I am doing frog fruit, mimosa, and perennial peanut in Gainesville, I don’t have irrigation. I started doing it about 3 years ago, my yard was always patchy and everything I did to try to grow good grass was a fail, so I decided I would never plant another grass seed again. I put each plant where it seemed the most appropriate but other areas where I wasn’t sure I’ve put them all and I’m letting them all fight it out to see who wins. (I have about a half an acre of lawn )I am finding the frog fruit does fine everywhere, It just goes dormant in the dry areas during the drought. this year I did do fertilizer and lime (I have acidic soil with a lot of pines) over my entire yard and it took off like crazy. The perennial peanut is doing amazing everywhere, it’s just slow to fill-in. I’m not liking the mimosas so much, it doesn’t fill in it just kind of trails everywhere. I’m happiest with it in the baking hot sun area because it’s at least growing where the others aren’t! They DO sell pony foot seed.,It’s called Dichondra and I planted it last year:). It is doing best in the less sun areas that do get some overspray from my drip system from my flowerbeds. I am just now starting the project of over seeding with clover, just to see what happens. I have a lot of yard to play with and lots of different growing conditions, it’s been a fun experiment. When everything is mowed, it looks just like the green lawn like the guy across the street who pays ChemLawn to keep centipede grass perfect. he’s a actually a really nice guy and just rolls his eyes when he sees me out there planting “weeds”,lol. I did convert him enough to tell them to quit spraying for insects. He finally understood his butterfly garden wasn’t gonna do any good till he quit doing that.🙄 thanks so much for the video, hopefully everything I said helps somebody else a little bit.
Frog fruit can be found on roadsides too. It's easy to propagate from cuttings. You could always take a little cutting from a roadside and test it out at home
I love perennial peanut & sunshine mimosa in my yard. I have them in different areas. I’ve added frog fruit. My “lawn” (weeds) is green and lush with the summer rains. 💚💚 I think I’ll try to identify all the weeds in my yard. That will keep me busy. 😂😂 Thanks for the information. ❤❤
I started replacing some of my yard with frogfruit last year, since the existing small patches of frogfruit I already had were actually very drought tolerant (Orlando area). Interesting to hear that your neighbors mentioned theirs died out during droughts since I have the opposite experience.
Gainesville- I have centipede (grass) its a runner grass only gets about 5 inches tall in the main part of the yard and does great under my sunny or shady area. only have to mow like once a month. its great for people still wanting “ grass” without maintenance
Creeping sage was recommended to me at my native nursery this past spring. I bought two to test as ground cover in my garden beds. I already propagated my frog fruit and sunshine mimosa to other areas, so was wanting to experiment with it. I was VERY impressed with the creeping sage’s tight growth habit and ability to block out weeds. Will definitely be getting more of it to add to my other ground covers.
I put creeping sage in my yard about a year ago. It is where grass would not grow without lots and lots of irrigation. The CS is spreads quickly about a couple of inches a week after it gets rooted, CS does not need much additional water and seems to be about 12 inches high. Not very walking friendly though, but It does well in the shade and in the sunshine.
Pony Foot does pretty decent and actually takes a few punches of broadleaf herbicide to remove. Not that you'll be doing that, but my experience in spraying lawns it's not something that gives up without a fight. Sunshine Mimosa is cool in rock or concrete settings, it looks cool in dystopia gardens. Happy Summer!
I love, love, love Sunshine Mimosa... in a park. In my last property, I planted it in an area that was bordered by the house on one side, driveways on two sides and a road on the fourth side. After three years of looking awesome during the warmer months and giving my spouse unending pleasure of poking it, the plant had torpedoed a runner under one of the driveways (a distance of about 14 ft) and birds had apparently dropped seeds in two places in the more open back yard. This was the beginning of the war I lost and the beginning of when I, my kids and my dogs got stung by bees pollenating on tiny truffla trees. I kind of want to add something like a stock tank in my current yard just so we can have the pom poms back, but the all too possible likelihood of birds sowing the seeds elsewhere keeps me from doing so. I have found that when injecting frogfruit into a healthy, vigorous lawn, it is good to clear out a wide circle of grass from around the plug. If the grass is too close to the plug, the grass will fight back and could stangle out the plug. But with a wider circle of soil, the frogfruit will fil iit out faster than the grass, especially if you cover that area with... mown grass.
