On This Page. Boundless Generosity M.G. - A Gentle Plea For The Art Of Weeding. Anon. - The Pleasures Mine. S-A. K.

1.Here Mike Greensmith tells to us, with tongue in cheek I think, a story that we all know to some degree, but a story which, for our own good, we can never take to heart too much perhaps. N.T.

BOUNDLESS GENEROSITY

Mike Greensmith

Just the other day, pausing for breath expended on tugging wiry stems of Hypericum calycinum (“Good ground cover” RHS) from the middle of an otherwise unsullied prostrate juniper, I fell to musing.

I recalled the time when my father held the national collection of weeds disguised as desirable garden plants, or at least some of them. Not a National Collection in the present sense, you understand, but more a stockpile against the day when the world outside our garden walls became denuded of these species – possibly due to some ecological hiccup such as overtook the dinosaurs.

In retrospect, the collection was remarkable more for its simplicity than its diversity and the fact that any worthy cultivar, if indeed one had ever been present, had been totally submerged.

It was the time when, at an unusually early age, I was called upon to Dig for Victory and to keep the place tidy whilst my father oiled the wheels of the war machine.

By then the principal plant protagonists had avoided direct conflict, occupying strategic areas on an ever increasing perimeter – give or take a couple of redoubts, namely The Rockery and The Rusticwork. This latter, a tortured erection of twisted timbers, had completely surrendered to the Russian Vine (“Vigorous” RHS), whose greedy tendrils were actively seeking to extend its evil empire into surrounding gardens. To the east of this sometimes alluring curtain, broad swathes of Hypericum calycinum flaunted seductive puffs of of Sharon”, as it crept mercilessly towards the King Edwards.

To the west, vast clumps of a perennial helianthus (“May be invasive” RHS) spilled into the lawn to challenge a spreading tide of Sedum acre (“Invasive” RHS) which had already engulfed our modest driveway, circumnavigated the house, and was preparing to dispute the high ground of The Rockery with a veritable blizzard of Cerastium tomentosum (“Snow-in-summer: very vigorous” RHS).

A few years on, having restored a precarious ecological balance, and yet with the innocence of youth, I established my first Herbaceous Border with cynically given spadefuls of various villains such as Campanula glomerata (“Clustered bellflower: vigorous” RHS), which came to regard as a colourful substitute for ground elder.

I learned my lesson. I tried to be more circumspect It is difficult. Give it the right niche and some demure sprig will become an unbridled Triffid overnight. Someone complained recently that his plot was overrun by alstroemeria – notoriously difficult to establish. I admit to the odd lapse: the silvery wiles of Lamium galeobdolon (“May be invasive”), the low cunning of a New Zealand Burr (“May be invasive”), and it is not easy to resist a few clumps of Viola labrodorica (“Can become a nuisance”); and does anyone want a lifetime's supply of Borago officinalis (“Self-seeds prolifically”) to garnish their Pimms No. 1? The flowers are such a beautiful blue!

2.To continue the theme of weeding, but still I think with tongue in cheek, we might wonder if we weed for gardens, or garden for weeds. N.T.

A GENTLE PLEA FOR THE ART OF WEEDING.

Weeding is if anything the Cinderella of all gardening crafts. I suspect that it is simply considered by many gardeners, to be little more than an irksome task, which must be endured now and again, before you can move on to the really interesting stuff, like planting, propagating or even pruning. But I have to say, and I am sorry to say, as it seems almost an embarrassment, but I think that if there could ever be, just one good and outstanding reason at all, for possessing a garden, then I think this must be because it enables you to practise the art of weeding. This may be of course, just a freaky personal quirk, and if you know me, then you will know that I have a more than my fair share of quirks, especially of the sort which are very annoying to other people; but please read on, because this one at least, may be just a little bit less annoying than most.

I do not think that any one even the least enthusiastic weeder would say that weeding is not important, we all realize that since nature always all too willingly gives back ten thousand fold, or more, for every one given; then all gardens are much more a product of what we take out, than by the tiny fraction that we put back in. Indeed if weeding is defined as, the removal of unwanted plant matter, (and it easily could be,) then dividing, pruning and cutting back are also types of weeding. Making weeding virtually all that gardening consist of. So perhaps we should set out in the spirit of. “We are really going to enjoy and make the most of this.”

