When I lived in suburbia, I felt incredible pressure to have a "good lawn" and zero "conventional weeds" anywhere, especially since I always had a lot less lawn, and many more flowers, than most houses. In neighborhoods where a good lawn is a priority, the paltry amount it costs for a service might be worthwhile in terms of the property not being labeled as "needs new sod" at the point one might want to sell later, especially if it is a very large lawn. When we lived in a golf course community, of course you're supposed to have a good lawn. I mean it's in the HOA. I'm sure there are a lot of plants I don't want about which others would rhapsodize, with much more traditionally pretty flowers. Just trying to encourage people to think for themselves and make their own decisions if they've found themselves at some point wondering why they're paying or spending time to get rid of plants they do like, or why it's "necessary" to only have grass in the mowed areas. There may be an objectively valid reason, there may not. I became so curious about the whole thing a few years back, I bought a couple books to satisfy my curiosity about why we even have lawns, where the idea came from, and how to be a property owner/tender without devoting so much of my life tending something about which I'm ambivalent. As long as there's enough room to play with the kids and grill some burgers, the way I see it, the rest of the area being mowed is wasting my time, my money in gas to run and maintain the mower, and doing virtually nothing beneficial to nature. At one house, I had the lawn down to 20 minutes of mowing. But if it makes someone happy to look over 5 acres of freshly mowed lawn, more power to ya! If the HOA says no weeds allowed, not much option there. Admit, it's a lot easier to be non-chem when the property is so much smaller, a lot easier indeed.

i am not real sure it is dianthus....kinda soubds like snow on the mountain. that is a runner. It grows then lays down roots. 4-6 feet is a pretty tall ground cover. If you don't want to work that hard to get it out. Mow where you can and use round up, that way you are not spraying higher up and hitting you other plants. make a cone over the spray head so you are not accidently getting drift also. Or you can take newspaper layers and lay them as a weed block. onced laid get them wet and put a thin layer of mulch on them. nothing will grow through it. the first yr i used the paper and didn't have to weed for 3 yrs lol. one of my gardens is 12 x 39 bed

its a weed with giant potential ... rather poisonous ... but safely ignored ... but if you you have young kids around that might stick pretty grape colored berries in their mouths.. get rid of it ... and it will provide a billion seed for next year.. so dont let it reseed ... ken

I have Optimara Wisconsin, I special ordered it from Selective Gardener a few years ago. It has a very unique color which is very dark, almost black, but it is very hard to photograph, in fact impossible. But I am attaching a picture anyway, but the true color is much, much darker. I used it in a cross I made last spring with a 40 year old fantasy bloom AV (no ID), I currently have lots of seedlings from that cross. This picture shows the seed pod I got after I pollinated it. For me it grows as a small standard. I have found it roots more easily in water than in mix.