Aquatic Gardens, Not Aquatic Pests: How To Practice Responsible Water Gardening (ANR Publication 8369), has now been published online and is available FREE at the ANR CS Web site at http://anrcatalog.ucdavis.edu/pdf/8369.pdf.
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Many gardeners are looking for aquatic plants that will not be a problem in the local streams and creeks. This publication provides beautiful alternatives to many of the aquatic or bog plants that are considered invasive species.
Spotted spurge is one of those weeds that seem to defy our best efforts to control it. It is a low growing plant that develops into a dense mat that can overgrow turf and compete with ornamental ground covers and annuals. It can be characterized by its dark green tiny leaves, which often have a red spot about mid way down the center leaf vein. The stem, when broken, exudes a milky latex juice. The plant has a central taproot system that is capable of extending more than 2 feet into the soil. The tiny pinkish flowers abundantly produce a three-celled seed capsule that is 1/16-inch long or less very early in its lifecycle. Spurge can be very difficult to control once it becomes established so prevention is key. However, once it invades there are some things you can do to reduce its impact.
First, consider a heavy mulch layer. For more.....
The lawn, from a distance, looks lush and green. When walking across it, however, the exploding seed pods of the densely growing oxalis spread seeds across my boots and across my lawn. In one year the newly planted cool season turfgrass has become an oxalis or creeping wood sorrel lawn.
Creeping woodsorrel is a major weed in turf, ornamental plantings, gardens, and nurseries. Uninfested landscapes can become contaminated if infested container stock is used in plantings. As seed pods mature and expel seeds, creeping woodsorrel spreads from container to container, flower bed to flower bed, or across ornamental plantings and lawns....
