I promise that I'll blog about something different very soon, but this has to be another gardening post I'm afraid.
We're progressing quite well, but one thing is constantly foxing us. How are we supposed to identify those things that were already in the garden when we got here? I can recognise some of the more basic thing – grass, dandelions, bind weed etc, but we're now at the stage where I'll come to something when clearing a bed where I stop and try to work out of it's a weed or something that I should be leaving in.
Based on the simple information of it has leaves shaped like this and has small yellow flowers is there something simple that Mr C and I are missing that could help us identify things? Google obviously helps a bit, but I'm surprised that there's simpler way with the various garden books that we've managed to pick up. I'm not sure where to start though as I'm often not even sure which chapter I should be looking at.
Failing that I'm guessing inviting some people round, offering them a glass of wine and a walk round the garden while I follow them closely with a notebook might be in order! Any offers?
The tour sounds a good idea, or you could post pictures here or on the forum. Somebody will know.Dont worry about talking about the garden! We love it.
Glad to hear you’re having plenty of fun in your new garden!
Identifying plants is something of a specialism, but in the absence of having an experienced botanist on the staff, there are a few possibilities.
The easiest but least fun is not being too choosy about what gets dumped on the compost heap by only keeping the bulbs and shrubs, but that runs the risk of getting rid of some potentially beautiful herbacious plants and you’d miss out on all the self-set annuals. The fun is telling the difference between the self-set annuals with the pretty flowers and the self-set annuals that are pernicious weeds. You can often tell by the overall shape of the plant and how many there are and where, but some are much harder, like the difference between Morning Glory and Bind Weed.
If you haven’t already, taking out a year’s membership with an organisation like the RHS or Garden Organic (nee HDRA) would let you take advantage of their identification services for a few things that you feel look like they might belong and that your friends couldn’t put their fingers on. It might seem a bit non-British, but asking your neighbours which weeds your area’s suffered from in the past might help, although the really nasty ones like Mare’s Tail, Ground Elder or Couch Grass are easy to spot.
My girlfriend thinks it looks horrible, but I prefer to leave the label tags on or nearby when I plant things out, means it’s somewhat easier when you come back to it 2 years later and wonder why the Astilbe has taken over the Oriental Poppies 🙂
I doubt I’d be much help. I think I’ve been cultivating weeds for years.