Spring Clean-Up

10 years ago

As the years go by, and my energy diminishes, I've kinda, sorta not raked leaves out of my beds and borders. They're mostly oak, and I could use more acidity. It looks awful until the plants fill out. Because of the yard's terrain I have to hand-carry bags of mulch out back. Last year I weed-wacked garbage cans full of leaves and spread those. Does anyone have any other ideas to keep the weeds downs?

Featured Answer

moliep

10 years ago

Years ago, I would have spread layers of newspapers or cardboard around plantings and mulched over, but who buys newspapers now? Gone are the days of two newspaper deliveries each day in our house.

And once upon a time, we weeded away for hours in our long, sunny gardens and spent a fortune buying yards of mulch to place between plants because my dh loved the look of plants set apart from their neighbors and surrounded by mulch.

However, with retirement we've taken a different approach. We put things that grow tall and more upright at the back of the gardens, stagger things that are more full at the mid-level, and things that spread near the front. The front of the garden is also where we put annuals, with lots of volunteer Verbena bonariensis spreading happily in between it all ... kind of a crowded English-garden approach. There are still weeds, but they're just harder to see. Here are some photos to show what I mean.

Near the river, lots of sedums and spreaders are in the drier part of the garden.

Along the fence in the back, taller plants intermingle with grasses.

We also have evergreens in the garden to take up space and give texture.

Molie

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Comments (6)

barrett001
10 years ago
last modified: 10 years ago
Molie, I LOVE your garden arrangement! We lived many years in England and the typical "English garden" look is exactly what I'm aiming for here in coastal New England. But I'm finding it surprisingly difficult to adjust my gardening instincts. (Everything's different--soil, rainfall, wind, critters who eat my plants....)

You've succeeded brilliantly at what I'm aiming for.... What an inspiration!
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moliep
10 years ago
Barrett001, thanks, but it's been a lot of trial and error. Our garden has changed over the last 13 years. It's taken us a long time to "understand" our yard and what will grow well here. The back faces west and gets tremendous sun. The front faces east and is shaded by oak trees across the street. We lived along a tidal river, which affects moisture and encourages geese. So we had to work with all those factors. I guess that learning your yard is the best tip to growing the garden you want.

For us, it's always been a maintenance issue. The one thing that really, really helped was that my dh put in a sprinkler system in the front and back. This helped both the gardens and the lawn. It eliminated dragging out hoses. Now we can water deeply and less frequently and also earlier in the morning.
homegrowninthe603
10 years ago
So pretty, Molie. Lovely to look at, especially since it's snowing here today!

Susan
lucyd_58
Original Author
10 years ago
Very lovely! Thanks. I'd forgotten that I've been adding newspapers under the leaves in my shrub border. That works wonders. Maybe I'll just keep it going everywhere else. I'm always afraid of it reducing some lovely volunteers and stopping spreading that I find desirable.
NHBabs z4b-5a NH
10 years ago
I find that mulch/newspaper or cardboard under mulch or mulch alone reduces volunteer seedlings, but doesn't seem to slow down plants that spread via roots. So I decide where I want the seedlings and sprinkle seeds as they ripen in the summer and fall, and just don't mulch those areas.

Once the density of plants increases to where it is like Molie's, the amount of time spent weeding goes way down, though there often will still be a fair number of tiny tree seedlings that I try to remove early by scuffling the mulch on a dry day.

Molie, I always enjoy your garden photos!