update: why won't this plant die? (also known as, weeds i planted that will outlive me)
IT’S PRETTY ENOUGH, and nice in arrangements, but all I really want to say about gooseneck loosestrife is: Why won’t this plant die? It’s another of the “confidence booster” (read: so easy as to be thuggish) perennials I started out with naively 20-something years ago here, and can’t get rid of. Add Lysimachia clethroides (above) to the list with chameleon plant (Houttuynia cordata) and comfrey and and and and … the depressing list of easy perennials weeds I planted, and will never be rid of. Some of the measures I have gone to trying to banish them are recounted here. (Bet it will sound familiar to some of you.)
My mother, who I think knew better, gave me some loosestrife. “Keep an eye on it” she said. Little did I realize that moving it to a warmer climate meant she should have said “never turn you back on this evil plant!” Every year I think I’ve done it in, and next Spring, it has expanded. I may have to just mow it down in the bed, and cover, killing the desired plants as well as this bane of my garden existence!
Have you tried going down a foot or two and replacing the soil, to remove any seeds? I think that is how I dealt with it in a smaller bed and was successful. Hit with weed killer, then root and soil removal and replacement of soil. But now I have a big bed of it elsewhere. So the tarping and solarizing were not enough on the Gooseneck? Please advise. Thx
I recently bought some gooseneck at my local nursery. I was warned about its invasive nature (it was even stated on the tag). I am thinking of putting it at the edge of our yard. So woods on one side, lawn on the other. Will it invade the grass or will keeping the yard mowed contain it? I am scared but like the potential it could have to fill in some sad spots at the wood’s edge.
At some point in its life, who knows when, it will just go mad and move in every direction. Mine was “manageable” for 15 years, and lately — wow. Crazy mess of runners I can hardly keep up with. Not a good one to let amble into the woods, though it probably won’t move as fast/far into the dry/darker area as into the yard itself. Better to use something without a running habit, or if a runner at least a native fern, at the woodland edge.
Oh, I’m so glad I saw this post while browsing pinterest. The photo caught my eye. I was admiring these plants in my neighbor’s garden last year. She told me to help myself. When I went to dig some up, I noticed the runners going everywhere! I decided not to put them in the ground but overwintered them in a pot set in the ground. Something in my spidey senses told me this one might be trouble!