I know there are quite a few in these pictures, but if you have information that will help me stay ahead of these, I would greatly appreciate it. ( photo / image / picture from Beeker's Garden ) ( photo / image / picture from Beeker's Garden ) ( photo / image / picture from Beeker's Garden )
The purplish plant may be Ajuga. 2nd pic looks like one of the Plantagos (plantain.) 3rd pic, looks like violets, dandelions. To keep lawn separated from beds, a physical border is helpful, I wouldn't try to garden w/o borders. When you mow, aim the chute away from beds, to prevent throwing seeds into beds. Mowing more often would favor the grass, hinder most of the other plants.
Dandelions are edible but if you don't want them you need to pull them up before the seed heads form. Those little white pom poms will allow seeds to blow everywhere.
Thank you both. I haven't seen dandelion flowers. That is the odd thing. The leaves look like dandelion, but they don't flower. I kind of like that purplish plant. It's charming looking. There is something else that didn't show up well in those pictures that has similar leaves to the purplish plant, but it grows on a ground-covering vine. It is trying to over take my garden. The garden is walled with cinder-blocks, which is almost a foot tall border, but these nasty things reach and start to root into my bed anyway. I've been fighting them off all season. They aren't difficult to pull out of the garden, but they are a nuisance. Can you see them in the first and second pictures? There is also that weed that looks like the strawberry leaves, but it is just a ground-covering vine. It behave similar to that other one.
The purplish plant is Ground Ivy aka Creeping Charlie. It is the bane of my existance! You also have plantain, clover, violets, maple trees, dandilions and what appears to be creeping buttercup. They are all very stubborn weeds and I'm not sure that pulling them out will solve the problem. They will all leave little bits of root that will all grow into new plants.
Do you have a weed trimmer? Running it along the cinder blocks before the intruding plants reach the top should keep them in the mowed areas, out of beds.
Thank you, all. When I move that bed, I plan to put stones or something around the outside of the border blocks. I hope that will do the trick. I just had a thought. My sun garden only has an issue with grass and crabgrass. These weeds grow in the shade. I plan to move the shade bed because a neighbor took down one of their trees that was shading my yard. Now there is more sun and I will be moving that bed where there will be more sun. Do you think that will help?
Hi B--That is quite a crop of weeds you got there! I wish I could say my lawn looks better but it really doesn't. What I have are perennials that have self-sowed in my lawn. BTW the strawberry leaved plant is what Netty has identified as creeping buttercup. Around here we call it creeping cinquefoil, a real pain. I have been using a edge barrier between my "lawn" and my garden beds. It works pretty well in keeping the grass/weeds out, but unfortunately must be renewed 2X during the growing season.
ID please. Ok, here is the one that is carpeting my veggie garden: ( photo / image / picture from Beeker's Garden ) I didn't realize it was that tall. It stays low to the ground, like a carpet. It has tiny white flowers.
Can anyone ID this yet? Funny, after taking this last picture, I threw it in my aquatic snail tank and it has since been floating and living quite well. I'd like to see how long it lasts before it starts rotting and getting eaten by the snails. It is very rare for a plant to float like that and thrive for a full day in that tank.
Beeker, If it is the plant I think it is, (nameless unfortunately), doesn't it have tiny hairs on its stems? If so, maybe it is too prickly for the snails. Also, does it tend to grow in moist areas?
Found it. It is green carpetweed or Mollugo verticillata. Thank you all for giving it a try. Edit: The snails finally found the weed interesting. It was still floating on the surface, but doing well. Once it started to sink under the weight of the snails, it started to yellow and rot.