At least think for just a minute, about what happens when you enter a border with a fork in your hand, when you have really got your nose down among the leaves, do you not then become more intimate with your garden than at any other time? Do you ever get closer to your plants than this? Not only that, but is it not true, that you see and understand even more at this time than any other, because this is when you are most actively intervening in the natural ecology of your garden. You will see which plant runs under which, how each plant spreads, how its roots extend, with what weeds it competes, and to which it gives way, how high the crowns form, when the buds come through the spring soil, and so much more. Not only that but you will learn huge amounts about the weeds, which are only wild flowers, from when they come through, to what their seed leaves and the roots look like, and this in turn may well often tell you much about their cultivated relatives. If there is any single gardening activity, which has taught you as much about plants or nature, as weeding has, then I would be very pleased to know about it; because I would very much love to have a go.

Perhaps we tend to under value all this knowledge, partly because we take it for granted, as it is gained as a “freebie” along with a tidy garden; but even more perhaps because there is simply so much of it, and so painlessly gained, that we could never hope to organize it all in our minds, or write it down for example. But what about remembering the joy of learning just for its own sake? Why should we ever forget, just how impressed none gardeners sometimes are, by the fact that we can always tell a plant from a weed, (well nearly always,) and is not that a really true measure, of just how far, and how near to the earth, weeding has brought you.

Then again, if we are seeking the joys of weeding, what many ways there are; let me just think a second. There's, forking out, digging in, the hoe (both push and pull), mulching, herbicide, and hand pulling, at least. Something in fact to suit every weather and mood, and you can probably think of a few more. I strongly suspect that a lot of unenthusiastic weeders, in fact fall into one of the puritanical method schools of weeding; as in, “ Keep the hoe going all the time, I want to have loose earth and clear space between all my plants at all times, and never mind the seedlings.” Well that's their loss, at the very least because picking and planning a strategy to suit each challenge is all part of the fun.

For a warm relaxing summers day in the sunshine when you are feeling mellow, then hoeing is not only at its most effective then, but it can be done with an upright posture, covering the ground quickly and soon achieving that special feeling of satisfaction you need, before you can allow yourself time for sitting at the bottom of the garden in the shade with a drink. (The hoe incidentally, is a hook; which should be slightly blunt, and is used to pull the weeds from the ground, leaving them on the surface with roots and leaves still joined, that way they wilt and die much quicker. It should never be used to slice the tops off weeds leaving the roots behind. I know that you hardy planters know better, but I have seen the wrong method advocated by, naturally you guessed it, a well known TV. presenter. So I thought that it needed a mention.) And when you have finished your drink; you can work your way back up the garden and turn them over again, just to make sure, and give yourself an extra little sadistic trill. Do also try one of the newfangled push and pull hoes, you may like it.

Mulch is of course good exercise on a cold winters day, when the ground is hard with frost and your breath steams. But it is also fun to use opportunistically. Have barrow full of spent compost to get rid of? Dump it on those weed seedlings. Double the satisfaction.

Hand weeding with a fork, is naturally the connoisseurs method; slow and fulfilling, it achieves the closest intimacy with both plant and earth, it may not be the best of ways with some running weeds, but it certainly feels like it, especially when you peel a long root in one piece from the ground. Ideal for a misty Autumn morning with a few crispy fallen leaves lodged around the plants, and a mood of soft melancholy. It keeps you low and out of the wind, and it should be interrupted every hour for a hot drink, and also as often as you like for a contemplation pause.

Weedkiller is quick and convenient as well as the only way with some weeds. Always use a sprayer with a trigger on the lance, and a flat fan pattern nozzle, never a mist nozzle. If you are worried about splashing your plants, then you are using the wrong equipment. If you are spraying small weeds between plants, then there is no need to lift the nozzle more than three or four inches off the ground, you should in fact be able to use herbicide to thin trays of seedlings; herbicide is only weapon of mass destruction in the hands of clumsy and oafish members of the opposite sex, (insert your own choice of gender here). Do check the weather forecast, and do not be afraid to use a second/third/forth dose on tough weeds if they prove rebellious.

Herbicide is by no means a new technology, the Ancient Romans probably used salt to keep the paths clear in their villa gardens. In fact the Romans seem to have been addicted to salt and used it as a cleaner, an antiseptic, a disinfectant, and to clean themselves after they had been to the toilet, they even added huge amounts to their food. I would think that in the garden, they most probably used it on their gravel areas, in the cracks of paving, to keep moss of tiles, to discourage slugs, to kill deep rooted weeds and to clean and sterilize their frames and greenhouses if they had any, they probably just put their gloves on and scattered handfuls where they needed to. They would of course have to use it with great care near the roots of trees, and on areas which were to be planted, as it does spread and persist in the soil a little. The salt they most probably used, would be just like the common sort of rock salt that you can buy in bags from the builders merchant, meant for clearing ice from the drive in winter, and which is usually sold at a tiny fraction of the price of herbicides from the garden centre. I can not of course tell you today, to use salt as a weed killer, that would not be legal, as the law says that the product needs to be licensed at great cost for use as a herbicide, which, that sort of salt, is not; and I would also have to be licensed at great cost, to advice you. So I am merely contenting myself, by telling you what the Romans may have done, got it.

