They can over run a garden and go where you don't want them. I am not fond of the horse herb for this regard.

You are probably right. Although neither plant has become a problem in my yard, and that's likely because I use a heavy cover of mulch in all the planting beds, but as we can see they certainly have had no trouble covering these fields or the easement in back of our house.

I do have to pull horse herb in gardened areas but I love it for areas where I am encouraging groundcover. I wish that I hadn't recently mowed it, not much to look at just now.

I was just next door planting Crawford lettuce and cilantro seeds for my neighbors and noticed there's a lot of 'horse herb' in their back yard as well as the front. Since they pretty much let the weeds grow, and just mow them down periodically, at least it's a weed that stays low, covers well, looks neat, and saves mud being tracked into the house by their three dogs.

I hate horseherb, despite its pretty yellow flowers. Luckily not too hard to pull if you get a good hold of the rootball.

Wow those are beautiful spaces. I have some frog fruit in a pot, I'm just waiting for the cooler weather to arrive so I can plant it around my banana plants.

If you have dogs, they like the horse herb for their digestion. Mine eat it often in the yard. They hunt it out.

Blackwillow, I remember that you had some frog fruit. I don't think you could hurt it by planting it now.

Thanks Patty for that info. I didn't know the dogs liked it. When I find it again I'll leave a little patch. As it is now they munch on Blackfoot daisies. They really prefer echinacea. I've got some seed planted to get that going again.

Come to think of it Alfie does start munching on something when out in the field, and so does Sport. I thought it was grass and tell them 'No' because when they eat grass they throw it up, but I bet it's horse herb.

Sorry for the late response roselee, I didn't get an email alert. I'll plant the frog fruit now, I just need to get some mulch to put around it.

Let me just say that I rue the day the birds gifted me with this. It spreads like wildfire and no amount of digging and pulling has rid me of it. Now it is spreading all over my property, and I am not happy with that. My advice to anyone planting this, proceed with caution.......................it is worse than anything I have ever dealt with.

Sorry that it has become a thug in your garden, Carrie. It came with our yard and I often have folks messaging me asking for horse herb. My dogs do munch a lot of it in the backyard, I didn't know that it was good for their digestion and usually fuss at them to stop. They invariably come inside and upchuck on the carpet.

Horse herb is one of several plants that seem to struggle where I want them and thrive where I don't. It has spread through the local park in spots too shady for the Bermuda where it looks good even after the weekly cut.

I had started letting it grow into and through our new sun beds this year as Sally Wasowski described doing in her north Texas yard, but found with a few hours of sun it can smother things that stay much less than a foot tall for any significant portion of the growing season. Somewhere in the following photo are a blue grama, gaura, and four-nerve daisy that need to be uncovered if still alive. This is one season of growth off of a well established mother plant that was about 3 ft beyond the frame.

I like it, just haven't figured out how to live with it in the garden. It isn't reliably dense as a lawn alternative in heavy shade (with rabbits, anyway). Only place it has not been too aggressive or too sparse is with 1 or 2 hours of sun in an idle corner where we're eventually going to build a shed. Think I'm going to try to remove it everywhere else on the lot and apply a pre-emergent in the spring to keep its seeds from germinating under the cover of the larger plants.

Two of my dogs like to eat horse herb also. I've let it fill in a large area of my front yard. It grows where bermuda and st augustine will not.