Tuesday, November 21, 2017

Growing Liriope And Ornamental Grass

By Stephanie Brown


Gardeners and landscapers have a variety of methods for bordering garden areas, depending on their personal style. Stones, bricks, and wood all make attractive borders, and hold mulch or wood bark inside the designated zone quite well. There are those, however, who prefer to use plants to border plants, and they will get a lovely liriope and ornamental grass zone established.

Such bordering grasses require consistent monitoring and upkeep in order to prevent them from taking over the entire garden bed. Without a dutiful gardener present, some forms of this plant can take over a whole lawn. This might not be such a problem when it comes to the lawn, as it lessens the need for mowing, but it can be a serious problem if it takes over flower or vegetable beds.

There is more than one species of this flowering border plant. One, L. Spicata, is also known by the names creeping lily-turf and monkey-grass, is a runner. It is this particular species that is known for its invasiveness because it will create a thick ground cover if left to its own devices for the season.

Any foreign plant that becomes overly aggressive has a tendency to alter the landscape. When large patches of indigenous grasses are replaced by foreign varieties, this can create problems for other creatures who eat the indigenous varieties. Deer, bison, cows, and even human beings can be impacted by the destruction of such an ecosystem.

As landscaping and gardening have become more and more popular, we see more and more foreign plant species being brought to our Nation. Occasionally some get here by accident, hitching a ride on human shoes or in the stomachs of birds. However, most foreign plants have immigrated to America by invitation.

Our first import from China was just such an aggressive plant. Kudzu grows quite well in the temperate climate of the Southeastern United States. While the livestock it was intended to feed would not eat it, the fields where it was first cultivated became the first death fields of healthy vines killing massive trees.

This plant has been reported to grow more than a foot a day in summer, and the foliage lays above hundreds of pounds of roots for every few feet. This means eradicating it is costly, and not always successful. Many people will burn it back weekly just to prevent their house from being eaten.

Since then kudzu has continued to encroach anywhere it gets left to do so. It can grow more than a foot a day in the summer, so unless people are there to cut it or burn it back, it will destroy everything around. Trees, grasslands, and even houses easily fall prey to the tendrils which can go on for miles.

We humans have failed our planet in many ways. The spread of invasive animals and plants is just one manner in which we have used the planet without asking for Her blessing. Now our native plants and grasses are diminishing due to the careless nature of human beings.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment