Never abandon hope is the lesson I impart today.
There is no spray to kill violets, I said.
The only control is getting down on your hands and knees and digging nonstop for approximately 18 years.
Photo: commons-wikimedia-org.
I can hear the chorus coming from dismayed readers.
“Why would anyone want to kill violets?
They are beautiful and charming native wildflowers.”
emMeet the violet killer./em.
But common dooryard violets (Viola sororia) are one other thing too.
In the lawn or the garden.
In the sun or the shade.
If you see one this year, next year you’ll see a dozen.
Then a veritable sea of violets will fill your yard from shore to shore.
The fiends nearly choked out my beautiful lawn of native mosses.
I dug up buckets of them.
These violets spread so quickly because they’re sneaky.
They sow seeds all summer without the need for pollination.
Each seed that sprout grows a thick root that looks like a tiny horizontal carrot.
Even if you dig it, any piece of the root left in the ground grows another violet.
This root also makes the violet resistant to weedkillers available for home use.
I recently received a communique fromMonterey Lawn & Garden Productsabout a weedkiller calledSpurge Power.
If Grumpy could cry, he would.
As always, follow label directions carefully.
And no, I received nothing from Monterey for alerting you to this product.
Violets, meet your Kryptonite!
Laugh at us no longer.
For so long, you held our gardens hostage.
Now freedom is at hand!
