Living Mulch on the cheap, from your soil's seed bank.

What is the cheapest way to provide cover for your soil? Withdraw desirable plants from your soil's own seed bank!

I’ve read various accounts on folks’ struggle to remove weeds from their gardens. And I’ve thought to myself, huh? That plant is useful! At least, to a certain point in its growth pattern, and in my climate. These are a few weeds that are welcome plants in my garden.

Carpet Weed was my first introduction to living mulch. Before I’d heard of permaculture, through observation, I discovered this mystery plant, with a little help from me eliminating competition, would shade out grass seeds. This resulted in less work weeding for me. I think it took me three YEARS to figure that out. Pictures from seedling to carpet, are at the below site, as it is currently missing in my garden! Shrug.

https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/carpetweed


Until recently it's name had remained a mystery. Above ground parts can be eaten, though I have not seen it since I've known. http://www.eattheweeds.com/?s=carpet+weed



Barnyard Grass is another one that I like in my garden. My bush bean beds helped me learn this one. When I started gardening I was sold on raised beds. Without the funds for wood, I dug out the pathways, and dumped them on the beds, creating sloped edges that are impossible to keep weed free! Barnyard grass would sprout up. And spread out, and cover sooo much real estate! With only one plant to evict, once the beans were large enough to shade the area by themselves, it is less work, when it is time to remove it. While it will root at some nodes, it is easy to pull it up, if it’s still below 2 feet tall.

And the seeds are edible in various ways. http://www.eattheweeds.com/barnyard-grass/ So far, I've only munched on a few seed heads, raw. Picture of seed heads to be posted when they mature, though Green Dean has a good representation in the link.

EDIT    pic added

Its funny you mentioned the "barnyard grass" which is really a crabgrass. We have both main North American species here, and I have left it pretty much alone, except in the tiny lawn. It shades, makes massive biomass, and acts as an air well with its little hairs.

I will say I tend to pull the hairy crabgrass (which roots readily) in planted areas and leave the other kind (which just gets big and wants to make seeds). The hairy also seems to make an allelopathic compound, nothing sprouts after it was been there in my experience. The other stuff (Digitaria ischaemum), doesn't seem to. And it looks nice and shades out other more obnoxious stuff.

I was thinking of making a post about the difference between them botanically. If someone is interested I will put it together.

I am Someone. I am interested.

Creeping charlie FTW!

I've got this perennial rhizomous whistle that persists in my garden, long, deep root, easy to pull if you pull straight and don't touch the leaves especially when pulled young... but painful addition to mulch as leaves become more dangerous as they dry,  for now I just use these to mulch pathways where shoes will protect me

Oh have I got one for you!! (LOL)

So this farmer went bankrupt and left me a 10 acre corn field on a 15% slope. The erosion was pretty bad, so I applied for a grant to get the field sown back into nitrogen-fixation grass. I got the grant, but was required to deep till the soil. The thing was, the cornfield had been fertilized with tons of liquid dairy cow manure. Well clover seeds pass through a cows system unaffected, so by the time the government granted me the...well...grant, it was several years later and well sodded in with clover. So I had to till under the clover just to sow more clover!

I did have a better field as the new field was smooth, and the mixture was 50% Clover and 50% Timothy, but it did seem silly to till under clover to till clover!

Another one is Smooth Bedstraw. Here I watch people spend tons of money on lime to get the PH level up so that Smooth Bedstraw is abated, BUT if they had sheep instead of cows, it would work out better for them. Sheep can graze Smooth Bedstraw with immunity because their wool protects them from that foul grass.

I have a a plant I believe is Trefoil taking over my garden which also have nitrogen nodules on their roots!

Those yellow flower are most likely not in the Legume family instead it is a wood sorrel "Oxalis"

I think Marc is right on in his ID. Wood sorrel has a 5 petaled flower, not a clover looking thing at all. Also the fold in the leaves of Wood Sorrel sends the leaf edges toward the ground. Clover's leaf edges point to the sky.

https://nature.mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/field-guide/yellow-wood-sorrel


My first thought was Black Medic, but the leaves on his plant are too wide.

http://urbanbutterflygarden.co.uk/black-medick-medicago-lupulina-wildflower

Some kind of Asian Grass has cropped up around several of my trees. When I first saw it, all I could see was grass that wouldn’t stay the same height as the rest, messing up my mowing job. It grows very well in mostly shade, and will tolerate mostly sun. I leave it, creating a graceful ring around them. When ready add to a guild, it has a very shallow root system, making it easy to remove. I have moved it around my acre by letting it go to seed, then using it as mulch, seed heads intact. Next spring the seeds become plants for mulch! No need to thresh, winnow and store the seeds. Anyone know the name of this grass?

