A bit of a slog

Good guy · Posted: Sun Jun 14, 2015 7:04 pm Post subject: A bit of a slog

There is a part of my border that has been largely neglected for the last couple of years and it had got overgrown and full of weeds/unwanted self-seeded perennials. I've been putting off doing anything with it but needing to plant out the astrantias, anemones etc I bought earlier in the year to grow on, I eventually had to make a start on it.
It is only about eight or ten metres long, but it has taken several days on hands and knees to remove goose grass, nettles, briars, Himalayan balsam, vetch, wild grasses, a bronze coloured grass whose name escapes me, Alchemilla mollis, and crocosmia. Now I can see the Siberian irises and the Liberita is resplendent and I'm having some fun deciding on an arrangement for the new plants.
Next up is a square metre or so under a crab apple. It is infested with grasses and vetch. The crocus and grape hyacinths have died back, so I'm tempted to use glyphosate. At least that will clear it and not interfere with the bulbs.
Give it a month or two and I'll post photos, if it turns out well.

Sue Deacon · Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2015 7:17 pm Post subject:

I don't know Good guy, I felt exhausted just reading about that! Laughing

Very satisfying though isn't it? It has been a great year for Astrantia's, mine have never looked so good.

In the past I would have thought nothing of using glyphosate to clear ground of pernicious weeds. But the more I read about it and the more I know about the complexity of life in our soil, the more I'm turning agin it. I've invested in a little weed burner and have started to use it on our weedy drive. Though I am reluctant to use it in the wood - however tempting, with all that ground elder - as the soil is peat and I don't want to be resonsible for a bog fire. Shocked

How deep are the bulbs? Would a quick flash over with a torch harm them? Am I getting preachy? Laughing

Good guy · Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2015 11:39 pm Post subject:

I've very much restricted my use of glyphosate, these days, too, and for the same reasons. However, the flame gun is all but useless against the vetch, given its root system and the grasses growing there are pretty well impossible to get out by the roots - they are perennial and have persistent roots. I'm afraid digging around there will damage the roots of my 20 year old malus Golden Hornet. I'm not too worried about the bulbs.
I'm just back from my hols and haven't had a chance to inspect the whole garden properly so I don't know yet know how the new planting is doing. From what I hear, they won't have been short of water, anyway!

Sue Deacon · Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2015 7:58 am Post subject:

Good guy · Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2015 10:14 pm Post subject:

Sue, I tried to fit some into my suitcase but it would have been overweight! And that's got nothing to do with all the Spanish ice cream I ate😉
I have to say I'm envious of your peonies. My later ones are either over and/or wrecked by the rain. I've missed my meconopsis, too. They and the white Siberian iris were just coming into bloom when I left. I missed the Paul's Scarlet hawthorn, too, which is a shame.
One thing that caught my eye today was a wild orchid in full bloom. I'll try to get a good photo tomorrow if the light is right. I didn't plant it - along with two others elsewhere in the garden, it has self sown.
You mention your astrantias. Do they get taller in subsequent years? Mine are only new, in their first year and they seem quite short in comparison to the old ones I have (variety unknown, liberated from an abandoned, derelict garden).

tagwex · Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2015 10:59 pm Post subject:

Good guy · Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2015 11:08 pm Post subject:

Control yourself!

tagwex · Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2015 11:11 pm Post subject:

Ahhh you missed all that when you were in foreign climes. She freely admits it.

Sue Deacon · Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2015 4:17 am Post subject:

I have some self-sown Orchids I have potted-up and am going to put them in my new garden. The plant gets bigger and better every year. It's funny, there is a spot in the garden that seems to attract self-sown plants that grow better there than anywhere else. I also have some lovely and very productive wild strawberries and a thyme plant all growing out of the concrete and gravel at the front of the house!

I have found the more modern, named varieties of Astrantia to be 'tidier' and a lot more well behaved in a border. The old varieties are a lot less restrained and flop around all over the place. But they also seem more healthy. Swings and Roundabouts.... Have you tried A. 'Sunningdale Variety'? It has lovely variegated leaves.