Weeding the Stewartia Garden
Late summer is always a hectic time around my Bedford, New York farm. This month is filled with several photography shoots and garden tours, so my outdoor grounds crew is busy doing a lot of pruning, mulching and weeding.
The weeds are quite rampant this year, and everyone is trying to keep up with their rapid growth. Yesterday, the team spent the majority of the day weeding the Stewartia garden, located behind the Tenant House and across the carriage road from my long and winding clematis pergola. It was important to get this task done quickly, so the team could move on to other beds. Weeding, which can sometimes be a very tedious chore, is necessary to keeping everything looking its best.
Here are photos of some of the weeds we're battling, and some tips on how to rid them from your gardens.
-
- I don’t use any chemicals in my gardens, so I do tend to get a lot of weeds during this time – it just takes patience and elbow grease to get them all out.
-
- Here, you can see some of the weeds growing among the non-weed specimens. Weeds may be annuals, biennials or perennials. Annual weeds are the easiest to control. They complete their life cycles in a year or less. Biennial weeds form roots and a rosette of leaves the first year and set seed the second. Perennial weeds live for more than two years.
-
- There are many types of tools that help with weeding. I prefer the short hand-tools best, so as not to disturb any of the neighboring non-weed specimens. For pulling weeds on this day, the crew used hoes, both long-handled and short-handled – garden hoes are ideal for chopping, weeding and clearing garden growth. Garden rakes are used to gather up loose weeds for the compost.
-
- I also like these long-handled four-tine cultivators. They are great for breaking soil and weeding between plantings in the garden.
-
- This is a another tool we often use around the farm – a round edger. It is essential to keeping the beds tidy and well-manicured.
-
- The weeds in this garden include orchardgrass, Dactylis glomerata. Orchardgrass is a common perennial weed. It is a forage crop that loves to creep up on landscapes. It’s mostly found in the northeastern United States and loves cooler weather, especially during the spring and fall seasons.
-
- This is yellow wood sorrel, Oxalis stricta, which can be hard to tame because it grows year-round. Commonly called Oxalis or sour grass, it is a vigorous weed, and a summer annual – sometimes perennial – that thrives in fertile, warm and moist soils in the shade.
-
- Common wood sorrel, Oxalis acetosella, blooms in spring, with small white flowers with pink streaks. It is found in open woods, prairies, and lawns. The leaflets are made up by three heart-shaped leaves, folded through the middle.
-
- Broadleaf plantain, Plantago major, is a perennial plant. Members of the plantain family have basal rosettes of leaves and leafless spikes of inconspicuous flowers. Like many weeds, it inhabits areas such as orchards, gardens, urban sites, landscaped areas, footpaths, roadsides, and other disturbed locations.
-
- Stellaria media is the common chickweed. Chickweed is an annual weed that prefers shady, moist soil, although its seeds will sprout in dry soil. The easiest way to control chickweed is to pull individual plants.
-
- Bull thistle, Cirsium vulgare, is related to the sunflower, but without the beautiful sunny-nodding flower heads. It is a prickly biennial that grows freely in disturbed soils, pastures, ditches, roadsides and unmanaged spaces. It is a free-seeding weed that spreads rapidly and has the ability to produce at least five-thousand seeds in a season.
-
- This is hairy galinsoga, Galinsoga ciliata. Also known as shaggy soldier, this weed is a self-sowing herbaceous annual. Plants are low growing and may get from five to 30-inches in height if not pulled. The leaves and stems are densely hairy and the plant produces a composite flower head capable of developing numerous seeds.
-
- Senecio vulgaris is the common groundsel weed. It is a winter or summer annual with lobed leaves, yellow leaves and a white puff-ball seedhead like that of the dandelion. Common groundsel is primarily found in landscapes, nursery crops, and greenhouses.
-
- Spotted spurge, known botanically as Chamaesyce maculata, is a dark green plant with red stems that grows low to the ground in a mat-like fashion. It grows outwards from the center in a rough wagon wheel shape and its leaves are oval shaped. The flowers on the plant will be small and pink. Because of the spotted spurge weed’s mat-like nature, hand pulling is a good option for removing it from the lawn or flower beds, but be sure to wear gloves due to the irritating sap.
-
- Another weed that is easy to pull, but tough to keep out of the garden is common purslane, Portulaca oleracea. Purslane is a succulent plant that will grow outward in a circle shape close to the ground. The fleshy red stems will have small green paddle shaped fleshy leaves. Purslane flowers are star-shaped and yellow in appearance. Purslane can be found in clear uncultivated or recently cultivated soil.
-
- Digitaria sanguinalis, or crabgrass, gets it name from the leaves, which form a tight, crab-like circle. It can become a problem quickly during the summer because it is able to grow vigorously in hot, dry conditions. Discourage crabgrass by mowing at the proper height for grass type.
-
- When pulling weeds, grasp the weed by the top of the taproot rather than by the stem or foliage. Then slowly pull straight up with a slight twisting motion. This will break the feeder roots free from the taproot and allow the taproot to be pulled up whole.
-
- Here, Pete is careful to pull weeds from between precious plantings by hand. Getting the entire plant, including as much of the root system as possible, is critical. Many weeds will resprout from dormant buds in any large pieces that remain in the soil.
-
- Pete removes smaller weeds using a hand hoe. It features a laminated steel blade and is designed for weeding and slicing – it’s a favorite weeding tool here at my farm.
-
- In this area, Pete uses a long-handled hoe around some larger specimens where he can remove a larger amount of young, newly sprouted weeds whose roots are still shallow. Some weed roots are bigger and stronger than others. If the weed is really large, a long trowel or narrow spading fork may be needed to get the whole root.
-
- Wilmer then rakes up all the loose debris with a garden rake.
-
- Look at all the removed weeds – and this is just one load. Several wheelbarrows full will be taken to the compost pile before the end of the day.
-
- Here is a newly weeded section of the garden bed – it looks so much better.
-
- Wilmer uses the cultivator to go over the beds and to make sure no weeds were missed.
-
- So many wonderful specimens are planted in this garden, including Epimediums, Syneilesis, Polygonatum, and Disporum.
-
- I wanted to underplant the grove of Stewartia trees with all sorts of shade-loving perennials.
-
- This is Syneilesis palmata. It has grown a lot since we planted it last year. Over time, it will form a sizeable patch of green umbrella-shaped leaves. Mature foliage can be more than a foot across with deeply toothed, narrow leaves – it is really an interesting plant.
-
- These hostas are developing very nicely here in the shade. Their lush foliage and easy care make them ideal for low maintenance garden spaces. Hosta leaves come in a variety of greens, ranging from deep, almost blue color, to a light chartreuse to a soft creamy white.
-
- This garden bed is still a work in progress, but in a few seasons, all these wonderful plants will cover the space and create a lush, green carpet of beautiful foliage.
Martha Pins
Martha Tweets
