Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show: Weed-blocking superheroes
Weeding not your bag? Me either! Although occasionally I find it cathartic, I prefer not to HAVE to do it. How about some weed-blocking plants! They pack a punch to knock out weeds, but they are likely invasive.
The samurai of weed blockers do so by shading weed seeds and not allowing them to germinate. Here are just a few to get you started:
Lady’s Mantle is also known as Alchemilla Mollis and grows to 18 inches tall and self seeds. It will spread by rhizomes. This guy is good in full sun to part shade, best in 4 to 6 hours of sun.
‘Emerald Blue’ creeping phlox has pretty little lavender flowers through April and May and is zone 2 hardy. This plant is a short groundcover in full sun.
This is from my own yard….
The catmint variety known as ‘Walker’s Low’ was voted the 2007 perennial of the year and is another superhero weed blocker.
It’s hardy to zone 3, loves full zone and in mid-season after the first flush of flowers have faded, trim the plant by a third and in a couple of weeks, you’ll have more flowers. Catmint is also deer and rabbit resistant. Ooo, bonus!
Another zone 3 hardy plant, ‘Herman’s Pride’ false lamium, quickly forms a dense canopy.
It has mottled yellow-green foliage with pale yellow flowers that delight in shade. Careful though, this weed-whipper is a wanderer too.
Another plant that is really invasive and definitely a weed-whipper is ‘Snow on the Mountain’.
I moved this plant (which turned out to be about a million) out of a shaded garden and into a woodland area, it is taking over. This plant shoots out rhizomes everywhere and will march like a conqueror through any territory, that’s good if you want to block weeds, bad if you want it to stay contained.