Bulbs: Puschkinia l. Invasive?, 1 by DonnaMack

DonnaMack wrote:
Well, there is invasive and impossible to eradicate without chemicals (violets and creeping Charlie) and then there is invasive but can be controlled by digging (lily of the valley). I am on a mission to get the violets out of my yard because they kill other plants. I am literally walking around with a dandelion digger pulling the out. I will never entirely get rid of them but I monitor them and am ruthless about them when they get near other plants.

And I am using an aggressive plant (campanula takesimana 'Bellringers') to force them out. I dug out a five by five section of creeping charlie and violets and put the Bellringers in their place. As I look out into the back yard, the Bellringers are winning. But not everyone wants to do the crazy stuff I do.

I HATE it when neighbors' ugly stuff invades my yard. At least, Carol, yours are pretty. Scilla invades from other yards too but I don't mind them because they are pretty, and they go dormant. I went on a mission to eliminate ditch lilies from my yard (invading from two sides) and actually have none in my own yard. A moron to one side of me whose house is at the other end of his lot planted a variety of invasives on my end of his yard to lower his maintenance. I dug it all out, put a foot of mulch between the properties and use roundup on the mulch. I see what happens if I don't. Another neighbor has a solid bunch of ditchlilies that crawled under the moron's fence and are three feet wide by ten feet long. Another six inches wide develop each year.

Now I'm working on the barren strawberries. I see no point to them. I am putting in fragaria vesca reugen instead. I am also growing salvia verticillata in white, which is a lovely but tough plant I had at home. The white is out of commerce but I got the seeds. In my old yard, that plant and anemone x hybrida 'Honorine Jobert' used to fight to a beautiful draw. The white is out of commerce, but I found the seeds at Hazzards and have several plants ready to go into the ground.

The good thing about ditchlilies is that they announce their presence, and with a good dandelion digger and a strong back they can be completely eliminated.