Invasive Plants in a Perennial Garden

Invasive Plants in a Perennial Garden
Many of your plants that you put in your perennial garden, they do spread, but then again, you have some actually spread so much they are on the list of what we call invasive plants. Most garden centers don't even carry them. Sometimes these plants should be totally eliminated from your garden. Unfortunately, some of them are quite attractive. Now right here we have this nice foliage plant, which as you can see has a white edging here. I like it because it fits in very nice with this little shrub under this little shady area. I've had this here for probably 8 years. I used to have it in my main garden and it spread everywhere. It spread in the middle of other plants, it spread to places where I didn't want it to spread. It got mixed in the roots systems and it was just terrible. I was about to throw it away when I realized if I put it under this shady spot what I could do is have grass around it. What you can do is if you take these little plants that you really don't want to part with and you surround them with something that prevents them from spreading, they'll actually work okay. This area is totally surrounded with grass and this canopy of grass doesn't allow it to spread anywhere. This is one example of a plant you can actually keep but making sure it's contained. I have one other plant up here, which is called the goose neck plant. It also is very invasive. I only got this plant last year because I actually liked the looks of it, but again, I knew I had a spot where I could put it. Right here is what I call my extra gardening space. I just throw things in here that sometimes I would normally throw away, but I put them in here and I share them with friends. When somebody told me about this goose neck plant, I thought well I have just the spot for it. I think last year I put it one of these and now I have probably 12 of them. I'm sure next year I'll probably have 30 of them. But again, it's in between other plants. It has grass around it here and on the back side of the garden is also a strip of lawn. That will keep this plant right here, and I have a feeling I'll probably enjoy it because it won't go too far and yet it'll stay here and I can enjoy that nice little white top.