duncan drennan

Maybe (1) is the way to go. I am gradually reducing my lawn area and planting indigenous plants (we have beautiful indigenous plants here in the Western Cape of SA - see PlantzAfrica, and Cape Flora. I'll think a bit about what my options are in that regard.

With regards to (2)...hmmm....this is THE problem with the onion weed. I've seen some of this stuff with roots 4 inches into the ground. The grass roots are getting deeper, and I keep encouraging them deeper. It is no problem in the summer (the onion weed seems to actively grow through the rainy winter).

At this point I'm just going to manage it (i.e. mow regularly, water deep and seldom) and see whether it gets better or worse, and continue to reduce the grass area and plant shrubs.

Thanks for all the input

So the message I am getting is this: good compost is the better option. The compost/topsoil that I was looking at is priced exactly the same. I'm planning on getting it from Reliance Composting, who appear to produce decent quality organic compost (they started making to produce organic grapes from their vineyards). It is about $31 for 1m3.

Sounds like compost is the way to go then.

I remember the movie "cool hand luke" - but all I can remember is an egg eating competition. But that is a whole other story.

Anyway, the onion weed is the stuff in the foreground with the slightly broader leaf and the brownish tips (due to the mowing). It doesn't look much different to the grass in that photo. The grass has a much narrower leaf and it is not so long. There is one in the background too popping out quite high above the grass. The orange in the far background are marigolds.

I'm about to put down some lawn dressing and I was wondering about the merits of compost versus topsoil.

I need to even out some parts of the lawn, and fill in some hollows. I've experimented a bit with putting down compost in small areas and that has been very successful.

If I understand correctly topsoil is pretty much just soil mixed with compost.

So which is better - a layer of topsoil, or a layer of compost?

Okay, I finally am posting a picture...

Paul, I hear your point. The weed is not hard underfoot. The leaves are a bit waxy though. It does, in my opinion, look pretty ugly in the lawn, although you don't really notice it when it is mowed. Problem with that is that it is difficult to mow (many passes with the reel mower to actually get it - it kinda pushes over in front of the mower).

The big thing I'm worried about is having this stuff slowly spread through the whole lawn. It is definitely classified as a weed, but it is not on the alien invader list, so I couldn't use that as an excuse either   It is just generally considered a real pain, as it is difficult to get rid of. It is not indigenous (it is from North America, I'm in South Africa - my gran says it was originally brought in by florists).

Anyway, that is my story. I still want to get rid of it - its propagation method bothers me quite a bit...

I just mowed the lawn yesterday, so you can't really see it. I'll take a pic when it starts to grow again. It grows up above the lawn, and you don't feel it underfoot. The main thing I'm worried about is it getting out of control if it is just let to its own devices. It might even be that with a season of strong growth for the lawn, that it won't really come back next year.

It is a pretty flower, but it has to get quite big before it flowers. If I remember correctly they will start flowering late in spring (I'm in the southern hemisphere, so we're about to go into spring). I'm doing my best to make sure that they don't flower and spread further.

Mowing doesn't really seem to bother them at all, it just keeps on growing. The blades of the mower don't really seem to pick it up well and cut it, as it just gets pushed over.

The younger bulbs do not have any of the small "seed bulbs" growing on them, but once they get a little bigger, the small bulbs form. When you take them out of the ground you have to be careful to ensure that the whole bulb comes out without either breaking, or dropping of a gazillion little new bulbs.

The "seed bulbs" are the small brownish things you can see amongst the soil. Sometimes when the weed is younger they are still white like the bulb, and don't drop off as easily.

Okay, here are some pics from my garden. This is the onion weed in the ground. You can see the blades lie fairly flat on the ground. This particular clump had its bulb about 2 inches under the ground.

I just realised the links in my first post were broken. I've fixed them now, and there are pictures of the weed there. Just in case, here are the links again,

Pictures of weed and bulb: http://www.sydneyweeds.org.au/weeds/onion-weed.php
Pictures of flowers: http://www.yates.com.au/ProblemSolver/OnionWeed.asp
Ideas for killing: http://www.au.gardenweb.com/forums/load/ozgard/msg1010091812133.html

I'll see if I can grab a big one from the garden where you can see the small bulbs that it grows around the main bulb.

I've been wondering whether they possibly prefer an acid or alkaline soil, but I'm not too sure where I can find out about that. I could try experimenting with the ones in the open beds — it would just take a while.

snufflet wrote:
I also have what appears to be green onions growing in/around my lawn.

These don't actually smell of onion when they are cut, or the bulb is squashed, and their appearance is quite different to the spring onion I have growing in my herb garden.