We’ve got black medic in many places, including in sidewalk cracks. In my neighborhood, it’s as common a weed as purslane.
Which is to say, they do well . . . but they’re not particularly invasive!
Purslane, alfalfa, and black medic seem to be quite good at spreading, but not particularly prone to taking over. They just sprout all over the place, and they’re pretty good at dying after one time pulling them out. (Unlike bindweed, which comes back eighteen million times.)
Alfalfa is a bush, so it’s not ideal for walking on unless you chop it down (which I don’t mind for places that I don’t walk on a lot, as that seems like a pretty reasonable chop-and-drop mulch source). Purslane and black medic both have a creeping habit, though, so they seem like they’d be ideal groundcovers that never need to be mown. They don’t climb everything (unlike bindweed); they stay put on the ground. And they’re both edible. I’m thinking they both have a lot of potential as a living mulch layer for me.
(Unlike bindweed, which will climb and smother everything. Man, that plant wants to take over, and man, I want an edible good-at-spreading-but-not-very-invasive wild plant to replace it.)
The black medic was not a common weed here until a few years ago. Now I’m noticing people complaining about it even in nearby counties.
I read it is a cool season weed, but it’s growing almost year round except for freezing temps.
It wouldn’t be so bad if it didn’t grow so fast and thick in spring. It bogs down the mower.
Yeah, I could easily see it bogging down a mower! It spreads on long vines, just like bindweed does. It’s just that it doesn’t climb. And that makes all the difference! That means it’ll stay a ground cover, instead of climbing and choking out everything.
I don’t mow my lawn. The front yard is now completely covered in wood chips (yay!), so there’s no grass there. And in my back yard, I let the grass get tall and go to seed, and strip off the seed heads. Seeds of the species I don’t want, I will hopefully (if all goes according to plan) turn into biochar this year. Seeds of the species I do want, I sprinkle all over the lawn, especially in the barest spots. Then I chop down the tall stalks of everything and use them as hay mulch.
This means my back yard has very tall grass for most of April and May, which makes walking a bit of a pain. But I chop the grass down from my usual paths first. In winter, the grass is a soft green carpet, and in summer, the grass is dead. (I don’t water it.) So for most of the year, it’s short, and for the two months that it’s way too tall to walk on, I’m gradually moving across the yard, chopping it down in order to turn it into mulch in preparation for summer. I think that works out to be a pretty good system.
Overall, I’d rather have a living groundcover that doesn’t get tall and doesn’t need to be chopped-and-dropped, since that’d be a lot less work. So I’m keeping my eyes out for weeds that will fit that description.
I can tell stories about combining wheat fields taken by bindweed (when I was 16, I hired myself and my dad’s combine out to the neighbors after we were done with our own; made enough money to rebuild the 16-year-old machine). But my productive contribution to this conversation is to ask if yarrow is a viable option for you or if you’re in too wet of a climate. I’m planning to put it in a chunk of our yard next year, leaving part of it to go to seed and keeping part mowed as a “lawn”.
Huh! Yarrow is an interesting idea. I’ve seen it growing in a neighbor’s yard, I think as a volunteer, so it’s probably a good fit for my climate. (Cool and wet in the winter; very hot and very dry in the summer.)
What’s it like as a ground cover? Is it only around in the summer? A living groundcover for summer is very important for drought tolerance, but an evergreen that’s lush in the winter would be particularly valuable, since it could provide extra cold protection to a young tree, like citrus.
Here’s another question about yarrow: does it taste good enough to be worthwhile to have a whole lot of?
I’ve sowed most of my lawn with brassica seeds, in the hopes that I can encourage them to be perennial groundcovers for me, because that would be yummy. So far, they’re delicious but not at all good at staying, uh, short. I imagine I’ll keep on doing it, because yum, but they’re definitely not a good lawn replacement for summer. They may very well be an excellent herbaceous layer to act as a living mulch around fruit trees, though.
It doesn’t flower in winter even in a no-frost climate, but I’m pretty sure it’s evergreen throughout its range, so it could make a really nice filler between your citrus. It does need nearly full sun, so may not be ideal under the north side of the trees once the canopy is established. It does tend to go dormant in summer with no water (we won’t have measurable rainfall between now and October), but your citrus will need more water than the yarrow does, so that will cover it.
I don’t think you’ll want that much to eat. Another crazy idea (that may need too much irrigation to be viable) - can you use a patch of sorrel under the north sides of your trees?
Yarrow doesn’t taste good. It’s astringent and so a little goes along way. I make a mouthwash out of it bc it’s got anti-everything properties and the astringency pulls stuff out of the gums. For my personal use a 3’x3’ patch is more than enough.
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Hmmm. You know, something that has a growth habit of “lush and green all through winter, and turns into dead mulch in summer” might be a good idea. Garlic would fit the bill. Peas might, if the citrus trunks didn’t mind being used as a trellis. Fava beans might work, too. Tulips definitely would. Steven Edholm (Skillcult) says he uses daffodils to mulch his apple trees, and he lives in a climate that’s similar to mine. Daffodils and tulips follow about the same growth pattern.
I could live with a perennial living mulch that’s dead in summer and lush in winter. That might be the best combination for my climate: cold protection for citrus in winter, with leaves turning into mulch to hold in water in the summer, and the roots not competing with the citrus trees for water in summer.
A living mulch that’s alive all year round has real potential, too, though.
Obviously mint works an evergreen ground cover in my climate, but I worry that it would be way too invasive. Besides, I can’t really eat all that much mint. It’s tasty, but the flavor is too strong to use as a staple! It also seems to love water, so it’s likely it would compete with the trees for water in summer if I used it that way.
Walking onions or chives might work as an evergreen living mulch for trees. I don’t like onions or chives, so I don’t want to grow them all over the place. Those might work as an evergreen tree mulch for somebody who loves onions or chives, though.
Perennial kale certainly has potential. I really want to try it in a polyculture with bananas. Maybe a polyculture of citrus seedlings, banana seedlings, and perennial kale?
I’m currently waiting for a new cold hardy citrus to be available. Madison citrus is supposed to be propagating it, but they haven’t grown enough to sell them yet. It’s supposed to be a non-bitter citrangequat that closely resembles an orange.
In the meantime I have several types of seed grown in pots. Shiranui mandarin, white grapefruit, lemon, clementines, and seeds my friend sent me from his pomelo. They definitely aren’t hardy though.
In my neighborhood, it’s as common a weed as purslane.
So far, they’re delicious but not at all good at staying, uh, short. I imagine I’ll keep on doing it, because yum, but they’re definitely not a good lawn replacement for summer.