Labour Saving Gardening (part 3)

There are no such things as weeds just wildflowers in the wrong place. This is a simple truth that we have all heard before but find it hard to reconcile with our desire for a garden tamed to our whimsies and desires.

The task of removing the unwanted wildflowers is often perceived as a time consuming penalty associated with the hobby of gardening. As such it is regularly cited as an excuse why people cannot be motivated to become involved with horticulture. It is not an easy task to remove weeds, even identifying weeds can be problematical. Some weeds can be very persistent little blighters and others will proliferate the moment you turn your back. If, like me, you are extremely reticent about using any herbicides on your plot, then the options can seem a little daunting.

However, there are a number of strategies that the time poor gardener can employ to minimize the war on weeds. So here are my Top Tips to reduce the weeding in your garden

i. Cut down weeding and embrace the value and beauty of the wildflower intruders. If the Chelsea Flower Show 2019 had any overarching theme it was that naturalistic planting is the most recent trend. Mark Gregory, the gold medal designer of the "Welcome to Yorkshire Garden", advocates leaving small areas of our gardens to go a bit wild. He wants us to see weeds as a good thing in a garden that can be optimized, as opposed to a pest which needs to be stamped out. "Sex your weeds up rather than struggle with them."

ii. Organic mulch, such as chipped bark can be spread over your borders to suppress and smother the weeds. The weeds which are starved of sunlight will struggle to grow, the mulch will in time breakdown and feed your soil, give it texture and generally improve its condition. Grass clippings can also be used in some areas, although it is less attractive and of course you can apply a good layer of compost to a similar effect.

iii. Mulch Mats are an option that I have used extensively in the past. Although a little fiddly to lay down, once in place I would recommend covering entirely with an additional layer of bark or chippings to totally hide the breathable membrane. They are extremely effective and can be a major help for less agile gardeners who find that manual weeding is physically rather a challenge.

iv. Non organic mulch, such as gravels, can be effective and extremely attractive in the right context. It is something I have used with good effect amongst the ornamental grasses. The different colours of gravel can be used to highlight the different drifts of the various grass species. I have also seen other materials employed to similar effect and coloured glass chips offer a variety of quite bright colour options.

v. Ground cover planting is a tradition option to beat the weeds by out competing them with flowers and plants of your choice. The choice of plants is enormous and the RHS offers a plethora of suggestions, but the Pennine garden has low spreading geraniums and ivy in various places to achieve this effect. However, beware of introducing ground cover plants that can spread too vigorously thereby replacing one weed problem with another.

vi. Learn to love weeding. This is perhaps easier said than done. But personally I enjoy getting down close and personal with my beds, getting my hands dirty and I appreciate the certain satisfaction gained from pulling a weed and its root totally clear of the soil. Of course, this is hardly labour saving but it does "ease" the size of the task



“To say nothing of weeds—many of them being plants we used to value but no longer do. They don’t like to die out, you know. (From ‘The Extraordinary Adventures of Doggins’)”
― Terry Pratchett

Wildlife in Spring

Over the past few weeks the wildlife activity seems to have become more noticeable. The reality is that the natural world has truly emerged from hibernation and the business of spring is well underway. It is not just the plants which have blossomed into life again but the pond is teaming with tadpoles, the cotoneaster alive with the buzz of pollinators, the trees are full of eager birds and the hedgerows and sheltered places simply bustle with all manner of animals large and small.

I have been lucky enough to catch a few on camera, admittedly not all with the most artistic of shots but it does remind us how lucky we are in this part of the country.

 

Wildlife does come with a cost to your plants and lawn but the price is a small one in the grand scheme of things. It means I will never have a "Chelsea garden" but they are not terribly realistic anyway, at least not for the average gardener. In fact, I would strongly advocate that we all make space for wildlife on our plots and cherish a little bit of an unkempt corner (perhaps it can be a little labour saving too!)

However, I do add a word of caution if you share your outdoor space with felines, please use some thought when putting out any bird food or feeders. It is perfectly feasible to achieve but common sense is required; as I mentioned in this previous post cats and wildlife are not incompatible.

