Kidney Weed Dichondra repens

Kidney weed is a small native creeper that runs along the ground on thin stems, rooting as it goes and knitting into a soft, low mat of round, kidney shaped leaves. It is evergreen, stays below ankle height without any mowing, and tolerates light foot traffic without being a wear surface. It goes where lawn thins and soil washes away: the joints between stepping stones, the southern side of a house, beds under established trees and courtyard infill that needs to look green rather than be walked on.

Preparing ground for a dichondra mat

It is native across much of eastern and southern Australia, including Tasmania, and into New Zealand, so climate is rarely the limitation. Ground preparation is. Cultivate the bed properly, work compost through it, level it and start completely weed free, because there is no selective way to remove couch or kikuyu from an established dichondra mat and hand weeding on your knees becomes the only option left. That is the failure mode, and it is decided before you plant rather than after. Space plugs 20 to 30cm apart depending on how quickly you want cover, keep water up to them while the runners bridge the gaps, and hand weed every few weeks through the first season. In hot, dry, fully exposed ground it yellows and goes patchy, so either keep water to it or place it where it is sheltered through the afternoon. It is not a wear surface: a dog run, a gate line or a path shortcut will thrash it, and those routes want paving or stepping stones instead.

Kidney weed or Korean velvet grass

These two answer the same brief from opposite ends. Korean velvet grass is a true warm season turf grass for open ground: it takes real foot traffic, mounds into soft humps if left unmown, and browns off through a cold winter. Dichondra stays green year round, holds the ground where the zoysia thins out, and asks for less establishment work, but it will not stand being walked on daily. Use dichondra under trees and on the shaded side, zoysia in the open, and stepping stones through either where people actually walk. For a flowering edge to the same paving, seaside daisy seeds itself into the joints. Both the dichondra and the zoysia come as tiles as well as plugs, which is worth taking up on any area you want closed over within a season.

Keeping the mat clean through the year

There is no mowing to do. The real maintenance job is litter: rake or blow fallen leaves off the mat in autumn, because a layer left sitting through winter smothers patches that then take a season to knit back. If a planting has grown lumpy or thin, run a mower over it on the highest setting in early spring to even it up. Feed lightly with a nitrogen based lawn fertiliser or a liquid feed in spring and again in midsummer, at about half the rate you would use on turf. Heavy feeding does not thicken the mat; it feeds the weeds you have been pulling out.

Choosing a size

This plant is available in 8 sizes, from 95mm up to 330mm Tiles, priced from $16.95 to $149.00 per plant. The size shown is the pot the plant arrives in, which is the rootball, not the height of the plant. These are younger plants, priced for planting in quantity, and they establish quickly once in the ground. Not sure which to choose? Read our guide to when to plant in Australia.