Hand pulling without the aid of tools, is, as I am sure you are well aware, possible with many weeds, especially on light soils and when the ground is moist. Some people are violently opposed to this method. “It will break and you will leave the roots behind.” But the experienced and sensitive gardener soon learns to recognize which weeds are susceptible to this method and which are not. The big advantage of this method is that it is the ultimate in opportunistic weeding, you can do it anywhere and any time. I make a point of never walking round the garden without paying for my enjoyment by pulling out at least three weeds, if I can.

What however is surprising is just how useful this sort of occasional hand weeding is, being repeated so regularly you soon destroy an awful lot of weeds, and since you often tend to get the weeds that you miss when you are doing more organized weeding, especially those little seedlings which lurk in corners, which you can often catch before they become a menace. The problem with this is of course, what to do with the weeds when you have pulled them up, as it may be a long way to the compost heap. What I like to do is to carefully place them among the stems of a plant, off the ground, where they are sure to wilt whatever the weather. The bonus of this method is that it greatly annoys some people who will tell you that the whole garden will soon become filled with hay, but in fact as the weeds are small, quickly wilt, and the plants they are placed on usually grow, therefore you never really see them again.

No, the real problem with this method of weeding, and indeed some of the others, is that it can become very obsessive. That special feeling of satisfaction that comes from being able to stand back and think in bellicose metaphors like, “That's got the little blighter's on the run.” in short the feeling that by sheer persistence you are gaining ground over determined resistance, is one of the most addictive things I know. Things may not be too bad, if you just find that you are habitually poking your fork under your neighbours fence, or the spray lance over it, in a desperate attempt to push back the frontiers of your mini empire. But if you find yourself volunteering to weed their garden for them, then it may be, time to admit you have a problem, and you have my permission to wonder if you should quickly seek professional help. Though I am sure your neighbours will be extremely grateful, but then, it may be that they don't know what they are missing. Happy Weeding.

3.Here however Shirley-Anne Kennedy gives us a list of plants which are true favourites and have nothing of the weed about them, though some may not be entirely without faults, but gardeners have deep wells of tolerance sometimes, do they not. N.T.

THE PLEASURE'S MINE

Shirley-Anne Kennedy

These plants have given me great pleasure over the last year. Not necessarily my favourite plants, they have been very good value. I think that the one thing they all have in common, be they star performers, bit part players or members of the chorus, is character.

I must start with a gloriously vulgar Papaver orientate, name unknown. It was in this garden when we moved in twenty years ago; it has never grown any larger nor seeded itself around. It is a gaudy, flamboyant vermilion with a beautiful black centre. The leaves are grey-green and hairy, and it flops about all over the place. It flowers early, then I cut it down. Sometimes I keep the large seed heads for Christmas and, on one weak occasion, I actually sowed some of its seed, which proved to be very fertile.

A hybrid of Helleborus orientalis, purchased as part of a Helen Ballard collection a few years ago, is so deep a purple as to appear almost black. The upturned flower has a wonderful bloom which contrasts so well with the primrose-coloured stamens. I like the way the young flowers hang like tight shapely bells until they open out almost flat into quite large flowers which last for several months. Sadly, it doesn't seed very much.

The foliage of Cyclamen hederifolium is exceptionally good value: wonderfully marked leaves which are beautiful in their own right. The dainty flowers are an added bonus. A clump of this has great charm and it flowers for me from August to November in a good year. It is followed, and sometimes overlapped, by the dainty little Cyclamen coum, a dear little plant with fragile-looking rosy-pink flowers which have lasted all winter, no matter what the weather.

Solanum crispum 'Clasnevin' started flowering in Spring and only stopped just before Christmas. The flowers (similar to those of the potato) are a clear pale purple with a lemon-yellow centre as a satisfying contrast. Its dark green leaves have a no-nonsense attitude to living. Supposed to be slightly tender, it was so rampant on my cold east wall that I dug it up and planted it away from the house. It never knew the difference! Roots left in the ground all grew new plants metres away from the original site.

