bulbs in lawns; was: Re: [pbs] Lycoris passeth, Cochicum com
Rodger Whitlock (Sat, 04 Sep 2004 11:23:08 PDT)
On 1 Sep 04 at 18:34, Jim McKenney wrote:
...we have a zoysia lawn.
That big expanse of zoysia was so tempting that I jumped in very
enthusiastically and planted Chionodoxa, Galanthus elwesii and
Crocus speciosus by the thousand.
It looked great on paper.
I had not taken into account the profusion of lusty winter-growing
weeds. Now I understand so well the meaning of the word
opportunistic. Where in the world did all those weedy Cardamine,
Stellaria, Draba, Ranunculus, Erigeron, Allium and others suddenly
come from? Our soil bank must be the Fort Knox of soil banks.
In over forty years of mowing that zoysia lawn, I never noticed
these gate crashers in such profusion. Had they been lurking all
that time?
To answer your last question in one word: yes.
Many weeds are native to areas of constantly disturbed soil, which is
a fairly rare natural habitat. Cultivated ground suits them to a "T",
however, because the essence of cultivation is regular disturbance of
the soil.
If you disturb nearly any patch of cultivated soil, you will get
profuse germination of weed seeds. Some of these seeds remain viable
for decades in the soil -- I think the experimentally determined
maximum is well over fifty years.
I've faithfully rooted out all the buttercups I can find here and
never let them go to seed, but after 16 years, I still get seedlings
coming up.
Your planting of the bulbs was quite adequate disturbance to cause
the observed effect.
--
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Maritime Zone 8, a cool Mediterranean climate
on beautiful Vancouver Island