very dense. I usually just use my string trimmer and cut everything that grows above the vince....but I'm getting tired of the maintenance because the honeysuckle grows so fast all summer and it's quite a large area. I was thinking of just killing it and trying to plant grass but I have trees at the top of the hill (bowl) that shade the top half. I don't know. Any suggestions out there? Just keep weed whacking? Kill it and plant grass? Something else? Thank you! |
Anonymous
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Your 3 existing ground covers are the kind that grow robustly (indeed English ivy snd vinca are considered invasive and pachysandra is aggressive IMO). They are probably pretty thick and crowded by now; this could be enabling the honeysuckle to grow so much. On my end, I had some dense pachysandra and other plants and it made it easier for blind weed to take hold— because its roots are lurking amid the crowded grouncovers (and thus hard to spot) etc.
Grass is indeed a lot of work to use as a replacement esp if you’ve got trees and shady areas. I think your options are : 1. Keep the status quo and keep weed whacking. Not ideal because it doesn’t get rid of the vine. 2. Rip out the entire area with groundcovers and replace with grass—as mentioned, a lot of work and not guaranteed to succeed. 3. Rip out the entire ground covered area and replace it with a different ground cover…something less aggressive etc.; and in the process, identify where the roots of the vines are and try to remove it all. This option would be good if you didn’t mind the expense or long wait until the new ground cover grows in. 4. Thin out some of the existing ground cover by pulling up by the roots instead of cutting the top growth off with a string trimmer. This would allow you to still have something covering the slope and you could probably keep an eye on the vine better so you can pull it up. You could do a little bit at a time. Pachysandra comes up by the roots very easily ime |
Anonymous
| I guess I'd weed out the honeysuckle. It is invasive, so good to get rid of it. I know it will be a pain, but what if 3 or so times a year you went through and identified the major roots/stumps of the honeysuckle and dug them out? Get a big garden fork and shove it in there and turn the whole thing up. Replant the vinca you want to keep. |
SoccerCzar
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Thank you. So I weed whacked yesterday just because the honeysuckle vines grew like a foot above the ground cover so it looked terrible and I wasn't ready to kill it all. I'm not sure I can pull out all the honey suckle. There's just so much. There is a sea of it growing up through the vinca. I have to go through and rip out the honeysuckle that is strangling my azaleas and other shrubs in that area.
Also, for the previous poster...I thought the denseness of the vinca would choke out the honeysuckle but you are saying it actually helps the weeds. That's disheartening. I'll never get rid of it then. |