Native Plants
Q. Who is Mr. Smarty Plants?
A: There are those who suspect Wildflower Center volunteers are the culpable and capable culprits. Yet, others think staff members play some, albeit small, role. You can torture us with your plant questions, but we will never reveal the Green Guru's secret identity.
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Ask Mr. Smarty Plants
Ask Mr. Smarty Plants is a free service provided by the staff and volunteers at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.
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Wednesday - September 02, 2009
From: Frankfort, IL
Region: Midwest
Topic: Wildflowers
Title: Getting rid of wildflowers in Frankfort IL
Answered by: Barbara Medford
QUESTION:
Can you tell us how to get rid of wildflowers? We have wildflowers on the side of our pond and we want to plant sod next year.Should we cut them down this year and use a vegetation killer? We have fish in our pond and wouldn't want anything to affect them.ANSWER:
Ooops, we believe you've reached a wrong number. You're asking the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, home of Mr. Smarty Plants, to tell you how to get rid of wildflowers?
The only way we can answer a question like that is to say that perhaps you have weeds around your pond, weeds being something that is somewhere it doesn't belong (or you don't want it). We would never recommend a herbicide, that can harm too many other things in the area. And we're certainly not crazy about the native wildflowers being replaced with sod, probably a non-native lawn grass. Everyone has the choice of what they grow on their own property, but we would hope you would rethink this a little bit. Take a few minutes to read our How-To Article A Guide to Native Plant Gardening. If we still have your attention, how about reading Meadow Gardening. And if we still haven't talked you out of destroying your wildflowers, we suggest you hand pull them and don't allow them to go to seed.
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