Gardeners and landscapers have a variety of methods for bordering garden areas, depending on their personal style. Stones, bricks, and wood all make attractive borders, and hold mulch or wood bark inside the designated zone quite well. There are those, however, who prefer to use plants to border plants, and they will get a lovely liriope and ornamental grass zone established.
Grasses such as these can grow quite thick, and should be dug up and thinned out every few years. They are regarded as a low-maintenance border or ground cover plant. Even so, it is an invasive species, and if not maintained with reasonable regularity, it can completely take over a garden bed or even an entire lawn.
L. Spicata is the variety that is most invasive, as it spreads through runners. The other variety, L. Muscari, grows in rounded clumps that only get so large and do not spread further. It is not uncommon for L. Spicata to be erroneously marked as L. Muscari, and this confusion can create an ecological situation.
It is the potential for it to take over large areas that makes it potentially harmful to local plant species. This is especially true when it comes to destroying indigenous grasses. When an indigenous species gets crowded out of an area, the entire landscape can be forever altered, impacting other living things.
As landscaping and gardening have become more and more popular, we see more and more foreign plant species being brought to our Nation. Occasionally some get here by accident, hitching a ride on human shoes or in the stomachs of birds. However, most foreign plants have immigrated to America by invitation.
One plant brought here on purpose was Kudzu. It was the first Chinese import of the American colonies, and it grows quite well in both Georgia and Alabama. The livestock it was originally intended to feed found it not to their taste, but once it was in the ground it could not be stopped.
The one good use they did find for this plant was preventing weed encroachment from the railroad lines. This is why one can see fields of the stuff emanating out from the train stations and rails. Keeping it controlled in other areas has proven to be a nearly impossible task.
Since then kudzu has continued to encroach anywhere it gets left to do so. It can grow more than a foot a day in the summer, so unless people are there to cut it or burn it back, it will destroy everything around. Trees, grasslands, and even houses easily fall prey to the tendrils which can go on for miles.
In the future, we human beings really should give more thought to how we move living things around. The consequences of careless stewardship of our planet can clearly be seen. The birds of island nations die off due to house-cats, the insect world belongs to the German roach, and kudzu eats Georgia plantations whole.
Grasses such as these can grow quite thick, and should be dug up and thinned out every few years. They are regarded as a low-maintenance border or ground cover plant. Even so, it is an invasive species, and if not maintained with reasonable regularity, it can completely take over a garden bed or even an entire lawn.
L. Spicata is the variety that is most invasive, as it spreads through runners. The other variety, L. Muscari, grows in rounded clumps that only get so large and do not spread further. It is not uncommon for L. Spicata to be erroneously marked as L. Muscari, and this confusion can create an ecological situation.
It is the potential for it to take over large areas that makes it potentially harmful to local plant species. This is especially true when it comes to destroying indigenous grasses. When an indigenous species gets crowded out of an area, the entire landscape can be forever altered, impacting other living things.
As landscaping and gardening have become more and more popular, we see more and more foreign plant species being brought to our Nation. Occasionally some get here by accident, hitching a ride on human shoes or in the stomachs of birds. However, most foreign plants have immigrated to America by invitation.
One plant brought here on purpose was Kudzu. It was the first Chinese import of the American colonies, and it grows quite well in both Georgia and Alabama. The livestock it was originally intended to feed found it not to their taste, but once it was in the ground it could not be stopped.
The one good use they did find for this plant was preventing weed encroachment from the railroad lines. This is why one can see fields of the stuff emanating out from the train stations and rails. Keeping it controlled in other areas has proven to be a nearly impossible task.
Since then kudzu has continued to encroach anywhere it gets left to do so. It can grow more than a foot a day in the summer, so unless people are there to cut it or burn it back, it will destroy everything around. Trees, grasslands, and even houses easily fall prey to the tendrils which can go on for miles.
In the future, we human beings really should give more thought to how we move living things around. The consequences of careless stewardship of our planet can clearly be seen. The birds of island nations die off due to house-cats, the insect world belongs to the German roach, and kudzu eats Georgia plantations whole.
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