I am very very new to gardening, and have always had a tiny garden, but last year we bought a house with a massive garden, or should I say massive 'tip', anyways I have managed to get some of it looking okay, I planted some sunflower seeds which are growing beautifully - and then in one of my flower beds other seedlings appeared, which I didn't plant, so I assumed the kiddies did!!!! anyway they are growing bigger and bigger, they resemble sunflowers, except they are spouting branches too, I am watering and caring for great big massive weeds! someone said they could be tobacco plant, someone else said, could be elm trees - can anyone help me - shall I just pull them up!!!!!!!!!!!!
weeds or not weeds!!!! this is my question !!!
Hi Sammi
I remeber someone saying that if you take on a new house, don't renovate the borders completely for a good year or two if you can. Well who ever said it was right in my experience, we cleared a garden which was nothing but brambles, cotoneasters and a pear tree. Once it was cleared and dug over we started to plant and seed the borders and lawn. Many plants have come up since which haven't been planted by us including a rose whos root was as thick as a mans arm had been hiding in the border just waiting for some light and nutrients. Bluebells appeared from nowhere and was already a large colony, a passion flower came up and swamped the wall and flowered in the first season and is still with us. Various other plants came too.
Now we knew the person who owned the place for 30 years before we took over. The garden had been in the same state for at least 15 and had been overgrown for about 20. Amazing the will some plants have to live.
Hi Sammi! My garden became overgrown a few years ago when I was ill. After clearing away the overgrowth I left it for a year before serious replanting. I went for a thorough reweeding, to get rid off perennial weeds, and added lots of manure. Then I planted lots of hardy annuals and some bedding plants. The garden had been pretty much devastated by a cowboy gardening firm, so not very much came back. There's a few roses though, which are massive this year. I put in a lot of perennials this year, which at least gives me something to look at. Most of my roses had been hacked to bits by cowboys and it looks like it'll be several years before I can get the garden the way it was originally. Most of your shrubs and some of your roses should be okay. I'd go for hardy annuals and bedding plants, like I did and just replant gradually.
Thanks BAA, I never gave it a thought, that it could be something that the previous owner had planted, simply because the garden was so weed ridden (!!!) thats brilliant advice and shall bear that in mind when future little seedlings and plants appear, I have just noticed lots of little 'love in the mist' least I think thats what the're called appearing in the garden - I also have this Rose thing appearing everywhere, but it doesn't give off any roses, just wicked thorns - I just keep cutting it back - and stinging nettles keep popping up everywhere too, which are most annoying especially to the children - but I suppose I will learn as I go along - I am getting great pleasure from the garden, I really enjoy it
Hiya Northerner - I am only just getting to grips with annuals,perennials and what they all mean and do - Thanks for your advice - I suppose I should get myself one of those 'gardening for idiots' books that explains everything, simply and not in LATIN - lol
Hi Sammi,
We bought a farm from an elderly woman 7 years ago, and I am still finding things in the overrun, overgrown overplanted gardens! Last year, it was an old musk rose and a clear pink peony. this year, so far, it's two rambler roses. I just keep pulling out goldenrod and other rampant weeds and finding wonderful things. When we bought the farm, she told my husband not to mow below the drive for at least 2 years so I could find all that is there. Well, 5 years past her advice, I'm still finding!
Hiya Kathleen - That sounds wonderful, I am finding it so difficult to tell the difference between a weed and a flower, I had this lovely red leafed plant with a pink flower, it was lovely - I watered and fed it, and my friend came round and said - weed, pull it out...... I did, but wish I hadn't cos it was so pretty, it grew back and I left it, but it has now died off, so I wonder if infact it was a weed after all - I didn't think weeds died off, but just kept growing and growing and growing ........
Hi Sammi
Weeds are just plants that you don't want growing there, is the usual explaination of weeds. Some weeds are incredibly invasive, there are also quite a few garden plants which are too. Some 'weeds' are very rare and beautiful, native orchids for example can be classified as a weed but there are few who would pull them up out of their borders. The victorians used to love Rosebay Willowherb and it was very fashionable to plant them in their gardens, a hundred years or more on and we are still pulling them up!
Botanical names are very useful, especially on a site like this where the common name in the UK is not the same as the common name for the rest of the world. A good book to start with I find is a European native plants identifying book, they list common and botanical names and you can choose whether you want to keep your weed or get rid of it. Mine has been invaluable over the years.
Thanks again BAA - I shall get onto Bol.com and check out their gardening books.........