August is the gardeners doldrum month. Not only do the vegetables ripen and thrive, the weeds and landscape have their heyday as well. This morning I had the pleasure of dealing with two Nursery “darlings” that are, in my opinion the stuff that fairy tales are derived…and not the happily ever after type.
I have learned a really helpful strategy from #awaytogarden a few years ago, and it has helped me get through seasons of fairy-tale weeds. Margaret Roach suggests that rather than looking at ALL your thriving weeds, focus on pulling one species and only that. It does help minimizing feeling overwhelmed, and it makes the task manageable, one focal point at a time.
The Two nightmares I dealt with this morning each have their own battle plan to take over the gardens scape once left alone. First there is the deceiving Multiflora Rose. Sold in every nursery as the hardy flowering shrub that blooms all through the summer..It becomes the wicked clothing grabbing, skin snagging, thorny armed creature that surrounded Sleeping Beauty’s castle and entangled Snow White’s aprons as she ran spooked into the dark forest chased by the wicked Queens’ axeman!
Next was the ground cover favorite-pachysandra. You can toss it into the woods, and in a season you will have a lush, green ground cover …well this may be a bit of an exaggeration, but this plant has running roots that pop up yards away from where planted. Not even a barrier will hold it off for long. I must admit that the advantages of having this ground cover win out over having crabgrass, poison ivy or stilt grass! This plant silently huddles in between shrubs, and chokes out anything else that may want to see the light of day, it works slowly, and takes over one foot at a time, lurking beneath the surface like Flotsam and Jetsam. The one advantage this plant gives is that it keeps the soil friable, so in combination with mulch, you have a healthy soil as opposed to hard-packed dry and lifeless.
What I have been battling with ALL season is the infamous/ famous Mugwort. Yes, I am aware that there is a medicinal quality…however, I am not growing that kind of crop, I leave the herbalist to do that because they know what they are doing. It grows via tap root and travel throughout the garden as efficiently as pachysandra. The issue I have with some native wildflowers and shrubs is that they may be great for soil and pollinators, but honestly, I don’t want my garden looking like the side of an interstate road filled with vines that blanket across every living shrub and tree standing. The wood asters, goldenrods and mugworts do just that, they quickly turn a garden to a wilderness woodland scene, but in my opinion in a negative way.
My answer to this issue is to cultivate a few of the views that are important to me, making it look like a Piet Oudolf (..in my dreams lol) landscape, but cut the undesired plants down, scratch desired seeds into the surface and let nature take its coarse. The native plants take care of the soil, the surface gets a chance to germinate seeds, and let the whole process march at its own pace. And we all live happily ever after.
Grafedie in the Library 