One of the first books I bought when I began gardening in Austin was Sally and Andy Wasowski’s Native Texas Plants: Landscaping Region by Region. I believed that one should garden where one is and was interested in discovering native Texas plants that would, not only survive in Central Texas, but thrive. However, Ms. Wasowski totally lost me on page 99 with this ode to horseherb, Calytocarpus vialis.
This plant illustrates how prejudices can cloud the mind. It is described in botanical literature as a “noxious lawn weed.” Why? Because it outcompetes grass in the shade. Funny, that’s what I thought everyone wants a shady ground cover to do.
Well, honey, call me prejudiced but I’m here to tell you that horseherb is a noxious weed. It’s right up there with bindweed in my book. It will grow in your lawn. It will grow in your paths. It will smother the buffalograss. It will climb over the agave. It will suck the life out the species tulips. It will crowd out the bluebonnets.
In short, if you have it, you will never be rid of it. Try pulling it up, and it will snap off at the ground and resprout again in a few weeks. Dig it up and every little root will start a new plant.
Still, I’m resigned to the digging out method. Here I am, digging up the meadow and adding compost. The meadow needs to be disturbed a bit this time of year so that the self-sowers (larkspur, bluebonnets, cilantro, and nigella) will sprout. Unfortunately to get out the horseherb, I’m also digging up rainlilies and tulips and buffalograss and the nice gravel mulch I have around the agave. What? You can’t see any gravel mulch around the agave? Now you know why I hate horseherb.
