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Can I plant alliums & crocuses in a weedy lawn

puschkiniapuschkinia Posts: 229
in Plants
Hi everyone
I have some allium and crocus bulbs to plant, and ideally I'd like to plant them in my full sun front lawn. The lawn has so many weeds (ugly ones) and I've been battling with them since moving in, seemingly to no avail.

I was wondering first, whether the bulbs will do ok against all those weeds and second, whether - by some gardening miracle - the bulbs might help reduce the weeds? There's a bed I could plant them in instead, but I wanted to plant mexican fleabane there and I'm worried they might look a bit strange together. In case it makes a difference the allium bulbs I have are purple sensation and the allium caeruleum one and the crocuses are Blue Pearl. 

Thanks :)

Posts

  • ButtercupdaysButtercupdays Posts: 4,546
    It depends on what you plan for the lawn. It depends what weeds you have (maybe post some pics if you're not sure) but many weeds can be kept in check by regular mowing. None of your bulbs would have a problem growing through the fleabane.
    The crocuses are small and flower early and are fine to plant in grass, but you have to allow the leaves to die back to feed the corms, so that means no mowing for 6 weeks after flowering.
    The alliums flower a bit later. The blue ones could work, just like the crocuses, but still not cutting the grass till they died back.
    Purple Sensation are taller and look best among other plants or tall grasses, which offer some support to their slender stems, so would be better in a border.
  • JennyJJennyJ Posts: 10,576
    The weeds won't bother the bulbs, but tall weed growth (and long grass) could obscure your view of small bulbs like crocus, and the bulbs might get disturbed if you're digging out weeds while the bulbs are dormant so you can't see where they are. It's not a big deal though, you can just poke them back in.
    Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    I love your description of the weeds @puschkinia - ' ugly ones'  :D
    I'd agree with @Buttercupdays though. It depends on the general look you want to achieve, because of the eventual grass cutting. Most alliums are later, and taller [as the ones you have are ] so it's difficult if you also want to cut the 'grass'. The size of the space will dictate a bit too. 
    Perhaps you could do the 'no mow' thing, and plant in those areas, using other plants and bulbs as well, and just have a path  which you can mow through the area,  or something similar.  :)
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • puschkiniapuschkinia Posts: 229
    Thank you for the tips everyone - @Buttercupdays, @JennyJ & @Fairygirl :D all super helpful

    I don't have pictures because I've been pulling most out, but I used a weed identifier on some of them and got: horseweed; hemp agrimony; white clover (I don't mind that one); and yarrow (which I know is good for wildlife and looks alright when flowering, but I really can't stand its leaves atm). There are more that I didn't manage to check though. Feels like a lot for a ~3m x 3m space...

    So good to know about the mowing, I didn't think about that at all. Do you think it'd be ok to mow once before the crocuses come up and once again after they die down but before the alliums come up? Or like @Fairygirl I could just skip the mowing - I like long grass anyway, so if the flowers would be happy with no mowing at all it's good for me! 

  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    If you put some photos on here, you'll get help with IDs.

    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • punkdocpunkdoc Posts: 15,039
    I think you would need to skip the mowing, because Allium foliage can emerge very early.
    How can you lie there and think of England
    When you don't even know who's in the team

    S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
  • puschkiniapuschkinia Posts: 229
    @Fairygirl - this is basically my whole lawn :scream: weeds everywhere. Almost no grass left.   hoI haven't checked the lawn for about 10 days ag
  • puschkiniapuschkinia Posts: 229
    oops, half a comment was left at the end.

    I didn't check the lawn for ~10 days and there seem to be lots of new ones. Again!
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