Great video and thanks for in depth information about frogfruit. I added it recently and find it to be somewhat aggressive and infiltrating my established twinflower. I don't see a lot of love for twinflower and idk why. Mine grows sun or shade, wet or dry, pretty little flowers, well behaved.
The way I am fighting torpedo grass in my garden is to get the water hose and follow the root system underground until I find the node. Then take the whole piece out together. It’s worked well so far, all be it, a little strange to have my arm under ground up past my elbow. Our sandy soil is easily moved by the hose water.
@@dianemottram3060 What DIY herbicide? We have lost the battle to torpedo grass in our yard. It engulfed our whole vegetable garden and much of our food forest.
We are in St Pete, I pulled all the crabgrass and basketgrass naturally took its place. We planted some sunshine mimosa to see how they mix and its actually been pretty slow to take hold, not sure if the basketgrass is choking it out or if it just needs more time.
i'm in Texas zone 8.. frog fruit grows in my pond, it does die back in our winters. i wish gold fish would eat it. I use it as ground cover in sun and shade. i planted it under a big hackberry tree couple years ago and it has filled in and done very well. That hackberry came down in a big storm and now the garden is full sun and the frog fruit is still happy. We had a very wet spring and the frog fruit in the front bed went a little crazy and started growing up and over things so i had to chelsea chop it back. it seems to stay low to the ground if it is walked on some. it seems to compete with bermuda better than st augustine grass imo. your frog fruit lawn is very pretty.
Thank you so very much for going into detail about each of these!! I had been considering all of these options. I'll keep sunshine mimosa and perinnal peanut as indoor window plants, for sure!😲 I love frogfruit flowers, so will probably work on getting that planned out for establishment.
I’ve been obsessed with this video since you posted it. I want to do a lawn alternative in the area where my raised beds are but my mom is super worried it’ll take over. What do you think about putting it in the raised beds? Could I plant vegetables in it? Also why do you prefer your choices to perennial peanut?
I could probably answer that. Most of the information I've seen online (and seeing perennial peanut in person already established) shows it can get upwards of 10" or more in height. I suppose if that is your cup of tea then cool. It can be mowed from what I've heard, also. I'm personally looking at the frog fruit because it's damn near everywhere close to my work AND it usually stays only about 2-3" tall, max. Then again we have a mowing company to maintain the grounds so it can be trained to run horizontal to the ground, which is more of an aesthetic that I'm personally going for. Thick mat of low-to-the ground cover. Good luck to you.
Thank you!!! I have been looking forward to such a video from you and update on your lawn alternative projects. I have planted frog fruit into an area that used to an old tree and I am very happy with. I will do as you suggest and cut into my st. Augustine lawn. The one problem I have is bermuda grass and nutsedge! I just worry that specially bermuda grass is so aggressive it will never give the frog fruit plugs a chance. Looking forward to see how the current project with torpedo grass works.
Before I planted perennial peanut in my front yard, I took over a year to hand sift my yard of Bermuda rhizomes that originated from my neighbor's yard. I then installed a 12" deep root guard along the property boundary which has kept it at bay. Tip: install a continuous guard with no joints...bermuda will find its way even with ends overlapped by a foot
@@carolp8870 thank you for the suggestion. I have installed 6 inch plastic edging that is buried 4 inches deep to make barrier between flower beds and grass or between neighbor’s yard. I realize it is not enough. Where did you get such of big barrier and what exactly was the product?
@@carolp8870 and yes!!! On hands and knees pulling out long stretches of bermuda rhizomes as deep as a foot little section, by little section is what I had to do on my mulched flower beds. I am at war with this grass. Now I do a check every other day and if I see green poking through the mulchI pull it out with the hopes of eventually exhausting the darned reserves. In the back yard I had a small patch that started this spring and I am currently trying the black plastic cover method to bake it and suffocate it. I know it is not the best method because it affects the microbial ecosystem, but my plan is to get chipdrop and cover the whole area with mulch to promote better soil conditions and plant frog fruit and other low ground covers this coming spring spring.
