Last year and early this Spring mariner wrote about some deals he made with indigenous wildlife in his yard. Indigenous means Creeping Charlie and moles, both known as pests.

The deal with Creeping Charlie is that mariner would let the weed be ground cover within the bounds of a long flower garden; The deal with moles is that they would eat Japanese Beetle larva.

These pacts have worked reasonably well, especially in the flower garden. The moles could die of obesity and still not control the beetles. Mariner must live with the fact that he has the only garden landscape in his area of town. All his neighbors have large garages and helicopter pads so the neighborhood’s beetles come to feast on flowers and apple trees. Further, all the neighbors like grass cut frequently so it looks like green dirt; mariner cuts one-third the length of the grass blade when it reaches six inches, ergo, mole bumps are not an issue.

Many gardeners are familiar with quackgrass. It infests lawns without notice but when it meets a flower garden, its long white roots sneak in about four inches deep. The only recourse is to dig up the roots, which disrupts the garden plants and is laborious. But there is good news! Mariner has discovered a chemical that will kill ONLY grass – garden plants be not afraid. The chemical is quite effective. Be sure not to spray it on grass you want to grow. In two or three days the grass turns brown and dies. His experience is that no ornamental plant was disturbed.

The product is: CLEANSE 2EC, active ingredient is clethodim.

Ancient Mariner