When we began planting some shade lovers under the canopy of the grove of trees which dominates our backyard, getting rid of the weeds was job one. Marinated in mosquito repellant, I spent many an arduous hour rooting out privet, briars and brambles.
I decided to use Grass-Be-Gone on what little was growing in the shade. Wouldn’t you know, it had no effect. I would have thought I had a bad bottle of the stuff, but it did a great job on some pesky Bermuda grass that invaded my ground covers. That was my first clue. These green things look just like grass, but in reality are sedges.
Members of the Carex clan are grasslike plants which bloom on triangular rather than round stems. They reproduce by rhizomes as well as from seed. Tolerant of moist conditions, they are found throughout the temperate and colder regions of the world. Unlike grass, they are shade tolerant.
We have several sedges that are native to our area. These can be used to create a low-maintenance lawn-like look in the shade. Blue sedge, palm sedge, mace sedge and Appalachian sedge are all attractive options.
Since I learned to tell them apart from weedy grasses, I have come to appreciate their carefree presence in the naturalized areas.
Invading sunnier areas of the landscape, I have an abundance of yellow nut sedge. Eradicating this invasive weed is a career opportunity. It grows from tubers buried eight to 14 inches in the earth. When one pulls a tuber out, the plant releases a hormone signaling the next rhizome (a.k.a. nut) to sprout. This a terrific defense against grazing animals as well as zealous gardeners.
In the case of nut sedge, hand-to-weed combat is a stopgap measure at best. Last spring I learned of a selective herbicide, Sedge Hammer, that promised to kill it completely. I asked my local nurseryman if he carried it. For years I’ve known this guy to be a man of few words, so when he launched into a veritable sermon on the wonders of the product, I bought a package.
It works, but slowly. The patches growing in my ornamentals took a month to die. Unfortunately, more patches keep popping up, necessitating more spraying. I have removed the blooms to prevent the plant from going to seed. In the end, I had to dig the remaining nut sedge out in order to plant spring bulbs and tidy up for winter. It will be back, and I will be ready to resume chemical warfare.
To learn more about what desirable plants might be found under the trees, I attended a lecture given by a member of The Wild Ones, a
Chattanooga-area group of native plant enthusiasts. After the program, I was able to tell a weed from wildflower. Wish the wildflowers would flourish as well as those weeds!
Master gardener Ann Bartlett never lets lack of familiarity with a plant stop her from trying it in the ornamental beds around her home. You can email her at arose56@hamilton.net.
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