With frog fruit, I laid my potted plant in the grass and it draped over and I’ve established it that way. I have mimosa in a decline area where a man made pond was. The city has since filled it in but it’s a great native in my situation. Thanks for all the tips!
I noticed perninal peanut is being used a lot in our medians and looks very pretty. I am considering this in my yard. But I also have in my yard frog fruit naturally
Yes! It’s often used the medians in a long highways. It is really pretty especially right now in the summer. It doesn’t bloom all year and it can be a great lawn alternative.
I love sunshine mimosa but you are right it's very tough and aggrsesive and I'm wondering if I should put it in places that maybe I like having no ground cover like near mulched beds. Plus I like having open spaces for native nesting bees (I managed to get my backyard free of most aggressive weeds so I have bare patches that the nesting bees use regularly) I'm a huge fan of leaving spots where you can keep weeds out for the bees.
Thoughts on perennial peanut over septic & drain field? You mentioned deep roots but not specifically to avoid. IFAS actually recommends it so I was curious. I have my lawn (after being completely ripped out for septic replacement) started with frogfruit, perennial peanut, blue eye grass, creeping sage (doing the absolute best & NOT shaded), swamp twinflower, wild petunia
Well I think frog fruit is best after watching the whole video. I have a drain field so frog fruit will be best . I have various other plants within my lawn and every year get Florida snow in my yard.
Do I need to remove existing grass/weeds before adding frogfruit? And do I need to add any amendments to the soil. Our existing lawn has all but washed away over the last four years and left us with sand with next to no organic matter. Thoughts?
I'm deciding to finally pull the trigger and cultivating frog fruit since it grows insanely at my work around the treatment plant and nearby ponds. I do have a question though pertaining to 'cutting into' your lawn in that how will the frog fruit compete against an existing lawn of, say, established centipede? I know you said frog fruit does better with established plants nearby but it's gonna have to compete for purchase to put roots down? I have seen a video elsewhere on YT where a guy was using mulch to cultivate perennial peanut in bare areas. Does anyone feel this could be a viable method to speed along frog fruit establishment?
Can you tell me the difference between torpedo grass and Bermuda grass? I have a very tough, vine-y grass that is sparse on leaves but very tough to pull out. In fact, sometimes it pops up close to the stem/trunk of my plants and I can’t even get it out. The roots that I can see are not very long but I have built up some pretty good muscles trying the get it out of my flowerbeds.
I bought perennial peanut from Walmart for my flower beds to be a ground cover to block out the weeds. It has taken over and climbs up the flowers and doesn't block out the weeds. So I have to weed it. No fun. I wish I could mow it and kill the weeds. The weeds are grass weeds. I do wish I hadn't planted it there.
I am doing frog fruit, mimosa, and perennial peanut in Gainesville, I don’t have irrigation. I started doing it about 3 years ago, my yard was always patchy and everything I did to try to grow good grass was a fail, so I decided I would never plant another grass seed again. I put each plant where it seemed the most appropriate but other areas where I wasn’t sure I’ve put them all and I’m letting them all fight it out to see who wins. (I have about a half an acre of lawn )I am finding the frog fruit does fine everywhere, It just goes dormant in the dry areas during the drought. this year I did do fertilizer and lime (I have acidic soil with a lot of pines) over my entire yard and it took off like crazy. The perennial peanut is doing amazing everywhere, it’s just slow to fill-in. I’m not liking the mimosas so much, it doesn’t fill in it just kind of trails everywhere. I’m happiest with it in the baking hot sun area because it’s at least growing where the others aren’t! They DO sell pony foot seed.,It’s called Dichondra and I planted it last year:). It is doing best in the less sun areas that do get some overspray from my drip system from my flowerbeds. I am just now starting the project of over seeding with clover, just to see what happens. I have a lot of yard to play with and lots of different growing conditions, it’s been a fun experiment. When everything is mowed, it looks just like the green lawn like the guy across the street who pays ChemLawn to keep centipede grass perfect. he’s a actually a really nice guy and just rolls his eyes when he sees me out there planting “weeds”,lol. I did convert him enough to tell them to quit spraying for insects. He finally understood his butterfly garden wasn’t gonna do any good till he quit doing that.🙄 thanks so much for the video, hopefully everything I said helps somebody else a little bit.
