We've been trying to use pine straw mulch because it is natural, native, and good for our acid-loving plants. Okay, we do it because we're trying to be politically right-on. However, I'm finding it similar to using herbal meds for physical issues. It sounds good but just doesn't work. Getting rid of weeds may require a sturdier mulch, and more of it. I'm sorry to say this. I really wanted to be kind and gentle, but those weeds must go. Time to get serious.
We've had a ridiculous amount of rain in the past few months so our hopeful, once thick and massive cover of pine straw has broken down quickly. Weeds are not smothered, they poke through the straw. They seem to benefit from the pine straw as much as our azaleas do. They grow and multiply. We're going to have to dig out an entire bed of Louisiana iris to get to the weeds and start again. This time I'm going to spray the tubers with water to try and wash out the weed seeds before replanting. That'll show 'em, right?
Weeding is a fight that may never be won, but must always be fought.
Reminds me of politics.
Weeding and cleaning house are great allegories here.
ReplyDeleteI love the cartoon.
DeleteSometimes I think that if I weed and stop and go into the house for 5 minutes I come back and there are weeds that weren’t there when I left.
ReplyDeleteThey REALLY want to live. I wish my actual plants were as hardy.
DeleteHAHA. My flower bed is about 10x20. The weeds are fewer, but still persistent. Heavy rains keep washing away the expensive mulch! The experiment I began at the old house is a winner, though. You can outplant the weeds! Best of all, there is a maximum of one brave weed poking through my several beds of woolly thyme. Come spring I will set out a couple of dozen more two inch pots and give my weeds a final sneer and one fingered salute.
ReplyDeleteOh, that made me laugh.
DeleteI really do understand having to go after those weeds with something more than a gentle fix. Sometimes it has to be done. Yes, very much like politics.
ReplyDeleteVery much... Too much, maybe.
DeleteAh, so sad, we drift apart. Talk of "perennial beds", "acid-loving plants" and (here's a pearl!) "sturdier mulch" sets you on a higher plane altogether. I may not even kiss the hem of your garment
ReplyDeleteYou say "Weeding is a fight that may never be won, but must always be fought." Too true. But fought by others. There is one option you do not mention: employ a gardener. Then you may sit on the patio with a bottle of chilled white - nothing pretentious you understand, this is one of life's minor pleasures - and lazily grumble about deadheads undeadheaded.
Our advanced age, incompetence and disinclination give employment elsewhere and we may turn our thoughts to trivia. When do you do anything else? you will say. But this is how former colonialists make amends.
Hiring a landscaping service is very popular in Florida. We hired one for a couple of months while T was recovering from a surgical procedure, and I must admit it was wonderful. But they didn't weed. Hiring a comprehensive service (and a real gardener) would put me into the poor house, I'm afraid. I love gardening and I'm a weeding machine when I can get out there. It is almost meditative. But I can only do that kind of work when the sun isn't so hot it will burn me to a crisp. When I am unable to keep up, and that day will come, I will move into an apartment. One with a gardener who weeds! And my thoughts will turn to trivia, I promise.
DeleteWe usually start the gardening year with dedication and plans and diligence. By mid June we begin to slow down and soon enough there's that slippery slope of who gives a damn about weeds, they actually look ok to me etc.
ReplyDeleteUnless my sister visits when we get into a mad rush to make everything look tidy and near perfect.
Yes! That's how it works. I'm imagining a calendar for gardeners with photos depicting the true state of affairs in the heat of the summer. Luckily, no one in their right mind wants to visit us in Florida between June and the end of October.
DeleteThere is an upside to a northern winter, no weeds, no bugs:)
ReplyDeleteLove the cartoon!
There are so many upsides to a northern winter. I'm going north in December and looking forward to being cold.
DeleteWeeding in Florida is really more a matter of grudging coexistence than outright victory, I've found. Maybe you just need a new layer of pine straw?
ReplyDeleteThere is no victory when it comes to Florida. Florida is always the victor. (Raised eyebrow) But coming back down to reality, yes - could be more and thicker layers of pine straw. Altho I think I might try a different mulch in a few key spots.
DeleteAnd one needs to be very careful about what is in their mulch. In my town people can take all their yard waste to a site where it is ground and then resold to private companies as mulch. Nothing like spreading tons of your neighbor's weed seeds on your gardens.
ReplyDeleteYikes! Good point.
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