We moved into a new place Pennsylvania 7A, in the past year and they have a nice patio with pavers. We really like what I believe are native violets (they have purple flowers in the springtime). But as you can tell there appears to also be clover, (which appeared after the native violets flowered) and some other grass looking weed you can see in the second picture that has appeared more frequently and recently.
My question is, will the clover take over the native violets or are they just coexisting at the moment? How about the other grass looking weed? I've weeded out some other not so nice looking weeds already. Bottom corner left had some erosion which we fixed but just transplanted a few of the native violets over in that area to spread.
Should I be doing anything to maintain this area or keep as is? Any suggestions for improvement (ie. remove clover and have just one dominant plant)? It looks nice from the first picture but up close/in person it looks a little messy since they aren't all uniform heights (clover can get tall)
by teh1whoknox
8 Comments
I think it looks great!
I think that’s wood sorrel not clover
It’s possible that the grass you are talking about is invasive stilt grass, which you would want to remove if that’s accurate because it will overtake the other things. I really like the look you have going. I think I also see some creeping jenny in the third picture. Not native but still works well there I think.
It looks pretty great! Looks like a very shaded area, grass would not do well there anyway and sorrel and violets love shade, as do the hostas in the flower bed. Just watch it for a year and see how it develops by itself! You can weed stuff as needed anytime.
thats awesome, make sure you post once its fully grown in
This is so cool! I’d get rid of the wood sorrel and anything else and let the violets take over. Having one plant will make this look intentional. The violets will seed and spread on their own and they are really beautiful even when they aren’t flowering. They also remain low to the ground. Yours look very healthy so they are obviously happy there.
I would also get rid of the hostas since some of them look like they are struggling… likely because of the narrow space.
It looks like there’s a section where there’s a wider garden bed… If so, I would get rid of everything in there and plant native ferns. Perhaps a Black Cohosh (these have a flower stalk that gets about 4-5 feet tall) along the back. Leave any violets that make their way in there.
Looks good. Might want to plant clover or more ground cover in the cracks to keep weeds out. If weeds grow tall you can just pluck em
The violets are lovely, and they’ll be colourful early spring. All else can go