Frog fruit can be found on roadsides too. It's easy to propagate from cuttings. You could always take a little cutting from a roadside and test it out at home
I love perennial peanut & sunshine mimosa in my yard. I have them in different areas. I’ve added frog fruit. My “lawn” (weeds) is green and lush with the summer rains. 💚💚
I think I’ll try to identify all the weeds in my yard. That will keep me busy. 😂😂
Thanks for the information. ❤❤
I started replacing some of my yard with frogfruit last year, since the existing small patches of frogfruit I already had were actually very drought tolerant (Orlando area). Interesting to hear that your neighbors mentioned theirs died out during droughts since I have the opposite experience.
Gainesville- I have centipede (grass) its a runner grass only gets about 5 inches tall in the main part of the yard and does great under my sunny or shady area. only have to mow like once a month. its great for people still wanting “ grass” without maintenance
Creeping sage was recommended to me at my native nursery this past spring. I bought two to test as ground cover in my garden beds. I already propagated my frog fruit and sunshine mimosa to other areas, so was wanting to experiment with it. I was VERY impressed with the creeping sage’s tight growth habit and ability to block out weeds. Will definitely be getting more of it to add to my other ground covers.
I put creeping sage in my yard about a year ago. It is where grass would not grow without lots and lots of irrigation. The CS is spreads quickly about a couple of inches a week after it gets rooted, CS does not need much additional water and seems to be about 12 inches high. Not very walking friendly though, but It does well in the shade and in the sunshine.
Hmm... sounds like something to use as a groundcover in something like a fruit tree grove/bed. I will have to keep my eyes open for Creeping Sage.
I have perennial peanut growing in my Ocala garden. It looks great and doesn’t need mowing, and has pretty yellow flowers.
So pretty at this time of year
Pony Foot does pretty decent and actually takes a few punches of broadleaf herbicide to remove. Not that you'll be doing that, but my experience in spraying lawns it's not something that gives up without a fight.
Sunshine Mimosa is cool in rock or concrete settings, it looks cool in dystopia gardens.
Happy Summer!
That’s good to know! Thanks for sharing your expertise about pony foot
I love, love, love Sunshine Mimosa... in a park. In my last property, I planted it in an area that was bordered by the house on one side, driveways on two sides and a road on the fourth side. After three years of looking awesome during the warmer months and giving my spouse unending pleasure of poking it, the plant had torpedoed a runner under one of the driveways (a distance of about 14 ft) and birds had apparently dropped seeds in two places in the more open back yard. This was the beginning of the war I lost and the beginning of when I, my kids and my dogs got stung by bees pollenating on tiny truffla trees. I kind of want to add something like a stock tank in my current yard just so we can have the pom poms back, but the all too possible likelihood of birds sowing the seeds elsewhere keeps me from doing so.
I have found that when injecting frogfruit into a healthy, vigorous lawn, it is good to clear out a wide circle of grass from around the plug. If the grass is too close to the plug, the grass will fight back and could stangle out the plug. But with a wider circle of soil, the frogfruit will fil iit out faster than the grass, especially if you cover that area with... mown grass.
That is a really good point about making a little bit wider circle in the grass area so that it can root along it’s nodes
Great video and thanks for in depth information about frogfruit. I added it recently and find it to be somewhat aggressive and infiltrating my established twinflower. I don't see a lot of love for twinflower and idk why. Mine grows sun or shade, wet or dry, pretty little flowers, well behaved.
The way I am fighting torpedo grass in my garden is to get the water hose and follow the root system underground until I find the node. Then take the whole piece out together. It’s worked well so far, all be it, a little strange to have my arm under ground up past my elbow. Our sandy soil is easily moved by the hose water.
There is a DIY herbicide as a last resort. I use it a few times a year
@@dianemottram3060 What DIY herbicide? We have lost the battle to torpedo grass in our yard. It engulfed our whole vegetable garden and much of our food forest.
