WEEDS WORTH WELCOMING
Learn how to spot the invaders and keep a select few to encourage wildlife
FOR some plants, it has been a difficult year with a cold spring and damp early summer providing the perfect conditions for slugs. But there has been one big winner from the changeable weather, weeds.
We are supposed to be learning to love them, but there are some places you don’t want unwelcome visitors to grow. On the veg patch, they can stifle young plants while in borders, they compete with other flowers for light, nutrients and water.
The trick is to identify the weeds in your garden before deciding whether to keep a few or pull them all out. I often leave clumps of low-growing oxalis as known as wood sorrel for its pretty pink flowers and heart-shaped green leaves. It spreads by its fleshy underground stems, or rhizomes, which multiply just below the surface of the soil. So once it has flowered, I pull it out before it gets too rampant.
VITAL FOR NATURE
YOU could have an area of your garden that you leave to grow wild. A patch of stinging nettles is great for wildlife — the caterpillars of small tortoiseshell and peacock butterflies feed on them, they harbour aphids that in turn attract ladybirds and in birds feast on their seeds.
But in ornamental beds, it is a good idea to remove weeds before they multiply. Some do this by setting seed, so need to be dug up before the flowers go over. Others propagate by spreading roots and rhizomes. Herb Robert has a distinctive smell, with reddish stems and ragged pink flowers. It is satisfying to pull out by hand. Other shallow-rooting weeds include Enchanter’s Nightshade, Sticky Willy, Rosebay Willowherb and Chickweed.
Bindweed is one of the worst culprits. At this time of year, you will often see its large white bell-like flowers. It wraps itself around the stems of other plants, smothering them. untangle it, before pulling it out with as much of the white root as you can find. The only way to get rid of bindweed is to clear beds over winter and dig out every piece of the root.
Like bindweed, Ground Elder, with its lacy white flowers, also produces a carpet of white roots and can regenerate from a small section. Both should be disposed of in council green waste which reaches higher temperatures than home compost heaps.
KNOW YOUR ENEMY
MY MORTAL enemy is green alkanet, a hairy green perennial with small blue flowers that some people mistake for borage. The bees love it, so I leave a bit, but I spend my life digging out the taproot. I am vigilant for the seedlings, whipping them out quickly.
On my allotment, couch grass is one of the main problems. This is a uK native that grows in lawns, but is not so welcome in veg beds. The good news is that it can easily be dug out.
Most weedkillers have now been outlawed, but far better to remove by hand and mulch with compost, bark, or gravel.
For veg beds, covering with cardboard or old carpet can help kill off weeds over winter ready to cultivate in spring.