The Common, Beautiful Ground Cover That Can Create Chaos In Your Yard

There's a common ground cover that has beautiful yellow flowers you might have considered planting in your garden because it grows profusely and doesn't mind wet soils. This beautiful ground cover is commonly known as moneywort (Lysimachia nummularia), but beware because it can create chaos in your yard by aggressively spreading into areas you don't want it to grow. Moneywort, or creeping Jenny as it's also commonly referred to, spreads readily whenever the creeping branches touch the soil. As soon as leaf nodes make contact with the soil, roots will grow, and the plant will continue to spread around your yard. On top of that, this fast-growing plant will also spread through underground rhizomes.

Moneywort is native to temperate Asia and Europe and is listed as an invasive species in the Invasive Plant Atlas of the United States. It is considered an ecological threat in a number of areas around the U.S., as its highly vigorous growth competes with native plants in natural meadows and along the banks of streams, ponds, and rivers. So, if you do have this growing in your garden, you might want to remove it because this is one of several invasive plants you should never grow. It's also wise to check with your local municipality to see whether moneywort is listed as an invasive species in your area.

As creeping Jenny is one of those common weed-suppressing plants that can become nuisances themselves, you may want to think about eliminating it from your garden. The best way to do this is to pull it out by hand. This might take a little work, as you want to ensure you remove all the roots, rhizomes, and stem sections. Because it's difficult to know whether you've taken all the plant parts out of the soil, repeated monitoring will be needed to allow you to continue pulling out any plants that sprout again from bits you might have missed. Unfortunately, there are no chemical herbicides that have been found to be totally effective in the control of this weed. 

Some native plants that you can grow to replace creeping Jenny and that also have yellow flowers include green and gold (Chrysogonum virginianum), barren strawberry (Waldsteinia fragarioides), and Carolina green and gold (Chrysogonum repens). All of these make excellent groundcover plants and can be grown in partial shade. But if you really love moneywort, you might want to grow it in a container instead because it's one of several trailing plants perfect for hanging baskets. This way, it won't spread around your garden, and you can easily control its growth by trimming it back regularly.