The joys of creeping charlie…?
Sunday, April 18th, 2010This morning I found a message in my inbox from a fellow in Ohio:
“In any temperate climate, rich-soil, damp, slightly to somewhat shady place (like much of Minnessota’s environment and any low area between two rivers)… this ivy is FAR easier to maintain as a groundcover than grass. It won’t get tall, it won’t go away, and it displaces the other plants in it’s place. It will dominate a yard with only slight maintenance, if the yard is the right conditions and it is mowed two or three times mid-late in the season.
This ground ivy is here in N. America because it was brought here from Europe by settlers who desired it’s many valuable qualities. It was especially useful to the settlers for it’s various herbal/medicinal and culinary purposes. It is very fortunate for us that this excellent plant has taken root in the wilds surrounding the midwestern N. American forests, and so shall remain available to us into the distant future. ”
Sorry, Mr. Ohio, but this doesn’t fly.
As much as I’m not a fan of blue grass lawns, I cannot condone encouraging a highly invasive non-native species as a substitute.
I don’t consider it fortunate at all that it has taken root in the wilds. It displaces natives that are a vital part of the food web, severely threatens diversity, and costs millions of dollars each year trying to get it under control.
How is that a good thing? A few people finding some medicinal benefit to it out ways all that? I don’t think so.
I hope he never moves to Minnesota.
