Are Apiaceae good cover crops?

Hi guys!

I’ve been searching in the forum but I found nothing too deep on this.

So here is my question: I have now lots of wild apiaceae growing everywhere and I was wondering if I should leave them or eliminate them. Are they good ground covers? Are they bad for other things growing?

What do you think?

Antonio Hache wrote:Hi guys!

I’ve been searching in the forum but I found nothing too deep on this.

So here is my question: I have now lots of wild apiaceae growing everywhere and I was wondering if I should leave them or eliminate them. Are they good ground covers? Are they bad for other things growing?

What do you think?

It's really going to depend which ones you have I think. If you have some that get 2 meters tall they will out compete everything but if it's some of the smaller ones they may well be fine. I have three growing on my property Cow parsley Anthriscus sylvestris Which grows in gaggles and out competes everything in spring through to summer and then vanishes. It seems to really like the edge of wooded areas and doesn't appear anywhere else. Wild Parsnip Pastinaca sativa This likes the rough grass around the road and seeds itself freely everywhere the seeds get blown. It's a big plant but doesn't seem to out compete anything else, and the last is ground elder Aegopodium podagraria Which is a menace. it grows thickly spreads by seeds and roots smothers everything from early spring right the way through until frost takes it out. It gets to around 40cm tall (flowers to 1m)  and is busy killing some goosberry bushes nothing is safe from the stuff. If you want a bank of green with about a month of white flowers it's excellent, if you want to grow anything else it should be exterminated.

Skandi Rogers wrote:

Antonio Hache wrote:Hi guys!

I’ve been searching in the forum but I found nothing too deep on this.

So here is my question: I have now lots of wild apiaceae growing everywhere and I was wondering if I should leave them or eliminate them. Are they good ground covers? Are they bad for other things growing?

What do you think?

It's really going to depend which ones you have I think. If you have some that get 2 meters tall they will out compete everything but if it's some of the smaller ones they may well be fine. I have three growing on my property Cow parsley Anthriscus sylvestris Which grows in gaggles and out competes everything in spring through to summer and then vanishes. It seems to really like the edge of wooded areas and doesn't appear anywhere else. Wild Parsnip Pastinaca sativa This likes the rough grass around the road and seeds itself freely everywhere the seeds get blown. It's a big plant but doesn't seem to out compete anything else, and the last is ground elder Aegopodium podagraria Which is a menace. it grows thickly spreads by seeds and roots smothers everything from early spring right the way through until frost takes it out. It gets to around 40cm tall (flowers to 1m)  and is busy killing some goosberry bushes nothing is safe from the stuff. If you want a bank of green with about a month of white flowers it's excellent, if you want to grow anything else it should be exterminated.

It looks like Chaerophyllum Temulum and or Anthriscus Cerefolium. I will keep an eye on those and eliminate and use it as mulch the !