Labour Saving Gardening (part 2)

I must state at the outset that I am an avid fan of having water in a garden. No matter what the size of your plot there will be room for a water feature of some sort. The sound of moving water is so relaxing while the majority of features are a real boon for all manner of wildlife. Consequently, my next top tip for a labour saving garden is
                                                 install a water feature
and in most instances, the larger the better.

While some people may be put off by the initial task of designing and building your pond, once this has been completed to your satisfaction, a water feature is remarkable low maintenance. For instance the pond above, close to the patio requires an annual maintenance clean up, including servicing the pond and its filter. This at most will be an afternoons work. Every few years the lillies may need re-potting or some new marginal plants adding but after this there is little effort required, other than scooping out any excess weed or oxygenator growth.

The fact that we do not keep fish in the pond does reduce the effort but this decision was made at the very beginning as the ponds are modest in size and the two cats do not really need any more distractions. The balance of plants and water is not a difficult task to achieve and so we rarely have any issue with discoloured or cloudy water.

In reality, I am confident in saying that a pond is the biggest time saving addition you can ever make to your garden. However, you might have to factor in the time consumed by just idling by the water and watching the wildlife go about their business. 

Blossom

The garden at this time of year is enlivened by the multitude of blossom. While the cherry trees at the top of the garden make a serene backdrop to the grasses, there is blossom to be seen everywhere, even the patio has the lovely crab apple or  malus in bloom. Sadly, here in the Pennines the winds will sooner or later bring the show to a premature end, but the petals like confetti blanket the ground for days (and the car windscreens).

Top tip: when selecting your plants remember to consider the brief spring flowering varieties that provide such seasonal joy.

fallen petals decorate the pond surface

crab apple blossom

Labour Saving Gardening (part 1)

When I get the chance to talk with the people who view the blog there are a number of  recurring themes. However, by far the most interest is shown when I explain that gardening need not be all time consuming. I have said before that there are so many would be gardeners who are seriously put off by the thought that a garden will consume all their spare time. This is a genuine concern for people with pressurized jobs, family commitments or even other hobbies such as those which involve obligations to team sports. Consequently, it is of little surprise to find that gardening is a leisure activity particularly popular with middle aged and/or retired people in Britain, as the graphic below would suggest.

Consequently, I have promised to write a series of blog entries with the explicit theme of labour saving top tips. Some of these have already been mentioned in previous posts but I thought it would be more than helpful to consolidate and expand on the most useful hints I can give for time poor but keen gardeners.

The best place to start is by recognizing the elements of maintaining your plot that are the most time consuming and, by far, the most obvious is the tyranny of the well manicured lawn. Therefore my most important top tip is:

reduce the size of your lawn

 

Bagheera the previous feline resident

The same corner of the garden today

This might involve some significant redesign (as the two photographs left illustrate changes in the upper part of the garden)) but beware replacing one time consuming feature with another. At this point I should make it abundantly clear that I am not advocating a wholesale replacement of your lawns with paving or heaven forbid decking or the ultimate crime of artificial grass but I do suggest that you might find it appropriate to selectively reduce the area devoted to grass. There is no doubt that lawns are the most time consuming element in most gardens. They require regular mowing, edging, feeding, scarifying, aerating, treating for moss and weeds and generally repairing. So reduce your acreage of lawn and reduce the time it will demand.

Alternatively learn to love a lawn that by intent is less bowling green pristine and more naturalistic. Allowing daffodils to naturalize will mean that the mower need not be employed until early summer, as the foliage of the daffs should be left in tact until it has died back naturally. This will ensure a decent display next year. This is a simple technique which we use in the grassy slope at the front of the house. A braver alternative would be to devote some of your grass area to meadow, which can be created from scratch with a proprietary or customized seed mix, alternatively a wild meadow can be laid in a pre-sown "turf" roll. While this can be extremely effective it is quite hard to achieve a pleasing effect.

The reduction in lawns has been a trend for over a decade but, personally, I would not be without some grass (providing that you have the room to spare). If for no other reason, I will be keeping some grass for the two pennine cats to sunbathe upon!