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Mind-your-own-business or baby’s tears, Soleirolia soleirolii (syn. Helxine soleirolii) is a creeping perennial with tiny rounded leaves. Despite looking pretty in cracks in paving, it re-grows from the smallest stem sections and can soon get out of control. It is especially difficult to control in the lawn.
Mind-your-own-business is often a weed. Credit: RHS Herbarium.
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This plant is a native of Corsica and Sardinia and is occasionally grown in rock gardens and in greenhouses. It readily colonises crevices in dry stonewalls but can be a nuisance in borders and lawns, where it is regarded as a weed.
Mind-your-own-business forms dense, slowly spreading mats of bright green foliage. The golden-leaved form, ‘Aurea’, is the most commonly sold. It bears minute white flowers in summer.
The overall height is a mere 5cm (2in) but spread is indefinite.
Although many gardeners like to encourage mind-your-own-business between cracks in patios, it can get out of hand and spread to borders and lawns.
The thin, fleshy, much-branched stems root as they slowly spread. This is a difficult plant to control, as it regenerates easily from any small sections of stem over-looked when weeding or hoeing.
Grass clippings that contain stem sections may survive the composting process, causing the weed to be further spread around the garden.
As mentioned, many gardeners like mind-your-own-business in the garden. But if you find it getting out of control, try the following:
Begin with cultural control options;
Mind-your-own-business is resistant to all lawn weedkillers approved for garden use.
Glyphosate (e.g. Scotts Roundup, SBM Job Done General Purpose Weedkiller or Doff Glyphosate Weedkiller) can be used successfully to treat mind-your-own-business, best applied as a spot treatment (Scotts Roundup Gel) directly to the weed. For best results follow these tips:
Inclusion of a weedkiller product does not indicate a recommendation or endorsement by the RHS. It is a list of products currently available to the home gardener.
Weedkillers for gardeners (Adobe Acrobat pdf document outlining weedkillers available to gardeners; see section 4)
Chemicals: using a sprayerChemicals: using safely and effectivelyChemicals: using spot and broad-scale weedkillersWeeds: non-chemical control
Clover in lawnsMoss on lawnsRHS video: weed controlSlime moulds on lawnsSpeedwellYarrow on lawns
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