I can't get grass to grow in my back yard because we have two golden retrievers that love to run. We walk them a ton, but they still run. I know Liriope Spicata or monkey grass is indestructible. We also don't get a ton of direct sunlight. Thoughts on filling my back yard with Liriope Spicata (creeping variety)? I feel like it would hold up well and not look that bad.
by Gh0st_Pirate_LeChuck
9 Comments
Looks wild! If I could in my zone, would..
Don’t do it. Liriope spicata is a rhizome monster. It spreads underground and does not stop at property lines. If you plant the creeping variety you are married to it forever and so are your neighbors. Beyond the invasiveness it is terrible for running. It grows in dense clumps that hide holes and uneven ground. Your Goldens are going to twist an ankle tearing through that stuff and it is slicker than ice when it gets wet.
Practicality is the other issue here. Finding dog poop in dense 10-inch tall groundcover is absolute misery. You will miss half of it until you step in it. If the dogs are truly high traffic they will eventually trample this stuff into a slimy matted mess anyway. You are much better off looking at heavy-duty playground mulch or cedar chips. It drains well suppresses mud and is soft on their paws while stopping the dirt bath cycle.
Before you nuke the yard and plant an invasive species try loading a picture of your backyard into GardenDream to test out some different surfaces. You can visualize how wood chips or gravel paths with designated run areas would look compared to a sea of monkey grass. It helps to see the layout first so you don’t spend money creating a maintenance trap that requires an excavator to remove later.
Looks like a waving sea of grass 😍
https://youtube.com/shorts/x8S3AnA1NW0?si=Wsk6Jtn_Gig8fMZf
This will solve your problem – but create others. Liriope grown as tall as your pictures can certainly hold up to traffic, but can be tough on dogs paws if sharp, harbor pests & creatures dangerous to dogs (ticks like tall grass near trees & snakes need to be easy to spot & relocated), & make for a very difficult time finding their poop where the dark conditions can make nice mold conditions (not a huge problem if your dogs don’t eat poop which some do). Liriope also spreads with rhizomes & seeds uptaken by birds. It will spread everywhere along your property, into beds, up raised beds, across fences & under barriers, and that’s just the rhizomes. I got a 6’ tall pile of mulch back in fall that was dumped on top some liriope while I spread it. I found a 1 foot long rhizome growing perfectly vertical up into this mulch as the liriope tried to reach sunlight. It’s like plastic – its indestructible nature is both a strength and a danger. You’ll find it spreading where you didn’t ask it to, Your neighbors will find it spreading, your wildlife dept will find it in places other plants need to be to provide value to the greater ecosystem. Opt for Pennsylvania sedge or another native grass if you can. Penn sedge performs similarly to liriope once established, just more controllable. Give it a couple weeks before light traffic, a month before medium traffic. For high traffic areas, people plant a mix of Penn sedge & other grasses/groundcovers. I recall liriope being one of the intermixed grasses.
You’re better off with Mondo Grass, which spreads much slower and is not considered invasive.
Still, you can control monkey grass if you want to, but it takes effort, like containing bamboo.
Dwarf mondo. Be expensive tho
Don’t do mondo…please! Lots of great Carex spp. will work, pennsylvanica among others!
Don’t do it