Copyright© of Top Growth Garden Services - 6 February 2006
Blog for Spring 2008
To Weed or not to Weed
Early Spring 2008
A weed is a beautiful plant growing in the wrong place, this is subjective because it depends on what you feel is beautiful. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder of course and many weeds are considered undesirable because they are so successful, often swamping our more cultivated plants.
There is a branch (no pun intended) of gardening that practices a ‘no weed’ policy, and I think that it may be successful. No weed simply means using mulches and weed suppressant membrane so that weeds find it difficult to get to the surface. The mulching method is very beneficial one for the garden, however it does require significant depth to the compost, and the compost needs to be well treated to prevent weed germination on the surface. Things like leafmould and woodchip can be good hear, though I feel that woodchips are potentially damaging as they will harbour disease and bacteria as they break down, and during the decomposition process the wood chips require significant amounts of nitrogen which can only come from the soil underneath, possibly starving other plant growth.
I quite like weeds, nettles can be eaten? Dandelions look brilliant in the roadside during May, daisies look terrific in lawns, Welsh poppies grow magnificently in the tiniest of cracks and blackberries (bless their nasty thorns) produce such a delicious fruit. Where would we be without blackberries to add to a scrummy apple and blackcurrant pie.
Early Spring 2008
A weed is a beautiful plant growing in the wrong place, this is subjective because it depends on what you feel is beautiful. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder of course and many weeds are considered undesirable because they are so successful, often swamping our more cultivated plants.
There is a branch (no pun intended) of gardening that practices a ‘no weed’ policy, and I think that it may be successful. No weed simply means using mulches and weed suppressant membrane so that weeds find it difficult to get to the surface. The mulching method is very beneficial one for the garden, however it does require significant depth to the compost, and the compost needs to be well treated to prevent weed germination on the surface. Things like leafmould and woodchip can be good hear, though I feel that woodchips are potentially damaging as they will harbour disease and bacteria as they break down, and during the decomposition process the wood chips require significant amounts of nitrogen which can only come from the soil underneath, possibly starving other plant growth.
I quite like weeds, nettles can be eaten? Dandelions look brilliant in the roadside during May, daisies look terrific in lawns, Welsh poppies grow magnificently in the tiniest of cracks and blackberries (bless their nasty thorns) produce such a delicious fruit. Where would we be without blackberries to add to a scrummy apple and blackcurrant pie.
Weeding is such a therapeutic job. I absolutely love getting onto my knees and pulling out weeds. We then ‘twiddle’ the clean soil which makes the special ones stand out for admiration.
Most of our regular clients despise weeds in their paths and gravel driveways. We have tried the lot, weedkillers do work but take quite some time to die down, flameguns often only take off the top growth and the roots of most weeds are robust enough to sprout up again soon afterwards, but best of all is hand weeding. My favourite tool is a butter knife. Slid down the side of a 20 foot dandelion root eases the thing out intact often. Getting the weeds whilst they are embryonic is the best method though, they are far easier to remove and haven’t had a chance to set seed and proliferate too much.
As a fun exercised get a magnifying glass and take a peek at the most common weeds, their flowers and leaves are every bit as intriguing as the special ones.
At this time of year weeds and grass are rampant so it will come as no surprise to hear that we are up to our hollyhocks in weeds.
Perhaps I will open up a Weed Garden, I imagine it would be a fantastically popular place, especially if the weeds were labelled. Maybe I should patent that idea.
Are you watching...are you watching
Are you watching...Lakeland Sam?
Most of our regular clients despise weeds in their paths and gravel driveways. We have tried the lot, weedkillers do work but take quite some time to die down, flameguns often only take off the top growth and the roots of most weeds are robust enough to sprout up again soon afterwards, but best of all is hand weeding. My favourite tool is a butter knife. Slid down the side of a 20 foot dandelion root eases the thing out intact often. Getting the weeds whilst they are embryonic is the best method though, they are far easier to remove and haven’t had a chance to set seed and proliferate too much.
As a fun exercised get a magnifying glass and take a peek at the most common weeds, their flowers and leaves are every bit as intriguing as the special ones.
At this time of year weeds and grass are rampant so it will come as no surprise to hear that we are up to our hollyhocks in weeds.
