And my gardening work tends to end up on the cats' blog. I'll have to find a way to balance that. "They" get to show off the results, so I will have to start posting more about the weeding and digging here. Fortunately, I have a few dozen new plants on order, so I will have some new things to show soon.
One major effort is too enlarge the areas of successful plants. When I started flowerbeds, I ordered "6 of this" and "9 of that". The results were a bit chaotic. I am moving more toward larger areas of the ones that have done best. And bringing several small plantings of one plant together. For example, I have 18 astilbes in 3 places and I think it would look better to have them all in the one place where they seem happiest. The two other places, they just struggle to survive. One place is too sunny and the other is too shady.
The back of the flowerbeds has always been unsatisfying. I originally planted 5 butterfly bushes, interspersed with 2 euonymus shrubs, 2 spring flowering almonds, and some nandina. And the butterfly bushes are so old that the yearly prune-back has made them weak. Even perennials don't thrive forever. The euonymus shrubs are twice the claimed size and are shading everything. Plus they send up shoots everywhere. It is time for a clean sweep of the background shrubs. That is going to be a job removing them all, but it will be worth it. And I may be able to use some of them in other parts of the yard.
I plan to plant new smaller red butterfly bushes, put nandina in between for winter color, and move the euonymus along front creek for privacy and erosion control. They can grow full size there. I haven't thought of a good place for the spring flowering almond shrubs, but they are only interesting for a couple of weeks each year so they may not be much of a loss.
Meanwhile, I did do a lot of weeding the past week. Every location has their own annoying weeds, but mine are purple deadnettle, some creeping grass that spreads through runners, and some damn little plant with tiny white flowers on it (and the seeds jump away when the plant is touched. The good news is that I think I got at them this year before they could go to seed. There are others like thistle and dandelion, but they never get to seed here, they just grow from windblown seeds in other yards and I can't stop that.
I don't have many weed problems, usually. This was a great year for the purple deadnettles though.
They do annoy me though, because I maintain the yard organically and it mostly works. I apply corn gluten each Spring and Fall, and that stuff supresses initial root development, and mowing at 3" usually shades out most weeds. Here's an example:
This is a view down my property line. My yard is on the left. My neighbor uses synthetic weed killer and major fertilizer stuff and mows his lawn down like a pool table. I mow my yard to 3" and use organic stuff. Biggify the picture to see where all the dandelions and crabgrasses are... And my grass IS greener without anything added but the 9-2-2 corn gluten.
And here's something else. I have honeybees in MY yard. I don't think they live IN my yard, but they sure come here to feed.
3 comments:
I got popped by a wasp so I know all about stinging issues. Haven't got stung by a bee this year but I tend to walk in the areas Bo has mowed and avoid the clover where the bees congregate. ~Alasandra
There is a field near me that is mostly filled with the purple deadnettle and it looks so pretty as you pass by. I never knew the name of that particular weed so thank you for the info.
Purple Dead Nettle is almost identical to Henbit. There are subtle differences, but not important ones. From a distance they look the same.
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