@@allisonhansen364 I will just be brief..it is called fusilade. It works at the root system
Zone 8b here - east central Georgia. Perennial peanut grows well here without irrigation. It dies back in winter.
2:17 this convinced me 🦋
Just snatched overgrowth from the city sidewalk patch for freeeee
We are in St Pete, I pulled all the crabgrass and basketgrass naturally took its place. We planted some sunshine mimosa to see how they mix and its actually been pretty slow to take hold, not sure if the basketgrass is choking it out or if it just needs more time.
My sunshine mimosa won’t jump no matter what I do. I would love it to spread to my yard. It’s in an enclosed area under my fire bush.
i'm in Texas zone 8.. frog fruit grows in my pond, it does die back in our winters. i wish gold fish would eat it. I use it as ground cover in sun and shade. i planted it under a big hackberry tree couple years ago and it has filled in and done very well. That hackberry came down in a big storm and now the garden is full sun and the frog fruit is still happy. We had a very wet spring and the frog fruit in the front bed went a little crazy and started growing up and over things so i had to chelsea chop it back. it seems to stay low to the ground if it is walked on some. it seems to compete with bermuda better than st augustine grass imo. your frog fruit lawn is very pretty.
This was super helpful!
Love the ponyfoot
Yay!
wow. this looks amazing. great work!
Is creeping thyme good for Florida?
I don't think I will be on the members monthly meeting tomorrow. I've been sick with my sinuses all week. 😢
Thank you so very much for going into detail about each of these!! I had been considering all of these options. I'll keep sunshine mimosa and perinnal peanut as indoor window plants, for sure!😲
I love frogfruit flowers, so will probably work on getting that planned out for establishment.
I’ve been obsessed with this video since you posted it. I want to do a lawn alternative in the area where my raised beds are but my mom is super worried it’ll take over. What do you think about putting it in the raised beds? Could I plant vegetables in it? Also why do you prefer your choices to perennial peanut?
I could probably answer that. Most of the information I've seen online (and seeing perennial peanut in person already established) shows it can get upwards of 10" or more in height. I suppose if that is your cup of tea then cool. It can be mowed from what I've heard, also. I'm personally looking at the frog fruit because it's damn near everywhere close to my work AND it usually stays only about 2-3" tall, max. Then again we have a mowing company to maintain the grounds so it can be trained to run horizontal to the ground, which is more of an aesthetic that I'm personally going for. Thick mat of low-to-the ground cover. Good luck to you.
By the way, your nails look great!😍
Love you doing these videos.
What size pot of Frogfruit did you use when you planted?
Thank you!!! I have been looking forward to such a video from you and update on your lawn alternative projects. I have planted frog fruit into an area that used to an old tree and I am very happy with. I will do as you suggest and cut into my st. Augustine lawn. The one problem I have is bermuda grass and nutsedge! I just worry that specially bermuda grass is so aggressive it will never give the frog fruit plugs a chance. Looking forward to see how the current project with torpedo grass works.
Before I planted perennial peanut in my front yard, I took over a year to hand sift my yard of Bermuda rhizomes that originated from my neighbor's yard. I then installed a 12" deep root guard along the property boundary which has kept it at bay. Tip: install a continuous guard with no joints...bermuda will find its way even with ends overlapped by a foot
@@carolp8870 thank you for the suggestion. I have installed 6 inch plastic edging that is buried 4 inches deep to make barrier between flower beds and grass or between neighbor’s yard. I realize it is not enough. Where did you get such of big barrier and what exactly was the product?
@@carolp8870 and yes!!! On hands and knees pulling out long stretches of bermuda rhizomes as deep as a foot little section, by little section is what I had to do on my mulched flower beds. I am at war with this grass. Now I do a check every other day and if I see green poking through the mulchI pull it out with the hopes of eventually exhausting the darned reserves. In the back yard I had a small patch that started this spring and I am currently trying the black plastic cover method to bake it and suffocate it. I know it is not the best method because it affects the microbial ecosystem, but my plan is to get chipdrop and cover the whole area with mulch to promote better soil conditions and plant frog fruit and other low ground covers this coming spring spring.
