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cynthianovak

Dollar weed as a lawn

cynthianovak
10 years ago

I dug out some dollar weed and put it between the stones on my flag stone paths. It takes off, it's very green and doesn't mind if I walk all over it. It doesn't get very tall and seems to be happy to be here, there and everywhere.

Yes, I do have it in my beds. I was just wondering why we don't find it as desreable as St. Augustine?

Do I sound like someone ready to give up on keeping it away?

any thoughts?

Comments (21)

  • PKponder TX Z7B
    10 years ago

    Well, when life hands you lemons, make lemonade :-)

    I once purposely planted pennywort in a wet spot in the h*** strip. It looks a lot like dollar weed. There was an underground spring that surfaced right there and after the city dug it all up to check for a water leak, it was a muddy mess and grass wouldn't get started there. My neighbors all thought it to be dollarweed and were furious with me.

    I was confronted by three different neighbors on why I was cultivating such an invasive weed that they struggled with in their tidy lawns.

  • TxMarti
    10 years ago

    I actually bought pennywort one time (over 30 years ago) when I read it made a great ground cover in full shade (Neil Sperry book). I bet those people have cussed me more than once and their neighbors too. I find it in my yard all the time and can't seem to get rid of it.

  • bostedo: 8a tx-bp-dfw
    10 years ago

    Some folks used clover or Asian dichondra as grass alternatives where I lived in California many years ago. They could look spectacular, but were a lot of work; similar or possibly worse than committing to a Tiff lawn around here. I vaguely recall a LOT of hand weeding to keep the grassy invasives out. Didn't see as many (any?) on more recent trips to the old neighborhood, so suspect they are less popular these days due to the labor and water needed to keep them looking good.

    Seems a dollar weed (hydrocotyle) lawn could be a similar challenge. Also, it is a wetland plant, so am guessing it might take as much or more water than even the most thirsty St. Augustine cultivar.

    The ponysfoot (dichondra carolinensis) we got throughout the St. Augustine this spring thanks to a third season without a pre-emergents is another. While it's still going strong in the shade, it's losing ground in full sun on the weekly watering schedule. Apparently it works as a ground-cover in some locations, but don't think it would stand up well enough to the Texas sun/heat as a general St. Augustine lawn alternative. Don't know if the imported d. micranthra/repens sold as lawn seed would perform any better, but suspect not or they'd be more common here (and in CA).

    We use Silver Falls ponysfoot (d. argentea) as a nice filler in one of our raised beds. It will take full Texas sun with little water, but has too iffy/sporadic recovery after the winter freezes to consider it as a lawn option - at least in the northern parts of the state.

    This post was edited by bostedo on Sat, Jun 15, 13 at 11:29

  • cynthianovak
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    OK, so the moral of this story is: If I start to want it, it will decline. Such is life.....:+) Guess putting it in those flag stone crevices was like me giving it the conditions it always wanted. As I read that, I realize that in my beds it seems to hug to the edging. Hmmm, guess I'll go back to coping rather than cultivating this one....Thanks All c

  • TxMarti
    10 years ago

    bostedo, you're right, it is the dichondra carolinensis and not the pennywort I keep finding in my yard. It's showing no sign of dying in this heat.

  • cynthianovak
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    dichondra carolinensis

    That is what I have too! So the common name is "ponysfoot"

    Anyone else have this in your garden?

    Here is a link that might be useful: DC

  • PKponder TX Z7B
    10 years ago

    I have a bit of that here and there in the back lawn. I didn't know what it was!

    Cynthia, I bet it looks great between the flagstones. I grow thyme in between the stones, but the horseherb and ajuga actually look healthier right now. It's all better than bare soil :-)

  • bostedo: 8a tx-bp-dfw
    10 years ago

    marti8a: It's showing no sign of dying in this heat.

    Yes, looks like the heat alone has not discouraged ours much either so far. After a closer look, it's the more robust growth in the sunny spots of St. Augustine cut at maximum mower height that seems to be crowding it out. The ponysfoot continues to do fine in the shady areas where the SA stays much thinner. The drier 100+ days ahead may also just make it go dormant rather than kill it. So, I may have to resort to a broadleaf spray in the areas the SA is unable to dominate to keep it from spreading into our neighbor's lawn.

    I actually like d. carolinensis. My reservations about cultivating it in beds, walks, or elsewhere on the lot is due to ignorance over how easily it can be contained. Where it escapes into the lawn, it's almost impossible to get it all by hand pulling once woven into the SA turf. I'm comfortable using d. argentea (Silver Falls) because I know it is tender enough in our area to eradicate easily if it does manage to get away.

    The following link provides a quick way to distinguish between dollarweed and ponysfoot/ponyfoot.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Dollarweed (pennywort) or Dichondra (ponysfoot)

  • plantmaven
    10 years ago

    I have dichondra growing between stones. It looks good. I would rather have that in the beds than oxalis.
    I remember when I was a child someone gave Mother a start of dollar weed. They called it money plant. She was so sorry she planted it.

