Re: Creeping Charlie and vinegar and boron

In a message dated 5/17/02 10:09:54 PM Eastern Daylight Time, Meum71@aol.com 
writes:

<< Boron is very toxic to most plants, Creeping Charlie is more sensitive 
than 
 most-use only a small amount and spray the leaves and stems.  If you mix a 
 lot of it into your soil you are going to have problems growing other 
plants. >>

Geez Guys,

I know Charlie ( Glechoma ) is a pest but I think the more aggravating pests 
are plants that I put into the garden myself.  That would be those that can 
grow from seed dropped up to ten years ago, forever probably.

Feverfew, several kinds, is pulled up all summer from everywhere, Campanula 
punctata (supposed to be a well behaved beauty named Cherry Bells).  This 
Campanula should never be anywhere near good soil.  Corydalis lutea which was 
nice for two or three years and now grows on every rock in at least one half 
the gardens.  Tanacetum niveum, a stunning spring plant. Long lived daisies 
on beautiful grey foliage and one million children.

Flowering quince, any kind, but especially Texas Scarlet.  Here forever. 
Stoloniferous roots for hundreds of feet.  Allium tuberosum (garlic chives), 
another summer allium that looks really good in the hot months and would not 
do well here until one summer when it moved in permanently and now is in 
every single garden space.

We have several native weeds that are far more troublesome than Charlie - one 
being a nasty little plant called sour grass here that runs underground and 
literally destroys beds.  At least you can rake out Glechoma and usually once 
a year does it, well maybe a few more cracks at the second growth. Sour grass 
is a plant that cannot be removed by the roots, the roots break and one 
hundred new plants arrive.

I also planted pachysandra many years ago and it is never going to leave, 
same for the admired lily-of-the-valley, a tough plant.  You would need a 
hand grenade to get rid of lily-of-the-valley.  There is a handsome grey 
annual sedum that arrives and never leaves, small white flowers, always from 
some friend.  It germinates all year around.  Another plant that is a pest in 
the rocks is the native columbine, Aquilegia canadenis.  This is not short 
lived, it makes forked tap roots to China.  I pulled out bushels of this 
columbine to have even more plants the following year.

I also planted at some time all of the ajuga around here.

I won't complain about poppies (I like all the poppies, all ten million of 
them )but I also have poppies of several kinds in every cultivated space in 
the gardens.  There are probably a few more that do not come to mind just now 
but I believe I planted all of these innocently and they are worse than 
Glechoma because they seed into the middle of other clumps.

If someone offers you something and mentions that they have lots of it, easy 
to grow, maybe you should hold off and look up the consequences.

Claire Peplowski
NYS z4  

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