Allotments 4 All

having just spent 3 hours de-vinca-ing a bit of the lottie garden i have come to the conclusion that it should be banned from the uk!
japanes knotweed?
not a patch on b****y vinca!
grrrrrr! >:(

you want ground cover-ajuga.....thyme......chamomile......
but not vinca!!!!!!!!!

'k-rant over!
and if you have been.thanks for listening!
kitty ;D

I love it, especially  vinca illumination it really lights up a shady corner.

But I must admit it is very invasive if not kept in place, but not as bad as crocosmia.

hmmmmm.....maybe i am too quick to judge :-[
praps i should have a hot bath and a bevy-then think whether or not its a good thing!
kitty ;D

I keep mine well trimmed so it can't bend over and make new plants.  My husband thinks I'm neurotic, but I have had quite an invasion in the past and while I think it is very pretty I only want it in one place.  It seems to be quite happy and flowers well.

so thats how it propagates itself is it|?
i thought it was an underground thing-a bit like a buttercup...
the flowers are pretty-but it creeps into,say,the middle of a large clump of fennel and clings on for grim life-almost impossible to remove it from an unwanted place!

It is all right when you are the one who planted it and keep it under control, but when it is already a thug when you start, grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

I'm with the LOATHE faction here. It was in the garden when we moved in. Been trying to eradicate it for all this time and STILL it comes up in the middle of the lawn. It's definitely underground creeping here...

Grrr indeed. 

moonbells

i would no more plant vinca myself than..than.....run around this message board nekkid! :o
o.....
horrible thought....... ::)
nooooo.it was here when we moved here in january-about the only thing that was!
i am going to combat it with a rigorous regime of control and suppress.....i havent a hope of oiking it out completely-


if that fails i shall pretend i meant it to be there! ::)

I wont buy plants from places that sell it as ground cover  My first garden was utterly infested.  Always growl at stupid garden design books that suggest it.

They must never have actually had experience of it to recommend it like that.  Years ago a very popular gardening magazine had a special offer of hardy geraniums, a set of five.  Well four were lovely but the fifth grew very well and I was soon able to give plants to my friends - we all have infestations of it in our gardens now! In fact OH dug loads up yesterday.  I have seen it mentioned on GW perhaps last year as being invasive but every time I look at it I wonder how a gardening magazine could have sold such an awful plant.  A friend showed me how bad hers was on Friday too, with the comment "Do you remember that awful plant!"

I disagree. Although i dont grow it, I do like it as a plant and i smile when i see it (and wish i did have it).

That said i do have a woodland area in my garden where I would be happy to let it do its thing  ;D

A lottie is perhaps NOT  the best place for it!  >:(

garden cadet-just pm me if you would like a truck loader.....a bit!i'll happily put a wodge in the post!

Quote from: kitty on April 24, 2005, 17:59:23
garden cadet-just pm me if you would like a truck loader.....a bit!i'll happily put a wodge in the post!

Are you being serious kitty?

Me likes.  ;D  Have it in the front garden and it very nicely smothers an ugly manhole cover.  I go around it when I am out there pottering with a pair of scissors to keep it under control.  It does grow like mad, but at the moment, when things are still thin on the ground and only just waking up, mine is covered in delicate flowers and looking wonderful!  ;D

yes garden cadet,i'm serious!-the more people i can con.er..helpby passing on vinca the better!!!!!jus' kidding-it is a nice plant if you dont let it get out of hand-but we inherited ours and it had been neglected....-just pm me your land address and i'll pop some roots in the post! :)


ej-you will live to regret those words when that vinca takes of and you have 9 acres of the stuff! ;D

Kitty, Just sent you a PM - I dont know if you got it or not.

personaly i can think of worse weeds to have take over your garden or plot. Here are some of mine:

Bindweed
Buttercup
Couch Grass
Clover
etc

And some personal 'pains in the neck':
Ivy
Native Arum lilly.

Want some of those? LOL

BTW Is the vinca 'major' or 'minor'? Ie does it have small or large leaves? I know , I know you probably arent bothered which it is, just about getting rid of it!

The bloke next door has just planted a vinca about 12" away from the start of my garden.  >:(   If it comes near, and it will!, I'll be waiting secateurs in hand.  *devil smilie needed*

I know its not the weed vatiety but its just as invasive. And anyway anything which is unwanted in the garden is a weed.

*phew, my rant over*

Garden Cadet I know what you mean - I have Bindweed ,Buttercup, Couch Grass
and Clover in huge abundance on the lottie - absolute nightmare.  Every square inch of uncultivated (and quite a bit of cultivated) land covered in a combination of these.  Finally going to resort to chemical methods before crops are too advanced.

Oh - thistles too. >:(

it just shows how one man/womans meat is another's poison doesnt it?

Things one gardener struggles to grow can be another ones weed.

Some people love euphorbia. I have had one seed everywhere and become a pest in two gardens (though its under control in the current one now).

My prob with the neigbours vinca is that I live in a terraced house with a space  about 2' x 10' for planting at the front.  :(

If I had a real garden I prolly wouldnt mind other peeps plants invading to  certain extent but a vinca is the wrong plant for this position. He's filled his patch with all the wrong things. He prolly doesnt know that cos he's new to gardening.    :-\

Very small shrubs or annuals work best. They put a lot of colour in a small space and dont annoy the neightbours...... me!  :P  ;D