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vettin

Ajuga and self seeding plants

10 months ago

Thinking of putting anuga in to hopefully elimiate the crabgrass once and for all. will garden phlox and zinnias self seed if there is ajuga on the ground or will the anuga leaves leave them in the dark and stop yhem from germiniating?

Comments (2)

  • 10 months ago

    I have a patch of ajuga in between some raised beds. I actually had tried to grow it in a bed, and it never took, but somehow sprouted up in that path and took off. I leave it there because it's pretty, can seem to take some walking on, and seems like a pretty good weed barrier. For that last reason I'm not sure how things would reseed, although I've never actively tried. I do get an occasional weed that I have to pull there (mostly peanut vine which was introduced to my garden through some llama/alpaca manure I used to get from a farm).


    You can see how few weeds are here - and trust me, this is NOT a well-attended to part of my garden lol!


    A house a few miles from me has a huge patch of it in their front lawn. Has to be at least 30 by 20 feet. It's spectacular in spring. I never see anything growing in it, but don't know the reason - do they weed? Do they not grow anything there because it's the middle of the lawn? etc.


    I should add that my zinnias never ever reseed for me, so I doubt they would ever reseed in my ajuga. But that's just my experience.


    FWIW some will warn you off ajuga at all. In my experience, the variety makes a difference. I've tried a few (can't quite remember the names) and none really took off in my garden beds. While this patch somehow got started on it's own, a good 30-40 feet from where I tried to grow it, it's taken about 12-15 years to get to this point, so again, in my experience, it's not super aggressive. But others may have horror stories. Just something to keep in mind.


    Good luck!

    :)

    Dee

  • 10 months ago

    Ajuga and zinnias like different growing conditions, so don’t think they are a good combination. I don’t have experience with reseeding annual zinnias, but if you have a place where you truly want ajuga, you could try combining with spring bulbs, or a perennial.

    Not sure exactly what you’re trying to create or fill in, nor what are the soil and sun and moisture conditions , to direct the types of plant combinations.
    vettin thanked marmiegard_z7b