Groundcovers with Trichs

[cambodian]

Hi Folks

I'm a new poster and a relatively new grower. I'm hoping some you more experienced growers can help me out with some advice?

I'm having trouble with native groundcovers in my cactus garden which has 15 trichs ranging from ankle to chesst high. When I planted the cactus about 2 years ago I put a think layer of pebbles on top of the ground. They have been swallowed up now with things like Pratia, Hydrocotyle and Dichondria etc. The cactus which were powering have now slowed right up this summer and I think they're hating the competition. I've been hand weeding but I'm getting nowhere as the groundcovers break off and re-grow real fast.

I've tried mulching with grass clippings and sawdust. The groundcovers seem to love the grass mulch, they come back stronger than ever, and I think the sawdust makes the cactus suffer too much from nitrogen draw down. I'm thinking perhaps a thick layer of woodchips might be better as it will hold less moisture but again the nitrogen loss could be an issue as well as acidity. What do other folks do? Any suggestions would be great, thanks. Oh and I'm in a sub-tropical area and have been having an unusually wet summer.

Cheers

[PhoenixSon]

Glychosphate-roundup helps getting ontop of weeds for me.

Once you have sprayed the main arears you can do the more sensitive spots around cactus by hand if you want..

works for me,

[cambodian]

Cheers spacemonk, I forgot to mention that I was after a non-chemical solution. I've used a lot of glyphosate in the past but for a number of different reasons I don't use it anymore. Thanks anyway

[tipz]

buy a goat

[PositiveHAL]

hi, i'd put a thick (10-15cm) layer of large pebble or stone mulch around the entire area, and then manage any weed growth by hand, rock mulch helps by radiating heat to the roots and cactus especially in colder climes. personally i'd avoid any earthy wood chippy type mulches as you will probably retain too much moisture and run into all sorts of other problems, also weeds find it really difficult to grow in a large aggregate rock mulch.

[PositiveHAL]

also weeds can be really beneficial, they can be great indicators of soil condition, nutrition, ph, etc. but you dont want them to get to the point of out competing your cactus goodies, of course

[PhoenixSon]

whipper snip what you can then youll have to weed all of your garden by hand and mulch with a crapload of rocks/pebbles as ND said.

takes a lot of time, most would be flowering now right? Try to get all the plants before they go to seed..

[zelly]

I like the bare earth look, once achieved, it's relatively easy to maintain.

A long handled hoe does the trick nicely. I'll loosen up the soil and toss out some time release amendments right before the rains.

[cambodian]

Thanks for the suggestions

I think the deep gravel/pebble idea is probably the way to go.

I started with about 5cm worth and it was good for awhile till the groundcovers took over so yeah I'll try again deeper.

Bare earth isn't really an option in this kinda climate/environment, unless you like glyphosate...

These types of groundcovers can be really tenacious, I pulled some that had sent roots down under the cactus and out the other side.

Hard to compete with that

Cheers

[PositiveHAL]

theres always the dreaded black weed matting, horrible stuff but sometimes its necessary.... get the perforated kind too, not the solid plastic kind. works well when combined with a stone mulch on top.

[curaezipirid]

I'd go for a weed matting option if the problem is immediate and too severe to weed by hand. But normally I can't even afford the weed matting and I'd probably really just use cardboard boxes from the skip at the back of the local shops. Less likely to release as much acid as woodchip mulch.

However, the more I think about it, the more I am thinking I'd be more likely to move the cactus. Because the kinds of groundcovers you are complaining about, if they grow naturally in that spot, might be an indication that it is not an ideal cactus spot. In some areas cactus prefer pots even, that having to compete with those kinds of plants. I always think of cactuses as what to plant where nothing else can take the heat.

[TommyChesnutt]

buy a goat

 

pretty sure i want a llama... they could get their long necks around the spines...

actually, f**k it, anyone selling a giraffe?

[2Deep2Handle]

theres something satisfying about weeding by hand...my garden isnt too big so its never too tedius, but once a month i devote a couple of hours to walking around just ''beautifying' my garden instead of tending to my plants /cacti.the bulk of this always consists of hand pulling weeds, and i actually now liken it to how the buddist monks make the sand mandalas, only to blow them all away once they are finished... representing the ever changing physical appearance of the materialistic world.

Good soul-food pulling weeds if theres trichos amongst it all.....wear gloves......your other option is to put protective plastic collars around bases of all your trichos, and get in there with the weed waker......will spread seed like crazy too though....one of the benifits of hand weeding....removes roots and seed dispersion is kept to a minmal

[bit]

I agree, it's therapeutic. I use gloves and needle-nose pliers for my weeding.