Three Useful Things

Well, maybe, for someone.

I wrote ages ago about where you might hide your weeds as you wander round the garden pulling them up and then wondering where to shove them.

This is the time of year when that issue resurrects itself at Veddw (‘vedoo’) with that little easy pull willowherb and the nightmare cleavers.

That stuff

We are supposed to love and live with our weeds, and, of course, I do. But weeds like cleavers and bindweed, which spread all over the top of other plants, have a feel of dereliction. So they must be pulled. Which can be quite satisfying - until you want to get rid of the pullings.

And we did see some right in the middle of a bed, out of reach. We did not want to clamber into the bed to get them, so left them. Until I then thought - what about one of our rakes?

cleaver grabber?

better grabber

The second one worked - because it has a super long handle. So - sorted.

I know, I bet you’d all thought of that. Sad to say, in forty odd years I had never thought of it.

Second thing.

Where to put the pull? I thought a lot about it. Our original idea, of a weeding basket had some downsides. They needed painting to look good and be a bit weather proof. But truly, they were not weather proof. With wet weeds sitting in them, they rotted. No good picking up a basket full of weed and have the bottom fall out.

The original version.

Looked great with flowers in!

So I needed something not so rottable. Attractive but discreet. Not likely to blow around if empty. And preferably not designed so as to collect water, either. So, a bit of research and I found these.

Not the pots, the wirey things in front.

Iron (?) baskets - from here.

Discreet?

I expect there are other similar items around. And that you had thought of that first.

Here’s one in use. Doesn’t look quite as pretty..

I did see one of our visitors deposit a weed in one of these baskets the other day. So the purpose is clear. But I did wonder whether his definition of a weed was the same as mine. Hope so.

Third.

Well, everyone has heard of the Chelsea Chop and a variety of versions of it. And I regularly chop things down. It’s as satisfying as planting, really. So I know you know of it, do it and I may be boring you. I just wanted to say that I experimented this year with two I’d never done before.

Usually looks like this in July, at about 5-6 feet.

One was rather drastic - Angus cut down a whole bed full of Telekia speciosa, Campanula lactiflora and Clerodendrum bungei.

30th May =

There are some hostas as well, which were left standing up

Strange to report - none of our visitors asked what had happened or why. (We left the debris, as usual) But it recovered remarkably quickly. It was back to four feet by the 20th of June.

2nd July:

Sadly, the plants are now coming into flower. And I had hoped that the cut down would defer flowering until August.

The same with my second experimental cutting down, which was Crocosmia Lucifer. Now also in bud.

This crocosmia always annoys me by lounging about all over the paths and other plants. I don’t do staking - I hate it. It’s ugly and involves effort. Last year Charles solved one lot of it by strapping it up behind a sudden fence:

But I love the colour and have more of it around the place. So Angus strimmed this bed of it down in April. And now it’s back, and at a manageable and sturdy height:

Thought you might like to know. If you hadn’t, as I suspect you had, got there before me.

Veddw Garden is open on the first and third Sundays in July, August and September from 2-5, and for groups by appointment.

https://veddw.com/