  • YoliS
    10 years ago

    Hi. I have been looking for the Dollarweed for a long time. Can I have some of your weed please. ysickle@hotmail.com
    Thank you
    Yoli

  • cynthianovak
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    It turns out that I don't have dollar weed, but the other. If you are in Arlington, and want some I will be happy to scoop some out for you. c

  • beachplant
    10 years ago

    yuck! Dollarweed, and the other is just dollar weed sold as a pond plant, are the bane of my existence!!
    It gets TALL, grows between everything, everywhere, has those ugly blooms, every little piece will grow a new plant, breaks easily when you are trying to pull it, pulls the plants out of the ground when trying to pull it, is impossible to kill.

    You want some? I`ll give you all you want!! If I could ban one single weed this would be it. I swear I am gonna be found dead with a handful of dollar weed!
    Tally Ho!

  • TxMarti
    10 years ago

    No, dollarweed isn't what I bought. You made me go look it up. lol

    This is the one I bought, moneywort aka creeping jenny.

  • honeybunny2 Fox
    10 years ago

    I'm with you on that Tally, dollar weed, takes over our carpet grass. The landscape companies at the coast told us about a product by Greenlight called Wipe Out. They said it was the only product that worked at the coast. Another company bought out Greenlight in April, we bought 24 bottles of it from Rainbow Gardens in San Antonio. Now we just have to wait until this new company starts making a similar product. You have to be very careful, when using Wipe Out, and spray the grass lightly. If you spray back and forth, you have probably sprayed too much. I still pull it by hand from my flowerbeds. Barbra

  • Carol love_the_yard (Zone 9A Jacksonville, FL)
    10 years ago

    I thought dollarweed was the worst... until I met torpedo grass. Be familiar with and on the lookout for this nasty beast. Makes dollarweed look like your best friend.

  • honeybunny2 Fox
    10 years ago

    Love in the Yard, I have never seen torpedo grass, I had to look it up. The rooting system it has is just like our nut grass. I kill nut grass by spraying the grass with round up, it has to be the purple cap round up. You only have to spray some of the nut grass, since they are connected by roots, the one plant you spray will kill all the other plants around it. It really works, the stuff is expensive. Wal-Mart marks it down in the fall half price, before they bring in their Christmas stuff. I usually get a gallon that will last me all year. Barbra

  • Carol love_the_yard (Zone 9A Jacksonville, FL)
    10 years ago

    Oh hi, Honeybunny!

    Thanks for trying to help. But I only wish it were like nutgrass. It is not. At all. Not even close. This weed is the devil himself and like I said, it will make you wish for dollarweed or nutgrass. This weed has runners that are akin to bamboo. Seriously.

    The blades are highly resistant to Roundup. I have been persistently applying purple concentrated Roundup every two days and some blades are turning brown but only around the edges. Meanwhile, new shoots are coming up off of the same runner. It laughs at a normal dose.

    Nutgrass roots run about 1-2" below the soil surface. Torpedo grass has unbelievably tough, thick, aggressive roots that run about a foot, yes a foot, below the soil surface (!). And that is no exaggeration. You would have to uproot an entire bed to remove them by digging and unless you get every single piece of runner buried a foot below the surface of the soil, that weed is comin' back.

    Whereas nutgrass can be grabbed and some length of runner removed, torpedo grass breaks off immediately. No piece of the runner is removed by pulling.

    This is all coming over from my neighbor's yard, by the way, who doesn't give a hoot.

    The only way to deal with this weed is poison and I will continue to up the ante by increasing the concentration of Roundup. But I'm just saying be on the lookout because this is one heck of a (new to me) aggressive, aggressive weed.

    PS. I had to look it up, too, when it just showed up at the edge of his yard - coming into mine - last year. I had no idea what it was but when I pulled and it just broke off, I thought, uh oh. That was just the tip of the iceberg. :(

    Carol

    This post was edited by love_the_yard on Thu, Jul 11, 13 at 19:32

  • patty_cakes
    10 years ago

    I'm pretty sure that's what I have growing along a stone wall as well as between the flagstone walkway. There"s actually 3 different things growing, all a ground cover 'weed' or whatever, but I've pulled the majority of the other two out and kept this one since it seems to be 'creepy-er' and hot upright at all.

    Plantmaven, it isn't money plant. I used to use it in dried arrangements years ago. It supposedly grows on the shoreline of the east coast. It was also called silver dollar. Here's a link if you care to read about it.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Money plant

  • honeybunny2 Fox
    10 years ago

    Carol, the root system you describe sounds like Johnson Grass, that is our devil grass here in Texas. It spreads by underground rhizomes, I actually had on come up in my yard yesterday. It was just a baby, but I had to dig out all the rhizomes, they looked like knuckles. I have no idea where it came from. Barbra

  • Khanh Tran
    8 years ago

    Hi All,

    does anybody here have some free "dollar weed" or "pennywort" plant that i could have? Please let me know at 214-505-4626 or kttran_2005@yahoo.com. I really appreciate that.

    Thanks,

    Khanh