Older shrubs had become overgrown and weeds had taken over this yard. There was also a serious problem with ‘torpedo grass’ (Panicum repens), which has horrible, plastic-like, white rhizomes up to 18” deep underground. All shrubs were removed, and herbicide sprayed twice to attempt to kill persistent weeds. We mixed some liquid dish soap in with the herbicide to help the product adhere to the leaf blades (this seems to work quite well). Even so, after waiting for weeds to die, we hand dug as many roots out as we could find, then re-graded the soil and installed new plants and mulch.

In this late summer photo, the purple haze you see is our native muhly grass (Muhlenbergia capillaris). Under the foxtail palms are three Loropetalum ‘Zhou Zhou’. A fantastic plant in the witch hazel family, Zhou Zhou will grow to 8-10’ tall, with a multi-tiered branching habit. It has hot pink flowers in early summer and burgundy foliage. We can’t wait to see these plants mature!

Because of the original severe weed problem, and likelihood that weed seeds would still be present in this bed for months to come, extreme vigilance and diligence with weeding and mulching was a must for this landscape.

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