What to do between stone walk way? (growing plant, bugs, grass)

[spacelord75]

So I put in a flagstone walkway on the side of my house leading to the backyard. It is very rustic, which was what I was going for, and basically just set the cherokee blackstone halfway into the dirt. The pathway is lined with tennessee crab orchard stack stone dry set borders which separate pinestraw beds from the path. I couldn't figure out what to do between the stones (which I laid last summer) so I left it as is....it has now grown in with a bunch of weeds, most of which is a not-too-bad-looking creeper with small white flowers. The problem is these weeds grow too high and are mixed with some less than attractive weeds as well. Any suggestions one how to best fill in this space and keep a uniform, low-profile look to the pathway? I live in Georgia and the path also takes on a lot of water flow when it rains. Ground is clay, but the upper couple inches appears to be decent black soil. Any suggestions?

[txtoal]

What about mondo grass? It is small and fills in between the spaces pretty nicely. I have seen this done at a few places and it looks great.

[spacelord75]

Originally Posted by txtoal

What about mondo grass? It is small and fills in between the spaces pretty nicely. I have seen this done at a few places and it looks great.

Had not considered it until your post, then researched and found dwarf mondo grass which sounds perfect! Any ideas on how far apart I can plant it? The pathway is very wide and long and don't want to spend a ton of $ on planting a ground cover.

[sushiqueen]

There is also creeping jenny and other low profile plants being marketed as "stepables" at the nursery. I also thought of creeping phlox but that may cover your stones too much. We are having a flagstone path put in and we are putting river stones between the large pavers.

[txtoal]

Originally Posted by spacelord75

Had not considered it until your post, then researched and found dwarf mondo grass which sounds perfect! Any ideas on how far apart I can plant it? The pathway is very wide and long and don't want to spend a ton of $ on planting a ground cover.

That is a good point. You could buy some and propagate it into smaller pieces? That could be a pain though and pretty time consuming or maybe you can mix it with some other plants that other posts have suggested. I have propagated liriope (or called monkey grass and is from the same family as mondo grass but is larger) very successfully. I planted mine about 6" apart. I know that mondo is a slow growing plant but it doesn't get too tall, maybe 2-4" tall? You only have to mow it once a year in late winter, same as liriope. Funny that this post came up because we have a rock pathway to our pool and I am putting mondo grass between the larger "step" rocks but I don't need alot since the rest of the rockway is smaller rocks/gravel. When I do it, I will let you know how it looks/turns out with a picture. Hope this helps!

[foxywench]

how about lemon or wooly thyme...
you can hit it with a lawnmower on a high cut to keep it super short, it grows and spreads like the crazy (like most herbs lol), can be used in the kitchen, and every time your feet brush against it youll be greeted by a wonderfull fragrance, i personally prefer lemon thyme for this kind of job because bugs dont like the smell, particularly skeeters!
its also tough, and will take lots of foot traffic without too much of an issue.

we actually had a big brick planter that we planted up with lemon thyme and used it as a bench, eveytime you sat down you were surrounded by a subtle lemon flavor, and never once got bothered by bugs when on that bench.

[eyewrist]

Originally Posted by foxywench

how about lemon or wooly thyme...
you can hit it with a lawnmower on a high cut to keep it super short, it grows and spreads like the crazy (like most herbs lol), can be used in the kitchen, and every time your feet brush against it youll be greeted by a wonderfull fragrance, i personally prefer lemon thyme for this kind of job because bugs dont like the smell, particularly skeeters!
its also tough, and will take lots of foot traffic without too much of an issue.

we actually had a big brick planter that we planted up with lemon thyme and used it as a bench, eveytime you sat down you were surrounded by a subtle lemon flavor, and never once got bothered by bugs when on that bench.

I never use lemon thyme like that and had no idea it could handle the foot traffic. But I do know the flavor is wonderful; I put it on fruit, yogurt or atop a smoothie...deliteful flavor

[foxywench]

i was suprised too, but it seems to do pretyt well being sat on and lighlty trampled (and attacked with the lawnmower lol.)

im pretty sure, that like mint, its one of those herbs that just refuses to die lol

[eyewrist]

Originally Posted by foxywench

i was suprised too, but it seems to do pretyt well being sat on and lighlty trampled (and attacked with the lawnmower lol.)

im pretty sure, that like mint, its one of those herbs that just refuses to die lol

Sigh, that mint family is something else. Mint is good for digestion, headaches, West Nile Virus and repels rodent as well but once it touches the ground...Watch out, there's no stopping it.

[eyewrist]

Sedum has become popular recently; even seen Lowes selling it now. It's a tiny succulent so you don't need to water it and it takes root quickly even if a small piece breaks off and falls to the ground.

There also centipede grass but that may depend on your geographical location. I've seen it more in the south.