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Re: Weed



I am hardly an expert, but my own experiences with Ground Ivy, and your 
observation that it grows most heavily where there is the most sheep 
droppings emboldens me. Glechoma tends to prosper where soil is disturbed 
or compacted. Otherwise, grass will usually push it out. I wonder if you 
are over grazing, or letting your sheep out too early in the spring, when 
the pasture is too wet. Also, raw manure is hard on plants. This would 
also be a problem if you are squeezing too many sheep on your land. 
In my corner of Upstate New York, grass usually succeeds ground ivy, not 
vice versa, unless the grass is over stressed. As it is, I've only 
seen it happen in lawns, not sheep pastures, and we had a few that we 
really squeezed.You may also need to introduce another variety of grass 
or clover or alphalpha, for that matter, because if overgrazing is your 
problem, you will be in a downward spiral as less of your land is 
actually productive. The guy I used to work for used to say that you have 
to renew pasture every seven years (although he didn't do it himself). Do 
you have any land where there are no sheep, but it is in grass? What is 
the ground ivy doing there? 

-- 
Good Luck
Karen Stark
ks36@cornell.edu



 The habit of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those
 that have not got it.

        --G. B. Shaw





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