No Mower - May 2023
We are being encouraged to not mow our lawns during the month of May: the UK charity Plantlife is running its annual #NoMowMay campaign to “liberate your lawns and provide a space for nature”. Meanwhile the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) wants us to re-consider weeds and look to them as ‘hero plants’ instead.
Well I agree that we should allow a little more wild into our gardens and letting the lawn grow if only for one month could be one way to start. But am I ready to embrace weeds as my heroes?
Opinion is divided - at least in the British press.
The Guardian has many articles in support of rewilding and not weeding including by none other than Isabella Tree of the Knepp Rewilding project fame.
The Telegraph comes out dead against with William Sitwell proclaiming ‘Why I’ll never surrender in my war on weeds’.
So is gardening a matter of left versus right? Well, Flanders and Swann already noticed that plants have party-political leanings in their 1957 song ‘Misalliance’: they observed that honeysuckle twines to the right and columbine twines to the left, a divergence that meant these two climbers could never be married.
I tend to find that each year a different type of weed gets the upper hand in my garden and runs riot.
This spring we have had countless dandelion-type plants springing up everywhere - I think it is Hieracium (Hawkweed) - and although I try to pull it out it invariably sets seed. If I can’t actuallly remove the plant then at least I try to bend over the stem so as to stop the seed head from forming.
The common vetch Vicia sativa is also having a bumper year and I find great swathes of it winding through the shrubs.
So which weed would I vote as the out and out hero this year? Definitely Goosegrass. In fact it is every year - the horrid sticky leaves and creeping habit make it almost impossible to eradicate. But some people say it is edible - rather them than me.
So will not mowing your lawn turn it into a wild flower meadow? I very much doubt it. To begin with, you probably will get mostly thistles and dandelions. If you want to get a decent display of flowers it will first be necessary to disturb the soil so that seeds can germinate. The RSPB even recommends removing the top couple of inches of soil to reduce fertility so that grass does not strangle the flowers. At Highgrove House, the Prince of Wales (now King) found that the first year of seeds he sowed were glorious and then nothing came up the second year: they had to re-plough each autumn to get the meadow to regenerate. Nowadays the meadow is grazed by sheep in autumn to help get the seed to take.
Even Cambridge University now has its own huge wildflower meadow. King's College lawn has been left unmown for the first time since 1772.
So what do I advise? I think it best to get rid of the lawn altogether and plant to suit our local conditions.
Now is the time of year when I ask you to go out into your garden and look - really look properly - at what is in bloom and how the garden works as a whole. Are there any gaps or unhappy looking plants? Could you improve the colour combinations? Which is your favourite plant? Favourite weed? You can take a cup of tea - or even a glass of wine.
I then would like you to take a walk in the country - perhaps by your front door or somewhere further away. Look at the verges and hedgerows. Which plants can you recognise? It is surprising how many ‘wild flowers’ are actually plants that work well in the garden, perhaps in a more sophisticated form. All these plants live quite happily without any help from us and certainly never get water beyond the natural rainfall. Does this give you clues about which plants will do well in our gardens? And don’t please call them weeds.
For me the sight of this orchid around the garden is a mark of success: the wild orchids that are native to our area being exterminated. So when they take a liking to my garden it can only be a good thing. The Lady orchid (Orchis purpurea)is only one of the many wild orchids that we should find locally but seldom do nowadays. If they appear in your garden them give them a warm welcome by … leaving them alone.
Little Weed - April 2018
The weather is warming up and the rain of April has triggered a rush of growth. Round here they say “Aprile, ogni goccia un barile” (Every drop of rain in April means a barrel [of wine]). In fact, I can almost hear the sound of plants bursting out of the ground. Weeds.
Time to re-think the whole question of weeds.
The idea that a weed is ‘plant in the wrong place’ is true enough but it doesn’t take us very far. What really constitutes a weed?*
Those of you old enough to remember ‘Bill and Ben the Flower Pot Men’ will no doubt also recall with affection Little Weed - who I now realise was not so little and maybe not even a weed. I hear that the BBC is considering a remake of the programme where Little Weed will get proper lines rather than just "Weeeeeed". Then we would find out who she really is … #WeedToo.
A professional gardener tells me he cultivates a particular plant for one client (Oxalis rubra) and eradicates the same plant for a different client. They can’t both be right.
Weeds are immensely successful and have learned all sorts of tricks to survive. Have you noticed how weeds often resemble the plant they are trying to crowd out?
We owe weeds a debt of gratitude for the way they have continued to bring green and life sustaining presence wherever there is barrenness in our world. Poppies on the battlefield; rosebay willow herb on the bombsite; brambles and docks on the industrial wasteland. Every forgotten corner that weeds have populated is a contribution to life on earth.
Richard Mabey in his fascinating book “Weeds: The Story of Outlaw Plants” suggests that weeds and wild flowers, “those ruthless gate crashers of civilization" are really part of nature's secret immune system, rushing in to repair our damaged planet.
Many ‘weeds’ or wildflowers are already in bloom, providing nectar for bees; field marigolds and dandelions make a carpet of gold. Nettles support several of our more splendid butterflies.
Apart from being clever, some plants (not all of them ‘weeds’) are positively aggressive and display Allelopathy - producing biochemical substances that prevent other plants from setting seed or even growing at all in their vicinity. Certain varieties of Cistus, Lavenders, Oleanders, Phlomis, Rosemarycan do this, which is worth considering when planning a planting scheme.
Looking out at the garden I see a patch of acid yellow flowers: oilseed rape blown in from a farmer’s field. Now that’s what I call a weed.
I admit that we don’t always want ‘weeds’ running riot amongst our treasured plants. Indeed, a monoculture of weeds is to be avoided. The best way to deal with them is to get out there with the trowel right now: there is no time to waste.
Weed killers should be avoided, if possible, but some weeds such as ground elder may need drastic action. ‘Round Up’ is a bit controversial but it is supposed to become ineffective the moment it touches the soil.
‘Natural’ weed killers such as vinegar or salt could be an alternative, but ‘natural’ does not necessarily mean harmless: the Romans supposedly sowed the fields of defeated Carthage with salt so they could never grow crops again. Consider ‘Roundup Gel’ which is applied with a brush to individual leaves without risk of splashing onto other plants or soil.
Supressing weeds ought to be an answer: gravel and mulch can work but need to exclude light completely or the weeds will still grow. Seeds of weeds will also take root on the surface nonetheless.
* Rory Sutherland says that “A flower is a weed with an advertising budget”.
The photo at the top of this page shows self-seeded field poppies - flower or weed?
Many of these articles first appeared in the Castiglione del Lago monthly newsletter “Qua e là” edited by Priscilla Worsley
All text and photographs © Yvonne Barton unless stated otherwise