Sunday, November 26, 2017

Growing Liriope And Ornamental Grass

By Stephanie Brown


There are a variety of methods gardeners utilize to border their flower beds, and all of them are delightful. Some might use bricks or stones, especially in states with a great deal of shiny, white quartz rock available. Some gardeners, and many landscapers, prefer to use natural borders such as liriope and ornamental grass.

Like any non-indigenous plant or animal introduced into an ecosystem, these grasses must be kept maintained. They may not grow very tall, but they can have densely-packed roots that do not allow anything else to survive. A plant that chokes out all others can be dangerously invasive, creating a massive change in an entire landscape, and even contributing to the extinction of animal species.

Bordering grasses such as L. Spicata, also known as monkey-grass, grow in runners and can fill an area quite thickly in a short span of time. For this reason, this particular species is regarded as invasive. L. Muscari is a much less invasive form of such greenery, but these grasses are routinely mislabeled when being sold to gardeners.

In the case of grasses grown for ornamentation, most of these varieties are not edible for deer, buffalo, or even cows. When entire fields of indigenous, and edible, grasses get wiped out, an environmental disaster can ensue. Species of larger animals, like the deer, can potentially go extinct due to the carelessness of many gardeners.

A foreign species can find its way to our shores as easily as hitching a ride in the grooves on the bottom of a pair of shoes. Many plants, and even some animals have been moved from one part of the Globe to another in this manner. Some are brought over intentionally for the purpose of landscaping.

Our first import from China was just such an aggressive plant. Kudzu grows quite well in the temperate climate of the Southeastern United States. While the livestock it was intended to feed would not eat it, the fields where it was first cultivated became the first death fields of healthy vines killing massive trees.

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.

In order to get rid of it in order to start new construction, the entire area must be bulldozed out thoroughly. One is urged to go down at least ten feet. Getting permission to discard that dirt is nearly impossible, so builders now have it heat sterilized before returning it to where it came from.

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.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment