Time to embrace the weed!

My enthusiasm from my last blog post has seriously waned with the continuation of the 'not conducive to gardening weather'. So far I've had one day out in the garden where I took the opportunity to start a bit of tidying and managed to get the buddleias' cut back. Its a fine line between leaving last year's stems and stalks to feed and protect the wildlife as much as the plant and get ready for the new year's growth. Year on year I have been adding various bulbs into the borders, there comes a point where I have no place to walk or stand so any pruning and clearing needs to be done before the bulbs carpet the ground. But now, we're in February. We've had frozen ground since late January and although in this part of Moray we've so far been spared the heavy snow-fall, the Beast from the East is due to hit this coming week.

We have already had minus 7 degrees C a few nights ago, which actually didn't feel that cold, but now the wind has picked up and even with the day time air temperature sitting just above freezing, the wind chill cuts right through.

I am so bored! I have fences to repaint, the pergola to mend and a plethora of other jobs to do and of course getting sowing. The greenhouse is sitting at around 5 degrees C in the daytime, this time last year we were already in double figures in there. Even worse, every day is grey and overcast. I can hardly see the snowdrops above the snow, the winter aconites are nowhere to be seen despite being in full bloom this time last year and at the moment, although we are just a few weeks away from spring it seems that winter has no intention of loosening its grip.

It is the kind of weather where the best thing you can do is make a hot cuppa, put the stove on and dive into a book....which is exactly what I am doing.

For Christmas I received a very unusual garden design book and one that I had been after for some time. I say unusual because its all about 'weeds' but its not simply a book about identifying and eradicating these weeds, its specifically about how to incorporated weeds into your planting schemes. As anyone who has visited or read about my garden knows, my garden contains a mixture of things I've planted, some things that the previous occupants have planted and other things that just seed and grow by themselves. It started initially when I was first creating the garden and I simply did not have enough plants to make it look lush and fulsome. So I left the feverfew where it grew and the lesser celandine and they actively filled the spaces that would have otherwise been bare. I also didn't know that much about different plants anyway and didn't want to get rid of anything that might have been important.

Essentially a weed is just a plant in the wrong place, or one that avidly self seeds or can be invasive, and this can apply to cultivars too. But in general I suspect that most people would class many wild plants as weeds.

I do actively engage in the act of weeding, but I don't have any weeds. So how is this possible I hear you ask. Its easy, I rogue out any plants that I don't want but none of my plants are considered to be weeds. It really is that simple. Every plant in my garden is just that... a plant. Some are more welcome than others, but on the whole I have learned to love most of the free plants that have made the garden their home including the well known gardener's nemesis Aegopodium podagaria, or ground elder to you and me. I have convinced myself that if you use its proper name then its definitely not a weed.

Yes I admit that its an invasive little thug that propagates easily from the smallest piece of root and runs wildly underground, but you have to admire its tenacity and its most beautiful white umbel much loved by pollinating insects. In my garden it forms a handsome backdrop between the hedge and the beds, sometimes sneaking a little further into the middle bed where it mingles with the blue of the polemoniums and vivid yellow of calendula where It doesn't look out of place at all. It was brought to Britain by the Romans who used it as a staple food. Have a look at this link for some ground elder recipes and nutritional information - Eat Weeds

One of my least favourite plants, but one that I always find space for usually as far away from bare skin as possible is Urtica dioica - the common stinging nettle. Its not particularly attractive, it doesn't have a nice flower, its a stinger if you brush past it and although it is apparently edible, if you like that kind of thing, it doesn't really appear to have much going for it at all as a garden plant - but - if you are a peacock, red admiral or small tortoiseshell butterfly its heaven for your caterpillars, and that's why I keep it. Nettle is also a good indicator of high soil fertility and the plant has a great use as both a liquid fertiliser and compost activator.

Another welcome plant in my garden, in small quantities is Ficaria verna lesser celandine. Its a cheerful little ground covering plant that flowers quite early bringing a welcome splash of bright yellow after the monochrome of winter.

So what is this book, well its Wild about Weeds by garden designer and writer Jack Wallington. He's a great advocate of using what he calls 'rebel plants' in his designs and its clear from is passion for these plants that it is no mere fad. What does strike me as most evident throughout his words is that we not only need to learn to love weeds to enhance our growing spaces but appreciate them as a valid and welcome part of out garden ecosystems.

If you fancy a peak at this book yourself - its available on Amazon and in local bookshops.

For more information on how I created my garden, have a wee look at the main website