Using weedy plants to fight weeds
By Lauren Lewis
A weed is a weed almost always because it grows fast. It sprouts quickly and grows quickly, and can therefore take up more water, sunlight, and nutrients than its neighbor plants. At Small Spot Gardens, our primary strategy for weed control is finding ways to help our desired plants outcompete the weeds that are always trying to get a foothold. In a brand new garden, this often means planting some larger plants that take up space and sunlight, which makes the environment a little more challenging for little weeds. It also means choosing plants with the same speedy growth as weeds. If our chosen plants can grow as quickly or quicker than their weedy competitors, weeds will be less of an issue over time. These plants are some of our favorite fast growers.
Photo via plantright.org
Centranthus ruber, often known as Jupiter’s Beard: Once you learn about this plant, you’ll start to notice it everywhere. Its bright red or pink flowers produce seeds with little fluffy wings like dandelions, so it really does grow everywhere, and therefore is sometimes considered an aggressive weed. In South Africa, where the climate is Mediterranean like ours and many native plants are endemic, Centranthus is treated as an invasive and banned from use. Here in California it’s not viewed as invasive by the California Invasive Plant Council, but it is counted among those plants that could become invasive. In our gardens it provides vibrant color and pollinator food, and its reseeding capabilities make it overall low maintenance. If you want to keep the reseeding to a minimum, trim off dying flowers and put trimmings in the green bin to isolate seeds.
Photo via calscape.org
Fragaria chiloensis, beach strawberries: Beach strawberry is native to our region, and while Native Californians did collect and eat the fruit, it was a small treat rather than a staple of the diet because the fruit are tiny and relatively sparse. What’s great in our gardens is that this plant reproduces by sending out runners, and quickly forms a lovely thick mat that covers the soil surface. This kind of growth is ideal for crowding out weeds, and also for protecting the soil surface from erosion during rain and from drying out at all other times. The cute white flowers and occasional fruit are aesthetic bonuses.
Photo via davesgarden.com
Oxalis, wood sorrels: You probably think of oxalis, with its highlighter-yellow flowers and clover-like leaves that take over, as your garden’s biggest springtime nuisance, but that is specifically bermuda buttercup (oxalis pes-caprae), which we would never intentionally plant. However, the oxalis family has hundreds of varieties, and many of the others are beautiful and hearty, but not nearly as invasive. Our choices, like oxalis vulcanicola, create gently-floating groundcover, and they can be dispersed around the garden purposefully by simply cutting stems and sticking them in the ground.
Follow us on Instagram for more wonderfully weedy species this month!
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