Cool Temperate weed barrier plant?

[Grahame]

I'm looking for something similar to lemon grass or vetiver to use as a part of a weed barrier. We get a good number of winter frosts. Comfrey tends to die down but I'm happy to use it as part of the barrier but I need something that will hang around, and preferably with other nice attributes.

I'm experimenting with a Dietes in one section to see how it goes but I was wondering if you know of anything else you have used personally, or seen used to good effect?

[pebble]

What's it a barrier against, and what is it protecting?

[Grahame]

Good question! Sort of thing I should have asked myself

Creeping grasses such as couch. Protecting everything else on the other side. I guess part of it will be about keeping fence lines 'clean' from things like paspalum too. While we are at it, lets also consider keeping raspberries or other cane fruits from escaping past such a barrier.

[matto]

Buckwheat and sunflower are great against kikuyu and the sort. Not sure it will be ideal for winter though.

[sweetpea]

I have been so very impressed with some purple vetch that when started in the fall grows to a good meter high and 1.5 meters wide, holds up through mild winters, is dense for wind protection, then dies back in May'/June leaving straw-like residue that completely blocks weeds, and it sets nitrogen! And where I am the weeds live off the fog, so they are TOUGH stinkers. I have to water the vetch in the fall because we don't get rain, and if left to its own devices it will start midwinter on its own, but that's too late to block weeds. A row I planted with the vetch 18 months ago, untilled, this spring has no weeds where the vetch was! All around it they could be knee high if I wasn't mowing them.

[eco4560]

Lomandra?

[Pakanohida]

There are many clumping, low growing bamboo's.

[Grahame]

Yeah, I might give Lomandra a go too, and I'm keen to see what vetch can do here. I've never grown it before.

I might also use some canna lilies to the north as part of a small wind break - it dies down over the winter here too, but I have heaps of it.

The ground is generally too heavy for bamboos around here.

I'm thinking perhaps cannas at the back, followed by lomandra and then a front row of comfrey. for a nice little weed/windbreak.

[andrew curr]

jerusulem artichokes, artemesia,vetch is wonderfull,yarrow,valerian,borage,burnett,lucerne, mustard (biofumigant)

[Grahame]

I used Jerusalem Artichoke to great effect his year. They made a wonderful windbreak and weed barrier and also stopped the dog running across some beds. They handled the heavy soil, both when it was wet and when it was dry. The good/bad thing is that they proliferate quickly. I reckon I might have a few too many to eat and replant this year.

If someone is after a few let me know.

I never really know how to cook with them, but I did try them raw for the first time yesterday- something between a water chestnut and a potato. The girls liked them too, so that is a bonus.

Thanks for all the suggestions. Many of them are seasonal here, but still useful.

[Speedy]

You mentioned it in your opening post but have you given Vetiver a go?
it does well for me here.

[Pakanohida]

Yeah, I might give Lomandra a go too, and I'm keen to see what vetch can do here. I've never grown it before.

I might also use some canna lilies to the north as part of a small wind break - it dies down over the winter here too, but I have heaps of it.

The ground is generally too heavy for bamboos around here.

I'm thinking perhaps cannas at the back, followed by lomandra and then a front row of comfrey. for a nice little weed/windbreak.


I used to grow clumping bamboo in dense clay soil of northern california with no water ever given to them. They are very versital.