If a garden does not look good in May and June, it will never look good.<\/p>\n
I have heard that particular aphorism at least a thousand times over the years.\u00a0 Theoretically, at least, it\u2019s true for many gardens.\u00a0 If your landscape is home to a lot of spring-flowering plants of the flashy variety\u2014roses, peonies, iris and the like\u2014it can\u2019t help but shine when those horticultural divas burst into bloom.\u00a0 In fact, their great big fluffy heads, bright colors and alluring scents are enough to make garden visitors overlook the chickweed that may be romping at their feet.<\/p>\n
For many of us, spring is a busy season and a time when even the strongest desire to get out in the garden can\u2019t compete with the responsibilities of everyday life.\u00a0 While the peonies flaunt their colors, the weeds flaunt their ability to grow faster than anything else.\u00a0 In fact, I think the fastest growing plant in my garden right now is pokeweed\u2014Phytolaca americana\u2014a large-leafed weed that, if left to its own devices, will grow to be a bushy specimen that tops out at four or more feet tall.\u00a0 Without proper attention, it will sink deep roots and eventually produce a crop of very attractive, glossy black berries.\u00a0 Pokeweed berries are beloved by the birds, which will do their best to distribute the seeds far and wide.\u00a0 No matter how busy I am or where I am going, I pluck out pokeweed whenever I see it.\u00a0 It is always a worthwhile time investment.<\/p>\n
Last week I went on a high-end garden tour and noticed that just about every garden featured at least a few weeds in out-of-the-way corners.\u00a0 It was a great relief to see that even in expensive gardens, some things are overlooked in the midst of this season of rapid growth.<\/p>\n
Though I have to work hard to stave off guilt about the state of my garden, it is too early in the season to give in to despair.\u00a0 There are plenty of ways to make use of even the smallest amounts of available time.<\/p>\n
Every gardener can list chores that he or she absolutely hates.\u00a0 Mine is hedge trimming.\u00a0 Unfortunately, it is one of those activities that make the garden look civilized even when the weeding and mulching schedule is almost non-existent.\u00a0 This year I decided that since I hated hedge trimming so much, I would hire a landscaper to take care of it.\u00a0 Sadly, no one could touch the hedge for at least three weeks, by which time it will look like a privet-covered mastodon.\u00a0 The only choice for me and anyone else with limited time, unlimited hedges and no personal relationship with a landscaper is to do the job in small time increments.\u00a0 With the aid of my trusty electric hedge clipper, I can take care of at least ten linear feet of privet in about fifteen minutes, counting the time it takes to bag up the debris.\u00a0 I try to remember to wear long sleeves and apply insect repellent in advance of these outings.\u00a0 Otherwise it takes an additional five or six minutes to treat all the bites and scratches.<\/p>\n
Of course, while you persevere virtuously at your least favorite task, the rest of the garden begins to look overgrown and untidy.\u00a0 Now that the daffodil and tulip foliage has started to turn yellow-brown, it is time to remove it, for horticultural as well as aesthetic reasons.\u00a0 Doing so will make the garden look fresher and better managed.\u00a0 But foliage removal can be a big job if you are like me and have lots of daffodils.\u00a0 Tame the foliage beast by keeping clippers and a waste container by whatever exterior door you use most often.\u00a0 You can trim a reasonable amount of spent foliage in as little as five minutes.\u00a0 By taking twenty seconds to don garden gloves when you start, you will also save yourself the necessity of a lengthy hand washing session afterwards.<\/p>\n
Mulch small areas in the same way.\u00a0 Keeping a two-gallon container, trowel and open bag of mulch handy, lets you spread a two-inch layer of mulch over small areas of beds and borders quickly, without making a mess.\u00a0 Every square inch of mulch goes to work immediately suppressing weeds and keeping the ground underneath cool and moist.\u00a0 Taken another way, five minutes spent spreading mulch is five minutes that you won\u2019t have to spend weeding in a few weeks\u2019 time.\u00a0 The return on investment is significant.<\/p>\n
While pursuing garden chores in small time increments and cursing the lack of available hours, remember that perfection in gardens is very much overrated.\u00a0 Magazine landscapes have been cosseted, artfully photographed and, in some cases, Photoshopped into a state of perfection.\u00a0 Like fashion models, they don\u2019t look that way every day.\u00a0 You will never see the pokeweed lurking just outside the photo frame or the broken-down string trimmer in the garage, but I guarantee that they are there.\u00a0 And, no matter what those artfully arranged gardens look like, I can also say with certainty that the gardeners in charge of them will invariably respond to any praise with the words, \u201cYou should have seen it last week.\u201d<\/p>\n
So plant your guilt somewhere where the sun doesn\u2019t shine and enjoy whatever garden time you can steal.\u00a0 Sometimes even the most pernicious weeds have a beauty all their own.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
If a garden does not look good in May and June, it will never look good. I have heard that particular aphorism at least a thousand times over the years.\u00a0 Theoretically, at least, it\u2019s true for many gardens.\u00a0 If your landscape is home to a lot of spring-flowering plants of the flashy variety\u2014roses, peonies, iris … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,2],"tags":[476,82,689,823,1196,855,1195,824,112],"class_list":["post-1354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-interest","category-spring","tag-garden-chores","tag-hedge-clipping","tag-hedges","tag-mulching","tag-phytolaca-americana","tag-pokeweed","tag-spring-gardens","tag-weeding","tag-weeds"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1354"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1354\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1355,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1354\/revisions\/1355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}