The cliché (yawn) about weeds is that they are a plant in the wrong place. But I think it’s possible that gardeners very rarely really think about this, being more likely to recognise something simply as a bad plant, which must be got rid of.

So next time your hand reaches out to pull something up, – stop and have a little consider. There are several questions worth asking yourself:

Is it doing any harm there?

Note there. It may be a plant you wouldn’t want in some places but which might be a bonus somewhere else. I have masses of common or garden Epilobium angustifolium, now known as Chamaenerion angustifolium, perhaps known to you as rosebay willowherb or fireweed, in what is known as the Wild Garden. The name of the garden may tell you why I enjoy it there and it positively sings with the orange crocosmia which competes with it.

I also had it in a bed with the rose, Felicia, and it added no glory there. I removed every piece and you may be surprised to know that despite it seeding freely elsewhere it has not shown much sign of trying to get back there. A thick mulch may be helping.

More complex are issues to do with where yellow vetchling decides to live.

It’s quite pretty, but a smotherer if allowed – it scrambles over other plants, which is always possibly dodgy. (unless it’s a clematis?)

Vetchling breaks off rather than pulls out, which is why this is a mini nightmare. But it seems totally right in the meadow.

Though – maybe not – when it comes to cutting the meadow, which we do with the ride on, it can tangle in the rotating brushes rather than get chopped by the mower blades and that will bring the whole machine to a nasty full stop. The next hour will be spent lying on the ground wielding a craft knife very awkwardly under the machine, cutting the foliage away from the brushes and heaving it out, bit by bit. So, if it’s in the meadow, best check it’s not very heavy growth before setting off to do the cutting. You’ll get away with cutting a small amount.

The general ambience which you are trying to create in a place may contribute to the ‘doing harm there’ question. A formal parterre doesn’t want willow herb – unless, of course, you weeded out everything else. I have a bed of ground elder where grass is a difficult weed to remove – (more on ground elder another time)

You might think a parterre is actually the ideal place for a weed, as they more ordinarily have weedy herbs, which are not considered weeds, growing far too thinly, with miserable gaps and (horrors) bare earth. A vigorous pleasant looking weed might do a great deal better. (or an ornamental grass?)

At the edge of our meadow and beyond I like a slightly weedy look – since, as we all know really, weeds are our wild flowers, and many are just right there, mixed with some of the more informal plants which also work well there, like geraniums. Even more so in the meadow itself, which some might well say, is full of weeds. (more of that in later posts too).

With regard to harm, if you decide you really like it and want to leave it, maybe the next question should be ‘how will I manage it?’

I will avoid discussion of weedkillers here – you know what you will or won’t do in that direction and discussing it is as controversial and problematic as Brexit. I’m more thinking of:

Does it pull out easily?

Does it hurt if I pull it (beware mature bracken)

Am I getting too old to bend down and pull up a weed that size?

Does it smell nasty when you’ve pulled it? I think that is a weed survival mechanism, the nasty smell, a way to put off people from trying a pull, together with, in this case, half an attempt at ‘I’m quite pretty, really, you just need to look properly’. (Don’t ask me its name – I’ve no idea.) But if you can bear the smelliness and destroying the prettiness, it tends to come out with its root.

Several weeds do pull up easily and satisfactorily with root. Small flowered willow herb (Epilobium parviflorum) is one, and a good thing too, it’s so prolific.

But you do usually have to bend. Sometimes it’s tall enough for a satisfactory pull without much effort. Sometimes it just gets left…..

Others always break off – cleavers (Galium aparine) is one. Worst when it’s young for breaking off. Matures into what at least amounts to a satisfying pull… You can get arms full at Veddw!

If it’s a break-off weed then you know your weeding has been a very temporary fix. Pulling tops off things is usually hardly worth the effort. Unless, like Jessica, my good friend and gardening mother in law, you like weeding.

Huh.

More on this happy topic another time. What about weeds you might want, next time?

Good to see someone else has (almost) begun to appreciate weeds

Xxxx

Anne Wareham

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