Thyme is on your side: Update on patio crabgrass

I tackled the patio crabgrass again last weekend. It's slow going so there aren't enough photos for a decent post. This is the part of the summer when its hard to keep ahead of the crabgrass. It grows like, well, like a weed. The thyme on the other hand, doesn't.

My strategy, for about a year now, has been to remove the crabgrass, mostly by hand, and substitute thyme. My last post on this topic is here.  Since that last post, almost a month ago now, I also planted three new kinds of thyme and a creeping shady creature called Corsican Mint. In this post, I'll show all four, and my method of planting.

Here is Corsican mint. It likes shade and moisture, and since I have an abundance of both in certain spots in the patio, I added it to my arsenal. It seems to be doing well in the month since I planted it.

More of the patio, though, bakes under sun and especially in the dog days of summer has very little moisture. Thyme loves those conditions, and so I'm trying pretty much every version of a creeping thyme I can lay my hands on, without special ordering. Here is a variety called Pink Chintz Thyme. It is a faster spreader than the others.

Here you can see how I take a small pot and cut it into sections with scissors. How big they are depends partly on how much root there is and how big the cracks that I want to fill. I cut the pots down to plug size.

Here are the resulting plugs of pink chintz thyme:

Here is one planted:

Here is minus thyme:

Here is Wooly Thyme. This one mounds too high, really, for the patio, but I put it over in a corner where we don't walk much and where a higher, faster growing thyme might be better competition.

Next up, how these fared in the latter half of June and first half of July, during a heat wave with  no rain. For the full series, see the topic "Patio Crabgrass" in the list of topics on the righthand side of the home page.

Patio Update: jousting crabgrass and creeping thyme

Yesterday and today, I've been working on the patio again. The last post on this topic is here. The basic story is the villan Jousting Crab Grass and his army trying to take over the patio, with the lowly family of Thyme ranged against him with their trusty Sherry at their side.

Here is Creeping Thyme:

and Mint Thyme:

Thyme and Crab Grass facing off:

Crab Grass bent on overtaking Thyme by springing up from within:

So, these photos are all of the right half of the patio. You notice that there are not many crab grass seedlings in the photos. On the right hand side of the patio, it seems that by using corn gluten this spring and a various array of measures last year (including weeks of hand weeding combined with the unplanned coincidence of a tarp laid down over that half for 3 weeks in the fall when we renovated the bath), there are noticeably fewer crab grass seedlings on this half of the patio.

Sherry, being Sherry, attacks the easier side first. The result here ...

here ...

and here, a modest collection of the Crab Grass avant-garde, now dead ...

You can see how small they are at this stage. If you look closely, you will see that their roots quickly grow to be 2-3 times longer than the leaves above ground. Last year, I looked at the thousands of tiny seedlings and thought, "I could never pick out that many seedlings. These are too small to pull out. I'll let them get bigger, let some of the littlest die from the competition, and then I can pick the survivors out, when they're bigger and easier to get a hold of." WRONG MOVE! Their roots are unbelievably tenacious. It is by far, let me repeat, by far much, much, much easier to get them out when they're tiny. Tedious? Yes. But not even a fraction of the work that it takes to remove grown plants in August, let me tell you.

So, here some cleared patio.

Here, the world's tiniest bit of Mint Thyme, holding down the fort on one corner.

And my poster child, the mother ship of Creeping Thyme.

And ... the other half of the patio, where Sherry has enlisted multiple allies in the fight against Crab Grass and his army: other weeds ...

The weed ally strategy is not working quite as well. Crab Grass is encroaching in a bad way, and already hundreds and hundreds of tiny two-leaved seedlings are arrayed in formation between each and every brick ...

right among the ally weeds (traitors!) ...

Our work is cut out for us today. Many Crab Grass foot soldiers to be plucked out by their tiny roots. And, still waiting to be planted, in the Thyme family's defense: cousins Pink Chintz Thyme, Wooly Thyme, and Minus Thyme ...

And a few allied species to come to the aid of Thyme in the shade:  Blue Star Creeper, Raoulia, and Corsican Mint.

What's coming up from seed and root: seedlings in the garden

Early Saturday morning, end of a long week, before anyone was up but the birds (and the cats, then, of course), I slipped out of the house to see what was up in the garden. We had a day planned in the city, which is as I write successfully completed, but in the early dawn, almost before the dawn, I had to get out into the day to check on all the seedlings coming up out of the ground. Here is what I found.

Snapdragons ...

... and (slightly cheating) seedlings of the foxglove from last year that aren't getting enough sun to grow. They've lived a full year like this, so I think I'll try transplanting them.

around the corner, zinnias ...

These are special zinnias. They're seedlings from seeds I saved myself, from a very happy garden of zinnias that flourished unexpectedly last year, planted from two packets of seeds from Renee's. Here are the blooms, last year ...

I wonder if this year's seedlings will come true.

Then, over behind the garage, lady ferns, from bareroot stock I planted a month ago. Just this week, the last two came up and there are now three.

... and a volunteer nasturtium from last year's plants ...

And on the way from garage to front yard, early morning sky ...

Alyssum. I planted 4 packets of 4 kinds and have eagerly counted every seedling. I'm up to about 50.

Russian sage, from a bare snag I feared had died, but transplanted anyway into what I hope will be happier surroundings.

Lilies ...

... and under the tomatoes, marigolds, big 30" ones ...

... and little 8" ones. Use your imagination!

A dahlia.

Not sure. I'm hoping these are verbena bonariensis, not weeds. But I've never planted verbena bonariensis, so I'm not totally certain ... but I'll claim them, for now.

Cleome? Again, a new one for me.

Lily.

Hollyhock (not the grass ...)!

More hollyhock, between the lilies, to bloom next year, not this.

And, in the shade of the ancient rhododendron stand by the porch, down in the lower righthand corner of the photo, rhododendron seedlings? Rootlings? I pruned it hard last year because it is failing, and I have to do some research to know if new rhoadies can grow from the roots.

Closer ...

And, in the mugo pine that was attacked by sawfly larvae last year, ugly blind yellow and black worms that I picked off myself with my bare hands, but ...

... as promised by my research, new growth straight out of the bare branches that the critters devoured.

Across from it, foxglove that I planted from seed last year, happy and -- FINALLY -- about to bloom. These will be my first ever foxglove from seed.

Then, around the other end of the house and along the north boundry line, my problem border, weeds. Mugwort. Ugh!!!

With Poison Ivy. Double Ugh.

And a weed, in the backyard, that I cajoled Capel into mowing around. This is what my mom called Indian Paintbrush, when I was little and we'd go to my grandpa's, though I don't actually know what it is (not until it blooms this year and I try to look it up, anyway). There was one here last year and I mowed around it, and now there are more. Yay. Weeds. Happy weeds.