Posts tagged as:

weeding

What I am doing differently this year

May 14, 2009

Dottie over at D and G Gardens and Crafts blog asked me what I was doing differently this year in my garden. I’d have to say there are no dramatic changes, just a shift in emphasis. I’m trying to work harder at maintaining what I have, rather than adding a lot of new plants. I [...]

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Two things I learned while weeding today

November 6, 2008

I normally don’t weed my beds in November, because it is too chilly, wet, windy, and perhaps snowy. However, we have been enjoying a string of unseasonably warm days and I was able to take advantage of it today. Weeding grass out of daylily foliage is usually pretty tricky, because the leaves are so similar. [...]

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Goldenrod: This native plant should be kept out of the garden

October 9, 2008

Goldenrod is my enemy
There, I’ve said it. I don’t care if goldenrod is a native plant; it is no longer welcome in my gardens. I tried to be understanding, truly, I did, but it just did not want to play nice with the other plants. It did not want to play at all: total garden [...]

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Weeding for the audience

July 27, 2008

Every year about this time, the Juneberry bed looks like this:

This photo was taken last July, but gives you the general idea: milkweed, musk mallow, lambs’ quarters, and a weedy form of evening primrose all detract from the daylilies that are supposed to shine here.

Being a detail person, in past years I have attempted to [...]

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My Summer in a Garden

July 29, 2007

A small change in routine can make a big change in the garden

I was the oldest of a large family, and I aspired to be a good girl. Not so much in the sense of morally superior; I wanted to do it right, correctly. Even as a child, I was a perfectionist.

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The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

July 14, 2007

Long-time readers of my blog know that I have never shied away from being honest about the poor upkeep of my garden. Sometimes I find beauty in the weeds, and sometimes they depress me, but I’ve never pretended they didn’t exist. I agree with Colleen that fear of “not doing it right,” or “not being [...]

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Canada thistle, the plague of my peonies

June 23, 2007

Canada thistle weaves throughout the peony bed

Observant readers may have noticed the prickly-leaved weed sidling up to ‘Rozella’ in my last post. That dastardly villain is Canada thistle, aka Cirsium arvense, and it is one nasty customer. According to the University of California Cooperative Extension,
Once established, Canada thistle spreads rapidly by horizontal roots, up to [...]

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Spring madness: Search and rescue

May 8, 2007

If you are short on time, energy, and money, but notably the first two, be conservative. You’ll be more pleased with one fair-sized, well-composed, well-maintained bed than with a half-dozen large beds that are choked with quack grass and creeping Charlie.
That’s excellent advice from The Complete Flower Gardener by Karan Davis Cutler and Barbara W. [...]

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What’s Up? Dock!

April 11, 2006

From this space, roughly five feet wide by six feet deep . . . . . . I dug out all these dock roots (that’s a 15-inch ruler) . . . plus this wagon full of rocks . . .plus these additional weed roots, mostly goldenrod

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Wacky Winter Weeding

February 20, 2006

Is there anyone in North America not having an atypical winter? These twigs were photographed by Justin in January. After I took the photos for the preceding post the first Saturday in February, I was able to spend a good two hours weeding before being chased inside by rain. For those of you who live [...]

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When is a Weed not a Weed?

August 7, 2004

Last Saturday and this one I weeded the patio bed, each time just enough to get one of my potted plants into the ground. Last week it was Molinia caerulea ‘Variegata,’ and today it was Polemonium caeruleum ‘Brise d’Anjou.’ Both of these have yellow variegation in the foliage which I intend to complement the flowers [...]

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Triage Weeding

May 23, 2003

As I’ve mentioned already, I’m perpetually behind on my weeding. Really behind. I decided I’d share my techniques with all of you, in case you find yourself up against a flower bed that’s really been let go too long.
Make it easy on yourself.
Make sure the bed is moist, either from recent rainfall or from supplemental [...]

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Weeding

September 25, 2002

I weeded half the asparagus bed yesterday. It hadn’t been weeded at all this season because of my hospital stay and then Deirdre being born, and since it hadn’t been weeded it was never mulched. The asparagus seem to be doing okay despite the neglect, although some are leaning way over, which makes me think [...]

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