My 'hedgehog holly', Ilex aquifolium 'Ferox Argentea', has grown sideways rather than upwards and, as a result, I am able to look down on to those wonderful leaves. It stands about four feet high with a spread of perhaps five or six feet. The leaves have these fantastic prickles all over them, not just on the edges, and are interestingly variegated as well, it came to me as part of a Christmas bowl, put together by an elderly lady as a gift. It had all been sprayed silver. I liked it so much that I used the I east-sprayed piece as a cutting and, to my great delight, it rooted.

A 'bit player', Anthemis punctata cupaniana has both texture and colour which remind me of chalk; it is a symphony of grey and white. Even though it spreads sideways and flops a bit it still seems neat and tidy – a quiet plant, very satisfying to have in the garden. It seeds mildly for me and cuttings root very easily. Of similar colour coding, is Hedera helix 'Glacier'. I have a plant establishing happily on an old red brick wall which makes a good background for the cool greys, greens and creams of the ivy. I intend to plant one of those red climbing vines with it and let them sort it out for themselves.

I would like to recommend Clematis montana 'Elizabeth'; it is not a thug and can be allowed 'posh' garden space. It has the most wonderful flowers of sugar pink and their perfume is out of this world. Sheltered from late frosts (which can remove the buds just as they are about to open), it flowers early in the year. A lovely, lovely plant.

A 'member of the chorus' next – a quiet plant with no smart name but which I much prefer to all its more fashionable relatives that are on every gardener's “Must Have” list – Pulmonaria officinalis is reliable, neat and, in my garden, gets on with the job of producing pleasantly coloured and spotted leaves and pretty pink and blue variations of flowers which add up to attractive groupings in odd variations of flowers which groupings in odd corners. I find that the flowers of some of those 'posh1 pulmonarias are a very sickly colour, nowhere near as attractive as the commoner one, and I do not like some of the coarse, rough-textured, untidy leaves which are no asset to the garden.

If you want a splash of textured sunlight in your garden try Lonicera japonica 'Aureoreticulata', an evergreen climber, scrambler or flop-around-the-floor kind of plant, with wonderfully coloured and netted leaves which take on a pink tinge. If you need to cover a nasty spot, fence or wall, spend some time tying it to supports; if you can't be bothered, plant it and leave it to do its own thing. It does flower but is refined and utterly reliable. We have never had a cross word, unlike my relationship with some of its more floriferous relatives.

A star performer is Cistus x pulverulentus 'Sunset', a lovely thing :or a hot dry place. Start it off well and once it is settled down it will cope easily with drought periods. It has lovely textured leaves and its flowers are a soft fuchsia colour with yellow centres – a bit like dog roses. It is the petals I like so much: they look as if they had been in a spin-dryer. They are so badly crumpled that they could do with a hot iron being run over them, but this untidy appearance is so very charming and contrasts so well with the sage-like leaves.

Fuchsia magellanica (I think) was planted as a small cutting near the window where my telephone is sited. It has grown to almost tree-like proportions. It has honey-coloured tattery bark, tiny leaves and tiny red and purple flowers. These, though small, are exquisitely formed and what they lack in size they make up in quantity. The shrub is covered for months with a succession of hundreds of pendulous flowers. I only cut it to remove any dead or awkward branches; it is never pruned to the ground. Seed cases in a plum colour are formed and hang like miniature sausages; they are not unattractive. Pairs of goldfinches play in this shrub all summer, Jenny Wren loves it, many birds eat the seed heads so I find seedlings in places where I would never have dreamed of planting a fuchsia. I can't decide whether it is a star performer or a member of the chorus, but I highly recommend it. I am becoming increasingly fond, too, of its relation, F.m- 'Alba', with flowers in the most delicate two shades of pink.

Camellia 'Donation' is definitely a star performer. Planted away from the morning sun, there has to be a very heavy frost before I lose any flowers. Neat evergreen leaves, dark and glossy, provide year round foliage interest; the flowers are valued not only for their beauty of form and colour but for their impact so early in the year, when so many shrubs seem to have small flowers.

For my last flower, but by no means least, I would like to put in a word for the gentle, good-natured common primrose; it gets overlooked amongst all its gaudy giant relatives. A self-sown seedling has flowered in my garden non-stop since last November. No kind of weather has deterred it; the snow flattened the flowers but they straightened up the moment it disappeared. Today (in March) the clump must have thirty or more flowers on it. It isn't temperamental, it seems to grow anywhere, and seeds itself around freely; what more could you ask from a plant?

Most of the plants I have mentioned were grown from seeds or cuttings or were garden swops. The camellia was rescued from a Woolworth's sale. It is satisfying to realize that some of the plants which performed so well for me last year cost me very little money; costly purchasing is not necessarily the criterion for garden satisfaction.