One of the sad realities of my suburban life is that lawn grass grows best in a single segment of my property\u2014the garden beds.\u00a0 The green blades struggle in the backyard, perpetual losers in the never-ending competition with ajuga, clover, wild violets and broadleaf weeds.\u00a0 The grass issue in back is exacerbated by the fact that except for the broadleaf weeds, I prefer the interlopers.\u00a0 In the front yard, the lawn does better and even appears lush and green at certain times.\u00a0 Its verdure is amazing, given the fact that unless I am walking on the grass or running the mower over it, I ignore it completely.<\/p>\n
Sadly, I cannot run the mower over the most vigorous grass, because it is growing up through my perennials and shrubs.\u00a0 The beds were wrested from the lawn years ago, but the survivor grass is tenacious.\u00a0 Under current climatic conditions–every morning for the past three months has dawned at a temperature of 61 degrees, accompanied by varying amounts of rain–the blades in the beds have taken off.\u00a0 When you combine that kind of growth-inducing weather with the neglect the garden suffered after my husband\u2019s death last year, you can understand the size of my grass problem.\u00a0 Blades that have grown tall enough to bear seed heads are easy to pull out.\u00a0 Shorter ones, embedded among mature plants\u2014or even worse, thorny roses\u2014take considerably more effort.\u00a0 The other day I took on a clump of grass growing up through the base of Rosa chinensis var. \u2018Mutablilis\u2019 and came out looking as if I had been soundly defeated in a hand-to-paw combat session with our cat, Sarah.<\/p>\n
Reclaiming the beds from stray grass is daunting, but getting the established weeds out is equally onerous.\u00a0 The only compensation is that the beds look so much better when they are finally weed and grass free.<\/p>\n
Novice gardeners sometimes ask me, \u201cHow do you tell the good plants from the weeds?\u201d\u00a0 This is an excellent question and one that lawn service people rarely get right.\u00a0 The following are some guidelines.<\/p>\n
Acceleration: <\/strong>Unless your idea of a desirable plant is kudzu, weeds always grow faster than your prized perennials or even annuals.\u00a0 Oriental bittersweet, or Celastrus orbiculatus, is distinguished by its climbing habit, ovoid leaves, bright orange fall fruits and the fact that it practically leaps while you watch.\u00a0 Virginia creeper, known to plant people as Parthenocissus quinquefolia, is a native vine.\u00a0 Often grown as an ornamental, it has a nasty habit of exceeding its boundaries.\u00a0 Virginia creeper is excessively fond of inaccessible places, like the innards of privet or box hedges, and grows rapidly.\u00a0 The best time to eradicate it is fall, when its leaves turn bright red.\u00a0 However, if you wait that long, it may have taken over your entire garden.<\/p>\n Proliferation: <\/strong>If a single, unrecognizable type of plant pops up all over the garden, it is most likely a weed.\u00a0 <\/strong>Common dandelions, with their windblown seed puffs, are a perfect example of this trait, but almost everyone can identify dandelions.\u00a0 <\/strong>Garlic mustard, which reproduces like crazy, is a different story.\u00a0 <\/strong>In the northeast, we never used to have garlic mustard\u2014Alliaria petiolata– but climate change has altered the situation. \u00a0Growing between 18 and 24 inches tall, garlic mustard is a biennial, developing a rosette of rather coarse-looking, heart-shaped leaves the first year.\u00a0 The second year, its stalks produce clusters of white flowers, followed by seed heads.\u00a0 One garlic mustard plant can produce hundreds of seeds, which is why it now infests every yard in the area.<\/p>\n Intrusion: <\/strong>Weeds are, by definition, unwanted plants that tend to show up in places where gardeners would rather have other things.\u00a0 Crabgrass, for example, is a summer scourge that not only creeps through lawns, but spreads its tentacles through flower beds and even erupts from sidewalk cracks.\u00a0 Common purslane–Portulaca oleracea\u2014is a low-growing plant with small fleshy leaves that often infests spaces between pavers or within driveway fissures.\u00a0 It also occurs in summer.\u00a0 Fortunately, if you choose to do so, you can eradicate purslane by eating it, as the succulent leaves are quite nutritious.\u00a0 Common chickweed\u2014Stellaria media\u2014another low-grower with weaker stems and non-fleshy leaves, frequents the same kinds of spaces as purslane, but does so in the early spring.<\/em><\/p>\n Survival: <\/strong>Weeds are often the best adapted plants around and can survive the kinds of trials and tribulations that kill more genteel species\u2014especially those for which you pay lots of money.\u00a0 Wild onion or wild chive is a perfect example.\u00a0 The name refers to several feral members of the allium or onion family that bedevil gardeners in spring.\u00a0 The tall onion-scented stalks burst from the soil as soon as it is less than rock-hard, quickly soaring above the grass and early-flowering plants.\u00a0 You can pull up the stalks and bulbs, but it is next to impossible to eradicate the plants.\u00a0 Year after year, I have dug up entire clumps of onion grass, only to find that those clumps return with a vengeance the following year.\u00a0 If I could sell wild onion from a stand in front of my house, I would be rich.<\/p>\n Like cockroaches, weeds are older, tougher and smarter than humans.\u00a0 They were here before we arrived and they will be here long after we are gone.\u00a0 The best we can do is mulch where we can, weed when necessary and try to reach a state of d\u00e9tente with these tenacious plants.\u00a0 If you can\u2019t tell whether something is a weed or a desirable plant, have patience.\u00a0 Nine times out of ten, it is a weed, but every once in awhile, a suspected weed turns out to be a serendipitous, self-sown horticultural gem.<\/p>\n Such miracles compensate for<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" One of the sad realities of my suburban life is that lawn grass grows best in a single segment of my property\u2014the garden beds.\u00a0 The green blades struggle in the backyard, perpetual losers in the never-ending competition with ajuga, clover, wild violets and broadleaf weeds.\u00a0 The grass issue in back is exacerbated by the fact … Read 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