I’ve just spent an hour doing something in the garden that, until now, has seemed somewhat unnatural to me: I’ve been ripping out plants.
Inspired by the neighbour of my parents, whose lovely back yard perennial garden seems perpetually free of weeds (each of her mature perennial plants standing proudly in its place, unencumbered by unwanted greenery), I’ve decided to follow her lead and garden a little more ruthlessly. When my step-mom, Heather, asked her neighbour, Alison, how she kept her garden looking so nice, she told her that she showed no mercy, pulling out any plants she hadn’t put there in the first place. This includes unwanted perennials that spread by seed or by runners. Of those plants, I have plenty.
As a beginner gardener, I was just happy that anything would grow successfully in my garden. Now that I’m a little more seasoned, and my plants are more mature, spreading their roots and their seeds around the yard, I’ve come to realize that there’s nothing wrong with pulling aggressive, invasive perennials from the places they’ve taken up unwelcome residence. In fact, I’m doing the rest of my garden a favour, and in the process found a little therapy for myself.
Rip away! It’s my gardening motto for the summer of ’09.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
I was staring at my densely grown front garden only yesterday wondering if I should yank some things out at the edges to provide more definition for the clumps. Then I got to thinking that, in the dry shade under the Norway maples, the overlapping edges probably help shade the soil to reduce evaporation, especially in this hot, hot weather. I know it isn’t ideal from a design perspective, but from a (horti)cultural point of view, at the moment it’s likely the best strategy.
Helen at Toronto Gardens’s last blog post..Discovery: Scarborough Community Garden