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how do you know if something is weedy?
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Posted by weeddummie (My Page) on Thu, Sep 15, 05 at 21:19
| Dear australian garden webbers,
Spring time is here, and I find unfamiliar things growing in my new home with an established gardens. Searching the internet, I'm still not sure if some of the emerging plants (the ones that look nice at least) are weedy or not. They seem to grow in random places to me.
Namely, columbine (aquilegia spp. perhaps, it hasn't flowered yet), and forget me nots (the small ones with tiny blue flowers in yellow middle). I have seen the latter sold in Magnet mart, but in some american websites they're weed - so I'm confused.
I also saw one particular kind of grass growing in clump all over. They're the common ones you see sprouting all around now that it's warmer. In a specific spot, I thought I quite liked them there as I don't have any grass on my garden bed (I have a large garden bed with mulch). Is it a good idea to keep plants that are not 'meant' to be there?
In the main garden web forum I got advice that grass can take over quite persistently. What do au garden webbers think?
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Follow-Up Postings:
RE: how do you know if something is weedy?
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If you like them, enjoy them in bloom. I personally think they would give a lovely cottage effect, and you can gradfually add more plants to your taste. Both set seed and self sow profusely, so you probably should dead head them unless you like that effect. A weed is simply something growing where you don't want it. If you mulch fairly heavily this will help prevent self sowing also.
Who decides what is meant to be in a garden bed? You don't have any rules that say what you can or can't grow unless they are noxious weeds outlawed in your state. My father used to always comment on the forgetmenots in my garden, but I liked them and they stayed. They are easy to pull when they finish bloom, and if you get rid of them before much seed sets there won't be too many come up next year. You don't have to have a garden that passes some standard set by your neighbours or friends. Do your own thing and enjoy.
grasses - some set seed, and spread. You need to keep lawns mowed to prevent that. Others spread by underground runners - they can be a big problem.
Read up on peoples comments on garden web and you will learn much as you go along. Also read gardening books, but make your own decisions. As you get more experience, you will know what you like and don't like, and will learn how to cope with things you don't want.
Gardening is most of all meant to be fun! |
RE: how do you know if something is weedy?
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| weeddummie, that's why they say not to do anything the first year in a new house with an established garden. It's waiting to see what grows and then you decide to change. Just imagine digging and then finding you have dug up bulbs!!!! |
RE: how do you know if something is weedy?
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| Ditto on what annabel said, wait a year to see what you like and don't like. My experience with aquilegia is that it is a weed!!!! It is a prolific self-seeder with gazillions of seedlings appearing. If you do decide to pull them out, make sure you remove ALL of the tuber (or whatever it is) and roots, as it reshoots from the littlest bit left behind...a bit like a dandelion does. |
RE: how do you know if something is weedy?
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| Thanks for the responses. I can understand where you're coming from with the wait and see advice. :) I'm here for almost a year now, so this is my first spring here (we've already seen summer, winter and autumn) My adjacent neighbours have unmaintained yards, and I get lots of magpies/birds, so my thinking now is to handle possible weeds as they start small. I have a funny feeling that now that it's warming up, I will be finding more weeds than anything else. I think the grasses in neighbouring areas are 'wild', as they're quite long, and mixed with other things. From what I've read about grass, once they have taken over, the only way to get them out is through major digging. On the other hand, my garden only has a large garden bed, and I was actually craving for grass at some stage, to put my pets on. Can you tell from the following photo with the bottom right hand corner whether this grass is trouble (crabgrass?)? Does it spread by seed or runners? I guess now I have to learn about grass too (to be able to tell how spready different grass types are etc). Interesting to hear about aquilegia, greenfingers. I'm still confused as they seem to be sold in nurseries around AU. But I guess since it's an annual here, I can always leave a small number in controlled areas I like. It's so nice to have this place to learn from other people's experiences :) :) |
RE: how do you know if something is weedy?
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| Sorry, have no idea what that grass is but hopefully someone will. Aquilegia are also sold widely here and in many beautiful colours. It's quite funny, cause they grow rampent in my gardens, but my mother (who lives 2 min away) struggles to keep them going year after year! Whenever one pops up here, it gets dug up and transported down the road. All the best with keeping the weeds under control! |
RE: how do you know if something is weedy?
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| I don't know what the grass is but it looks like something that grows in lawns here (Bris) and spreads by runners. Not good to have in the garden, but not so difficult to get rid of as nutgrass etc. |
RE: how do you know if something is weedy?
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| Rereading sparaxis' response, I still agree with it totally. Even nice plants need to be contained :) I have Kennilworth Ivy and blue fescue for example, very nice when contained properly. And when they do spread, it's easy to pull them out as you say. I guess I basically need to ID the plants I have in order to determine their behaviour. E.g I still need to id this grass and this herb(?). Everything else that looks thorny and white sappy has to go...simply because I don't like the way they look...it's a start, right? :-D |
RE: how do you know if something is weedy?
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I think we should differentiate between a weed and an environmental weed. Aquilegia can be weedy in a garden but I have not seen swathes of it in natural bushland. I have on the other hand seen Grevillea rosmarinifolia escape into the environment and become a problem. Things like Vinca, Honeysuckle, Agapanthus are clearly problems because of ease of propagation. Location is also important. Suburban blocks that are distant from natural bushland are not the weed threat that a block adjacent to forest is.
I have a lot of plants in the garden that could at a pinch create problems but I regularly deadhead. (But I'd better stop talking weeds in case I get some into trouble again!) |
RE: how do you know if something is weedy?
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| To me a weed is a plant which I think is ugly!!!! So those are the ones targetted first. My daughter has a plant very like your photo--she likes it as a groundcover and in NZ it's a clumping low grower with fleshy roots. In her eyes lawn daisies are hideous, so she clobbers them. If we are not sure it gets a reprieve but any flowerheads are removed to stop the spread of seeds. My new garden is sitting in pots waiting for the builders rubble to be removed and in the meantime I can hardly wait to get gardening again!! Even a weed will be welcome :-D Sandra |
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