Great I need something over my septic field
Great video lots of information ❤️
Glad it was helpful!
With frog fruit, I laid my potted plant in the grass and it draped over and I’ve established it that way. I have mimosa in a decline area where a man made pond was. The city has since filled it in but it’s a great native in my situation. Thanks for all the tips!
I think that sunshine mimosa can grow thorns
I noticed perninal peanut is being used a lot in our medians and looks very pretty. I am considering this in my yard. But I also have in my yard frog fruit naturally
Yes! It’s often used the medians in a long highways. It is really pretty especially right now in the summer. It doesn’t bloom all year and it can be a great lawn alternative.
I love sunshine mimosa but you are right it's very tough and aggrsesive and I'm wondering if I should put it in places that maybe I like having no ground cover like near mulched beds. Plus I like having open spaces for native nesting bees (I managed to get my backyard free of most aggressive weeds so I have bare patches that the nesting bees use regularly) I'm a huge fan of leaving spots where you can keep weeds out for the bees.
Thoughts on perennial peanut over septic & drain field? You mentioned deep roots but not specifically to avoid. IFAS actually recommends it so I was curious. I have my lawn (after being completely ripped out for septic replacement) started with frogfruit, perennial peanut, blue eye grass, creeping sage (doing the absolute best & NOT shaded), swamp twinflower, wild petunia
So what about clover and frog fruit? I remember frogfruit as a child, many years ago
Well I think frog fruit is best after watching the whole video. I have a drain field so frog fruit will be best . I have various other plants within my lawn and every year get Florida snow in my yard.
Do I need to remove existing grass/weeds before adding frogfruit? And do I need to add any amendments to the soil. Our existing lawn has all but washed away over the last four years and left us with sand with next to no organic matter. Thoughts?
COST? I'm on the Treasure Coast of Fl... Places to purchase and how much to plant
I would be worried about hurting the caterpillars when mowing, is there a certain height you mow to?
20:33 that jump scare tho
Where can I get the Frog fruit seeds or plugs thank you....i don't want to mow weekly....what other native can i plant 😮
I pull out the mimosa whenever I can. Very aggressive grower
🎼Shilo, she likes to run,
run when you call her name.
I'm deciding to finally pull the trigger and cultivating frog fruit since it grows insanely at my work around the treatment plant and nearby ponds. I do have a question though pertaining to 'cutting into' your lawn in that how will the frog fruit compete against an existing lawn of, say, established centipede? I know you said frog fruit does better with established plants nearby but it's gonna have to compete for purchase to put roots down?
I have seen a video elsewhere on YT where a guy was using mulch to cultivate perennial peanut in bare areas. Does anyone feel this could be a viable method to speed along frog fruit establishment?
Most importantly, how did you get it to grow so successfully? I have a million different invasive grasses, do you? If so, how did you do it?
Can you tell me the difference between torpedo grass and Bermuda grass? I have a very tough, vine-y grass that is sparse on leaves but very tough to pull out. In fact, sometimes it pops up close to the stem/trunk of my plants and I can’t even get it out. The roots that I can see are not very long but I have built up some pretty good muscles trying the get it out of my flowerbeds.
I’m also having a hard time finding frog fruit. Any ideas where I can get it in the Tampa area?
Try Little Red Wagon on Henderson in Tampa or Wilcox Nursery in Largo
Do deer eat frog fruit?
Are they frog fruit turkey tangle plant
One and the same
@@WildFloridian thank you 😊
Where do we purchase frog fruit? I’m in the Tampa area
Little Red Wagon has in Tampa. In Pinellas. Wilcox in Largo.
I bought perennial peanut from Walmart for my flower beds to be a ground cover to block out the weeds. It has taken over and climbs up the flowers and doesn't block out the weeds. So I have to weed it. No fun. I wish I could mow it and kill the weeds. The weeds are grass weeds. I do wish I hadn't planted it there.
Having a hard time finding frog fruit.
Anyone pick up on what she said was softer for barefeet? Kinda mumbled through it and I couldn't hear it.
Water hyssop
@@WildFloridian Thank you!!