Of micro-weeding, stick cutting, weed mimicry, and willow salvaging

“Most folks probably think that gardens only get tended when they’re blooming. But most folks would be wrong.”
― Shannon Wiersbitzky, What Flowers Remember

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Do most people think that? When my garden is at its height in blooms, which is August and September, there is very little left for me to do.

This is the time of year, when there are blooms but not many, that is the busiest in the garden for me.

And most days begin like this:

1. Make a list of what’s to be done, based on what I can remember bothering me when I was gardening yesterday.

2. Find the tools, the seeds, the gloves, the clothes, the boots. Go back for the willow shoots. Go back for the camera.

3. Take some pictures of plants and landscape. 20 minutes. (Click on each photo for ID)

purple geranium blossom

amsonia and Mother of Thyme

lupine with ‘Patriot’ hosta

red-orange azalea

comfrey

‘Carolina Moonlight’ baptisia and chives

backyard with bench, ‘Husker Red’ penstemon, Anemone sylestris

sunroom border with dianthus, echinops, sedum

4. Start the first item on the list, e.g., “cut back sticks on leucothoe.” (I know what I mean by “sticks.”)

5. Actually, don’t quite get to that item right away, as on the way from the patio to the leucothoe notice that the three hydrangeas need their old growth cut out, so do that first.

6. Wonder what’s going on with the pagoda dogwood. Notice how the tricyrtis is moving into the lawn in one direction and and infringing on the carex grass’s spot in another. Wonder which fungus is in my mulch (and feel happy to have it).

7. Notice, yet again, how the weeds near a non-weed plant seem to be those that look just like the non-weed; today’s case-in-point is sheep sorrel (weed, though quite edible) and ‘Anita Kistler’ phlox.

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When weeding, the best way to make sure you are removing a weed and not a valuable plant is to pull on it. If it comes out of the ground easily, it is a valuable plant.  ~author unknown

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8. Notice the quantity of weeds growing near hydrangeas, so weed it for 30 minutes.

9. Notice tiny grass growing in tiny lettuce mix. Engage in micro-weeding exercise that taxes fingers and patience. This would be a good time for someone’s child or grandchild to wander by.

10. Make determined way to leucothoe and cut back sticks (5 mins or less).

11. On to item #2.

And so on.

Five hours later, I emerged, muddy, dripping wet, gritty-eyed, despairing over the Nishiki willow tree, which is locked in a losing mortal battle with borers. And not having planted the zinnia seeds at all, as the space under the willow suddenly out of bounds since willow will likely be removed, and in any case zinnia seeds having gotten quite wet when the rain started an hour before.

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In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.

~Margaret Atwood