Weeds

I’m trying to garden with native species and to do that I also needed to identify what’s growing around here that isn’t native and contained. Turns out most of the grass in the fields is invasive. All of the thistles are. As I enter my third year of this project I am learning a lot, including about the downsides of tilling soil which is advised before sowing native seeds. You need to get rid of the invasives often by digging them up at the same time you aren’t supposed to disturb the soil.

And then I learned there are invasive species of worms and of course, gophers, moles, and voles do have desirable impacts. If you have none, you should be worried but if you have them, you can wave goodbye to plants you tenderly nursed to appealing yumminess.

Another take away for me is go big. Do not buy three of some plant you want. Buy a dozen because some of them, maybe even most, will fall to plant munchers from above and below or you didn’t pick the most perfect spot. Don’t sow a few seeds. Sow thickly. Also know that no matter how well you think you are scattering them, there will be clumps and bare areas. Was it me or are the conditions six inches away that imperfect?

I have one plant species that just died after painfully struggling along. All of them deceased. I tried again and put some in a spot that gets a lot more shade and some near where the others died. The ones in the shadier spot thrived. Huge growth, gorgeous flowers, a thick carpet of native beauty. Oh. So I moved some largish rocks to provide more shade for the others, and now they are still not dead.

I had three Salvias that deer aren’t supposed to like much. Deer ate two of them. The third one is doing great. But now I only have one. In one area the poppies are thick and green and four feet away they are puny. I assume this is a soil issue? I don’t know. And then the stupid invasive weeds keep coming back and I didn’t realize until recently that I should be replacing with native grasses and adding those native grasses into the wildfllower patches.

It’s confusing and contradictory and heartbreaking when the deer come along and eat all the clarkia buds. And yet, slowly, I am getting the weeds replaced and natives established. Some of this is happening naturally as the natives reseed themselves. And some of it happens from diligence. But those non-natives weeds. Damn. They are persistent.

The garden is utterly breathtaking when things go right.