September 2025

Vinca minor welfare check

This past week I stopped to check on a periwinkle planting I did a few seasons ago. The area is a small sloping bed and planting periwinkle (Vinca minor) was our last resort try. For whatever reason, grass wouldn’t grow on the “hump”.

It’s possible that water moves downslope and therefore leaves the bed too dry, or there is competition from the oak tree (Quercus palustris).

We top-dressed and over-seeded the spot, and we also tried hydroseeding: the grass wouldn’t survive!

Vinca minor

Since there was already a lot of periwinkle growing above the bed, under the oak tree, adding more was a no-brainer, even though many people consider periwinkle invasive. Nurseries still sell the plant and why not? It has nice purple flowers, and it grows fast like an invasive plant. If you need a groundcover plant, vinca is a good choice.

Roughly two seasons ago I planted many baby plants and wished them well. I knew they would do well. It was nice to see them spreading and filling out the open spaces. I just found one small bare spot but overall the planting was a success. Check my YouTube short below. Click like and subscribe, too!

Conclusion

It’s a lot of fun to check on your work, especially when you have success. And in this case, success was almost guaranteed because I knew that Vinca minor was a fast-growing groundcover plant. It saved us after we failed to establish grass on the “hump”. To this day I don’t know why grass wouldn’t take there.

If you need a fast-growing groundcover plant, Vinca minor is a good choice, especially if you can keep it contained. It is considered borderline invasive and some people discourage you from planting it. Personally I find its purple flowers attractive.

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Why the struggle?

It was late July and very hot when I did a welfare check on newly planted Portuguese laurels (Prunus lusitanica). One specimen showed a lot of brown foliage inside and the pregnant unit owner was rightfully worried. Hmm.

So I dropped to my knees to see what was going on. There was a lot of soil amender piled against the plants which can be a problem. When the owner waters, I’m almost sure the water barely penetrates the several inches of soil amender.

We need water in the root zone!

The fix?

Just like with tree planting, you can’t pile soil or mulch against the trunk like a volcano. I’ve written numerous posts about the many problems with mulch volcanoes. If you don’t know what I’m talkin about, please search through my YouTube shorts.

So I reached in and pulled the soil amender away from the stems until I could see the root flare. That’s the zone where stems become roots. When you do this, you create a well.

Then the next step is turning your water hose on low trickle so you can slow soak the plant for a few minutes. With the soil amender pushed out of the way, it’s almost guaranteed we’ll get water into the root zone.

I will try to check on the laurels when I’m in the area next. It would be a shame to lose them because they have beautiful glossy foliage and they’re pricey. Over time they will provide a nice screen for the owners and their kids.

Conclusion

Adding soil amender after planting gives the plants a nice kick and keeps moisture inside. But never pile the soil against the trunk: this is true for trees and shrubs. The laurels in this post probably couldn’t get water deep into the root zone because the amender absorbed whatever water the owner gave it.

In my experience, homeowners don’t slow soak their plants. Their treat them like their cars at a car wash. If you’re not sure about moisture levels, stick your finger into the planting hole to get an idea.

Over-watering can also be a problem: water displaces oxygen so too much water could suffocate your plants.

Resilient Magnolia

I have known this one Magnolia tree for ten years. I still remember seeing it for the first time because there was an obvious wound at the base from mowers. Poorly trained landscapers refused to get off the curb and mowed in a straight line, hitting the tree once a week. Now, ten years later, we have lessons to learn from this Magnolia case.

Mowers and tree bark don’t mix

Your mower doesn’t have the right of way. I train my workers to avoid tree collisions at all costs because trees are more valuable than grass.

When you hit trees you stress them out. Now instead of investing resources into new growth, they have to work on repairs. When I look at the street I can see that the other Magnolias are bigger, probably because they don’t get abused by mower decks weekly.

Weekly injuries can kill the tree.

Are we done?

A few weeks ago I shot a video of my worker mowing around the tree, never getting close enough to injure it. See the video below.

And then it hit me: if you mow straight today you will probably not touch the tree because the gap at the base is large enough ten years later to allow the mower to pass by! That’s comical.

Why isn’t the tree dead?

Trees are resilient! This particular Magnolia is smaller than its cousins nearby but it’s still standing and producing flowers and seed pods, after ten years of abuse. So why isn’t it dead? Pure luck?

Not really. Trees can build different protective walls around wounds which protect the tree from decay, diseases and insects. I suspect that’s what this Magnolia used its precious resources for: building real walls, not useless walls like Trump’s border wall.

The technical term is “compartmentalization” which refers to trees sealing off the wound. In arboriculture we use the acronym CODIT for compartmentalization of decay in trees.

Conclusion

Keep your mowers away from tree bark. Period. No excuses. Make it a habit and train your workers well.

Repeated wounding can stress and kill your tree.

Learning about a new perennial

I’ve been landscaping for twenty six seasons and there is always something new to learn. Especially plants. And recently I’ve been running into a yellow-flowered perennial which we consider a weed on our strata sites because we don’t want it.

I have a client who struggles with this unwanted plant in his front lawn. Also, my commercial sites have the plant growing through my heather plants which makes it hard to pull them out. And even worse, workers send me pictures of it and ask if they should remove it. I even photographed the plant on my sister’s ranch outside Kamloops, British Columbia.

Since I had no idea what it was called, I had to look it up.

Red Seal Vas gets schooled

So, first, we have to identify the plant. Luckily, it shows up in my copy of “Popular wildflowers of BC and Vancouver Island” by Neil L. Jennings. It’s called Lotus corniculatus or Bird’s Foot Trefoil. Jennings tells us that this was a pasture plant in Europe. It’s a low-growing, sprawling, creeping perennial.

I don’t mind the look; I like yellow flowers. But it’s the sprawling, creeping habit that’s annoying because it’s hard to pull out of heather plants. Bird’s Foot Trefoil flowers from June to September and you can expect the flowers to turn into seed pods.

So is it a weed? Technically yes, if you don’t want it. Otherwise, it’s a decent looking perennial wildflower from the pea family. I got the worker who texted me about it to pull it out because it was smothering groundcover plants. If I find growing in open spots, I will most likely leave it alone.

And the next time my workers ask me about it, I will tell them it’s Lotus corniculatus and refer them to this brilliant blog post.

Conclusion

Learning never stops! I’m used to that but I’m not used to all of a sudden seeing the same unknown plant everywhere. I had to look it up this weekend.

So keep working on your plant identification skills.

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