Perhaps I will open up a Weed Garden, I imagine it would be a fantastically popular place, especially if the weeds were labelled. Maybe I should patent that idea.
Are you watching...are you watching
Are you watching...Lakeland Sam?
Bright Lights Starry Nights
May 2008
The sun has been streaming down for several weeks, initially the grass surged and scared the living daylights out of us. In a matter of days an emerald growth replaced the skinny pale blades of Winter. A deluge over the previous weekend saturated the earth again and as the air warmed up and the sun beat down the grass began to quiver and grow.
We cut two lawns on Friday, worried that the grass was never going to get going. Returning on Monday to one the grass had astonishingly grown about 6”, surely this wasn’t a sign of things to come?
One client sent us a text message thanking us for strimming some scrappy daffodils in the middle of his lawn and wondered when we were going to cut the grass? He had been away for the weekend, only 4 days had changed our world.
Our ride-on mower was barely capable of keeping up with the growth on some jobs, without the 36” cut we would have needed days to get down to an acceptable length.
Now, some 3 weeks on, the ground is parched and the growth has slowed, grass is lovely and dry, it is a pleasure to cut grass again. The weather pendulum swings manically, perhaps this is global warming. We have suffered little harsh weather this Winter and Spring is proving to be absolute perfection ... for now!
May 2008
The sun has been streaming down for several weeks, initially the grass surged and scared the living daylights out of us. In a matter of days an emerald growth replaced the skinny pale blades of Winter. A deluge over the previous weekend saturated the earth again and as the air warmed up and the sun beat down the grass began to quiver and grow.
We cut two lawns on Friday, worried that the grass was never going to get going. Returning on Monday to one the grass had astonishingly grown about 6”, surely this wasn’t a sign of things to come?
One client sent us a text message thanking us for strimming some scrappy daffodils in the middle of his lawn and wondered when we were going to cut the grass? He had been away for the weekend, only 4 days had changed our world.
Our ride-
Now, some 3 weeks on, the ground is parched and the growth has slowed, grass is lovely and dry, it is a pleasure to cut grass again. The weather pendulum swings manically, perhaps this is global warming. We have suffered little harsh weather this Winter and Spring is proving to be absolute perfection ... for now!
Slugs n Snails
Early Summer 2008
Perhaps the dry spells coincided with the ermergence of slugs and snails this year. We definitely haven’t experienced as much damage of hostas in untended beds as in previous years.
Most damage to early plants came from rabbits and deer. In fact we have been traumatised by some herdwick sheep at Hawkshead. They have taken up residence in an outhouse of a large garden which is only used infrequently. They make the place stink and return every time that we chase them out. I expect that the farmer doesn’t even know they are missing, but they have wrecked a rockery established two years ago. A weigela was the only shrub to remain un-nibbled and the bulk of the small heathers have been uprooted causing the roots to dry out.
Another garden in Windermere has been devastated by deer once again, we have submitted in some instances by removing the damaged plants completely and have pruned an acer palmatum dissectum so that it resembles a palm tree to stop the deer stripping the lower branches and destroying the effect. Phew...
Anyhow I think that the slugs and snails are having an off-year, but they may make a late rush as the new annual seedlings are planted. I hear that a splash of Carlsberg Special in a dish will give them a happy send off? Maybe I should sup it instead and stop fretting so much.
Early Summer 2008
Perhaps the dry spells coincided with the ermergence of slugs and snails this year. We definitely haven’t experienced as much damage of hostas in untended beds as in previous years.
Most damage to early plants came from rabbits and deer. In fact we have been traumatised by some herdwick sheep at Hawkshead. They have taken up residence in an outhouse of a large garden which is only used infrequently. They make the place stink and return every time that we chase them out. I expect that the farmer doesn’t even know they are missing, but they have wrecked a rockery established two years ago. A weigela was the only shrub to remain un-
Another garden in Windermere has been devastated by deer once again, we have submitted in some instances by removing the damaged plants completely and have pruned an acer palmatum dissectum so that it resembles a palm tree to stop the deer stripping the lower branches and destroying the effect. Phew...
Anyhow I think that the slugs and snails are having an off-