Hey, William! See, I have Creeping Charlie too!

I have let the spurge go this summer.  I am sure it helps shade the soil though I am sure that it is dropping hundreds of seeds.

With temps of 115, it is about all I can do to keep the plants watered.  I lost one echinacea  most likely due to poor soil and being eaten by a deer.

SPURGE:

I have used that one for mulch too. Every time I see Spurge, it reminds me to be careful in identifying plants. We harvest and eat wild foods, and I tried really hard to make this stuff match Purslane. That would not have turned out well, it is toxic.

https://dengarden.com/gardening/portulaca

I have had purslane aka portulaca and I have moss rose.  This spurge is not a succulent like they are.  Though I can see the confusion. There are lots of things called spurge.  I also have croton which is in the spurge family.  It is said to make livestock sick and is an important food for some butterflies.

Speaking of moss rose, some call it portulaca.  I have thought of using it as a ground cover but it is so prolific that I keep it in pots.  Something is so hungry that it is eating it.  Maybe a squirrel, as I keep finding one not far away.

Moss rose:

Anne Miller wrote:I have let the spurge go this summer.  I am sure it helps shade the soil though I am sure that it is dropping hundreds of seeds.

With temps of 115, it is about all I can do to keep the plants watered.  I lost one echinacea  most likely due to poor soil and being eaten by a deer.

SPURGE:

Another name for Spurge, Carpet Weed?

I have creeping charlie in yard.  Goose grass, too makes great compost material when pulled up.   Some weed that has tiny multiple red flowers that is flowering now in Oct in TN that is easy to pull up.  Another prolific weed is Indian mock strawberry.  Another I call henbit that has clover like leaves and yellow flowers.  Young henbit has a purple look to the early leaves.  Have at least two more weeds I have not ID'd yet.  Lawn have a lot of broad leaf plantain too.   Attached is an unknown young prolific weed by me.  That white material I think is some sort of fungus.

Michael Moreken wrote:

Another name for Spurge, Carpet Weed?

While I do use spurge for living mulch, the plant I was refering to as carpet weed is the one pictures below.

Michael Moreken wrote:Another I call henbit that has clover like leaves and yellow flowers.  Young henbit has a purple look to the early leaves.

This is what my edible reference books call henbit, and her messy cousin deadnettle. Henbit has an upright growth habit, deadnettle lays on the ground, rooting at the nodes.

picture from http://foragedfoodie.blogspot.com/2017/02/identify-deadnettle-and-henbit.html


If you get adventurous in your eating, I recommend only eating the top 3" or so of either of these plants, and serve them in a spicy recipe. Otherwise they have a musty taste.

What I call spurge is in the Euphorbiaceae, the spurge family, a large family of flowering plants.  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euphorbiaceae

I think mine is called Spotted spurge, Chamaesyce maculata:

https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=CHMA15



There is one in this family called Fendler's Carpetweed, Chamaesyce fendleri  https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=CHFE3





It is in a different family from the Carpetweed, Mollugo verticillata, that Joylynn is referring to:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mollugo_verticillata




I hope this clears up the confusion.  Plant ID's are difficult sometimes because of the similar names of plants in different families.

Plant ID's are difficult sometimes because of the similar names of plants in different families.   Yes, I concur.  I no longer see the prostrate dead nettle with pink flowers from about 2 months ago.  What you are calling dead nettle seems to have a lot more reddish than I remember.

Nice, you ID'd green carpet weed (Mollugo verticillata) for me, one I see flowering now in Oct in TN.

Rats think I pulled out most my 'other carpet weed'.  So no photo... :(

I was about to retract my yellow flower comment above.  

So have the new easy to pull out upright reddish small flower mystery.  I thought to get a ruler (Then grabbed a seed head from one of my goose grass) for measurement of my 'henbit' wood sorrel and 'unidentified red' easy to pull up.  Took a pick of a champion in parts of my lawn goose grass!

I dropped so many chichorum endivia seeds from just 3 parent plants that my garden, paving and lawn are now covered in this nutritious vegetable. The only weeds that manage to grow among it are dandelion and chickweed. Dandelion's an amazing aphid attractant, keeping aphids off my eating plants.

It's spring here and it breaks my heart to chop it all down to make room for summer plants like tomatoes. I have mounds of endive now for a regular mulch, and the main stems is hollow which I now put up the on fences and walls as habitat for ladybugs and native solitary bees.

I could just leave it instead of course; the tall dead stalks would provide habitat for beneficial insects. I leave the roots in the soil either way in the hope it'll loosen my dense clay soil.