Growing Crown Vetch

Hi this is Yolanda Vanveen and in this segment we're going to talk about how to grow crown vetch. Now crown vetch is a beautiful plant and it's a vine and it's a legume family so it's related to sweet peas and peas and any type of real viny type of legume. And so they're very easy to grow and they've been used for erosion control for many years because they grab onto the hillside, they have the thick, thick roots that stop the hillsides from falling and having landslides. And so they've been used for many, many years but the problem is they're an invasive weed in many areas. They're taking over the forests and the meadows in many, many areas. So you have to be real careful when you grow crown vetch to not let it get into any wild areas. If you have a small garden, yes that's great but there's lots of other choices if you're using it for erosion control. And you can use just regular fern or filipendulas or astilbes or there's so many different types of red hot pokers or agapanthus that work really well for erosion control as well that are not as invasive. So do your research and make sure to plant your crown vetch somewhere where it won't become a problem.