For this post, the spotlight is on vinca or periwinkle. It's a nice enough groundcover, with nice glossy foliage and pretty purple flowers. But vinca is incredibly invasive here in the Bay Area, so this is my main reason for it being on the "Don't Do This" list. It spreads and spreads and spreads. Not quite as bad as ivy, but you catch my drift.
These pics are an example of landscaping in front of Summit hospital in Oakland. They landscaped this fairly recently, maybe in the last 2-3 years. Many of the plants are drought tolerant, which is good. But then there is a border of vinca. In the pic above, you can see what they were trying to do with this planting. The vinca is supposed to form a green space between the sidewalk and the rest of the planting, and that little, black, plastic border is supposed to hold back the onslaught that is vinca.
In this next pic, you can see how they are trying to hedge the vinca to keep it behind the black border.
And in this last pic, you can see the overall effect. Not so impressive if you ask me. Now the question is, is this better than lawn?
No, No, a thousand times NO!!! It is not better than lawn. It spreads and will take over everything! One large yard+vinca+ivy+decades of neglect=solid green vines everywhere. No lawn would do this.
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