Yellowing Leaves on Lamium

by Mary
(Landenberg, Pennsylvania)

My husband and I have a wooded lot with perennial beds circling groups of trees. Since I had many large beds to plant in I started with grouncovers to make things green until I could plant other things. I have used Lamium or Golden Deadnettle as the main groundcover. I have one area that has remained in Lamium for serveral years and the past two years one section has not filled in completely during the spring green up and the leaves turn yellow during the June time frame. It does not die back, but does not flourish as it is in other parts of the yard. I have tried fertilizing and it is getting as much water as the other areas in Lamium. I am attaching images of the good looking stuff and the bad looking stuff. These two images are within a foot of each other. Thanks in advance for any help you may be able to provide.

Doug says - he hates this kind of problem :-) particularly when its in his own garden. The different growth patterns are usually a result of some micro difference in the soil that the plant simply can't tolerate. It could be one of a gabillion things. Anything from fertilizer burn to overspray chemical residue to minor trace element soil problems. Understanding the history of the ground helps - (I don't have that) and the nature of how you garden (I don't have that either) :-)

Here's what I do when I'm faced with something like this.

I water heavily. I mean *heavily*. I want to drive all nutrition and anything else that might be in that soil (and can be dissolved) out of the soil. From excess salts to chemicals, they need to move out of the soil. If you suspect chemicals, then I'd be tempted to dust and work in activated charcoal in the top 4-6 inches to try to soak up some of it. Peat moss will do the same thing for many chemicals (plus peat supports a range of bacteria that eat many chemicals)

I then add compost and/or compost tea to the soil. The objective here is to get as many beneficial microorganisms to the soil as I possibly can to help the plant grow.

I also tend to give the plant a shot of fish emulsion because there may be a minor nutrient missing that's screwing everything up.

The compost will fix it in the long run. The fish emulsion will fix it in the short run.

I hope that helps a bit - do let me know how this works out