Saplings, a Slow Worm and Weeds

Clearing weeds and transplanting opportunistic saplings.

Wild flowers

Summertime Weeding

A little bit of garden toil on a Saturday afternoon: July, 2021

My philosophy of weeding is that I'll only remove weed growth if it interferes with somewhere I want to use, is an invasive species or it competes with a particular plant that I'd like to thrive. I managed about two hours of weeding this afternoon, completing two jobs before a heavy shower brought me inside for tea and biscuits.

Today's first task was to clear the patio of grasses, dandelions and wood avens that have all managed to sprout up between the slabs. The patio is now usable but the wooden bench might be too far gone to repair and restore.

Bench

I extended the patio weeding into the geranium bed area. I first had to clear the paths through and around it and I was then able to pull wood avens, couch grass and bind weed from the planted geraniums. There is merit in letting these three types of weed grow to a reasonable height. Firstly, it makes them easy to identify and secondly, it provides a sufficiently strong stem to pull upon so that the roots can be pulled out rather than the stem snapping.

After carrying a few crates of weeds up the sloping path to the weed heap at the back (pleasingly uncovered last week) I realised that the overgrown path itself was another job I'd benefit from. Plenty of couch grass and wood avens were removed from the path and I cut back some other overgrowth using edging shears. Why edging shears and not hand shears? Well, the edging shears can reach both high and low so they're a more convenient tool.

At the top of the sloping path under the lilac tree where the bird feeders hang I found a self-seeded field maple of reasonable stature (about 60-70cm.) It was growing very close to the path and had clearly been brought there as a seed in a bird's dropping. It's often tricky to dig out a sapling close to a concrete path without damaging the roots but I gave it a go. Pleasingly it seemed to emerge fairly intact so I transplanted it to a suitable spot at the top of the newly-planted hedge. The soil here seemed very dry and poor - still a legacy of the old conifers - so I added some fresh compost from the heap and then gave it a good watering.

In addition to the maple, a lilac sucker also came out on my spade so I planted that too, up at the back next to the wild patch of brambles and long grass. I'm not so interested in the lilac bit if it happens to survive then good luck to it.

The wooden frame of the compost heap is in a very poor state so I'll have to rejuvenate it somehow. When I was extracting some compost from the base I saw the tail of a fairly chunky slow worm slightly higher up. I know I need to be very careful not to hurt the compost heap's wildlife when I'm extracting from it or turning it over. I think hedgehogs often use compost heaps too but the presence of badgers here means there probably aren't any hedgehogs.

Back Garden

Philosophy

Almost all human activity is damaging to the environment and gardening is no exception. The most wildlife and planet-friendly garden is one in which you do nothing; just let nature gradually take back control. Brambles, nettles and eventually trees will take over. That, however, would no longer be a garden. It would be a re-wilded patch within whatever human settlement you happen to live in.

At the other extreme is the most human-tamed outside environment, a garden of decking, weed-suppressing membranes, concrete or stone. Just a little bit better for wildlife are gardens of carefully manicured lawns, neat borders and arrays of non-native shrubs and flowers.

The lazy wildlife gardener lives at the wild end of the spectrum. Being lazy (or just not having much time for gardening work) means leaving nature to its own devices for much of the time and in many places. Mowing and weeding are two practices that require a constant battle against nature. Many people appreciate the results of these battles but the lazy wildlife gardener would rather walk away from that fight.

The philosophy is one of tidying and weeding in the places where the gardener desires a particular plant to become established or where unruly growth would otherwise impede on the use of the outside space. Sticking to these principles means that a limited amount of mowing is required (for the grass areas that you want to use) and weeding and pruning occurs in moderation, as time and motivation allow.