No idea, Mary. I've seen a bit of it in the garden before. But it was mostly around the perimeter so I assumed it was just some grass or weeds creeping in from the lawn. Now there is at least a little of it in different places over about half the garden. It may be something that came in with potting soil or compost. I read something on-line about someone tilling leaves and grass clipping into their garden and later finding masses of roots that sound like what I found. I have tilled in a lot of uncomposted leaves, grass clippings, etc. over the years. Maybe something grew out of that. Nothing has ever grown through the surface though. Every year or so, I find a new weed I've never seen before. I'm sure some of this comes in with top soil, compost or mulch. I remember reading about a guy who used cypress mulch in his flower beds. Something grew out of it and spread all over the neighborhood. The neighbors were ready to kill him. I hope this won't be like the old sci-fi movie, "The Blob" in that the more you try to kill it, it only gets bigger. LOL
If it hadn't been for all the rain lately, my clumps would have been much cleaner. Due to all the sand in much of the garden, I can normally stick the garden fork in one or two places and the clumps just pop out of the ground with almost all of the dirt just falling off. I wish the digging had been easier. These matted roots are a royal PITA in more ways than one!
