Preen/Ground Cover/Bulbs/Weeds!!!!!!
Drew
Hi,
I've just planted a bed of bulbs(gladioli, anenome, dahlia) surround
by a bed of ground cover(English Ivy). What do I do now? I have
Preen and Green which is a fertilizer/weed control combo. Will this
help? Will it kill the small bulbs? I also have root stimulator.
Should I apply this to the ground cover that I just planted? If I
can't use preen to stop the weeds, is there anything else that would
work with what I've planted? Also, the Ivy is going to make a natural
border along the grass. What can be done to keep the grass from
spreaing into the area where I'm trying to get the Ivy growing? Any
and all help is truly appreciated. I'm novice gardner so I'll take
any advice I can get. Thanks.
Drew car...@sbt.infi.net Zone 5
Roberta Morris
Drew -
You have more than one problem here, regarding the ivy.
First, it tends to grow every which way, so I don't know how you'd keep
it as a border (gardeners would call this an edging, since we refer to
what most people call "beds" as "borders." Second, the grass is going to
grow amid the ivy, and the ivy is going to creep out into the grass.
That's nature.
Here's what I'd do:
Tear up the ivy and replant it in some shady spot, but not under an
evergreen tree. You want a place that will get sun in early spring
before the trees have leaves. Come fall, plant some spring-blooming
bulbs underneath and in-between the ivy. Daffodils are probably best.
Then go get some rocks - around a foot in the longest dimension.. Dig a
trench where you've taken the ivy out and bury the rocks so that one
third is beneath the soil level. Try to fit them together in an
attractive way. This will keep the grass from invading your garden.
Now go the nursery and buy some Iberis sempervirens. This is a charming
plant with small, deep green leaves and white flowers in spring. Plant
them, about a foot apart, just inside the stones. They will grow
together and up and over the rocks in a year or so, and look lovely.
After they bloom, just shear them back a few inches.
As for the Preen...that's not going to do the trick. Preen is a
chemical. You don't need to garden with chemicals. What you should do
is mulch this border to keep down the weeds and keep moisture in the
soil. Pine bark mulch (as fine as you can find it - not in big lumps) is
probably OK at this point. You can get it at any garden supply place,
and usually at Home Depot also. (If you don't like rocks, incidentally,
you can find some concrete edging at Home Depot too.)
Once you've got that done, drop me a note if you'd like advice about
what to do next.
Welcome to gardening; you'll find that gardeners love to share and help
each other, so you'll learn faster than you think!
Roberta
--
_____________________________________________________________________
Roberta Morris <perennia...@miningco.com>
Guide to Gardening with Perennials at the Mining Company
Come visit at <http://perennials.miningco.com>
_____________________________________________________________________
Drew
Actually, I shouldn't have said border for the Ivy. It is quite a
large area and we are going for the wild look. So my question still
stands. How do I keep the weeds down until the Ivy grows together and
can I use a root stimulator for newly planted Ivy. Thanks.
Roberta Morris
Drew -
I've never used Preen, so I can't vouch for its effectiveness. Maybe
someone else can help with this. Might it help if you planted some ferns
among the ivy?
As for the root stimulator, there are some organic ones on the market
that actually look very useful. Go for it.
Roberta
Allyn Weaks
In article <336e0b0...@news.sbt.infi.net>, car...@sbt.infi.net (Drew)
wrote:
> Actually, I shouldn't have said border for the Ivy. It is quite a
> large area and we are going for the wild look. So my question still
> stands. How do I keep the weeds down until the Ivy grows together and
> can I use a root stimulator for newly planted Ivy. Thanks.
Sorry, I'm going to deliver some bad news. If you're really going for a
wild look, ivy is not a great choice compared to native (to your region)
ground covers. Ivy is quite formal because it's so uniform. You may also
find that it's a real pest (though maybe you have cold enough winters to
keep it in check?). It's so invasive here in the pacific NW that it
destroys forests; kind of the opposite of what I think of as 'wild', if by
'wild' one means 'natural' rather than 'agressive' :-). If it weren't for
landscape industry lobbying, ivy would be an illegal noxious weed here
because of the damage it does.
So don't worry about weeds in the ivy. It will deal with them (and
anything else in its path) in its own way as it grows, and grows, and
grows. Then you can look in DejaNews for all the threads about "How do I
kill ivy?!" :-)
--
Allyn Weaks al...@u.washington.edu
PNW Native Wildlife Gardening: http://chemwww.chem.washington.edu/natives/
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David E. Ross
aggressive. English ivy (H. helix) is somewhat more restrained. I have
the latter on a steep slop, mixed with African daisy (Osteospermum
fruticosum) to stabilize the slope. See my
<http://www.rossde.com/garden/garden_back.html#hill> for details.
For a more level area, dwarf English ivy (Hedera helix 'Hahn's') has not
been a problem in my garden. Yes, it needs trimming once or twice a
year; but I can do that easily with grass shears.
If you do indeed have algerian ivy, I suggest you completely eliminate
it. It is notorious for being a habitat for rats.
--
David E. Ross
Climate: California Mediterranean, see
<http://www.rossde.com/garden/climate.html>
Gardening diary at <http://www.rossde.com/garden/diary>
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