First bit of gardening of 2020
By seaburngirl
14 comments
So far this year we have had cold but dry days so yesterday I took advantage of a bit of sun to get out and do some weeding.
A few years ago a raised bed became the rockery and I have added many plants to it. However the last couple of years I have noticed couch grass in it. With the blackbirds for company I started to remove it. It is all done apart from a front corner containing a dwarf Dierama and a large Iris siberica ‘Tropical nights’ on the left of the photo. These will have to be lifted and cleaned.
This is looking back along the rockery towards the pond. All de grassed I hope, time will tell.
I had to lift and ‘clean’ many of the plants and it never ceases to amaze me how the couch gets through the roots and bulbs. I don’t know where the couch grass came from but I suspect it will have come in with other plants. Some were replanted and others have been put into pots and into ‘quarantine’.
One of 3 large trugs full of couch and some surplus sedum.
Whilst today was sunny, after 11am I didn’t get in the garden as I was out for a run on the BMW and then I was helping daughter with her uni revision. Good to stimulate the brain.
Hope the dry weather holds a bit longer so the front border is easier to de-couch: that is going to be a challenge.
- 3 Jan, 2020
- 7 likes
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Comments
Good job done. Couch grass is a nightmare, worse still if in heavy clay, almost impossible to remove. Bind weed, couch grass, slugs and snails, the bane of a Gardener’s life, to name a few. It’s great getting a few jobs like this done while the winter weather is kind.
4 Jan, 2020
Well done Eileen. I’d not heard of a dwarf Diarama before, sounds intriguing 🙂.
4 Jan, 2020
If memory serves they were 'new world hybrids'. they are no taller than 2ft and they are at the edge of the pond wall.
4 Jan, 2020
Oh dear, the dreaded Couch grass. The 'like' is for your efforts!
4 Jan, 2020
Well that's a job well done! Good for you.Tough its a horrible job there's something satisfying about pulling out those long white roots. I did read somewhere that they are good for several things in the herbal medicine line but can't recall what.
Wish I'd known about dwarf Dieramas before I got mine, which is rather out of proportion with its surroundings now.
4 Jan, 2020
A horrible job, rather you than me, dwarf Dierama, I like the sound of that, hopefully you have now got rid of the dreaded couch grass.
4 Jan, 2020
While the sun was shining it was lovely in the garden, although the ground was too wet to dig here, so I stuck to packing away the Christmas lights. I haven't found any couch grass here yet but battle with bindweed instead. The roots of both seem to go so deep. and take delight in entangling with the roots of other plants, I admire your efforts, Sbg!
5 Jan, 2020
i have bind weed and creeping sow thistle in another bed so I sympathise. sadly the neighbours just how off the top growth if and when they see it. not often!
5 Jan, 2020
Well done, Eileen! Looks like you’ve done a pretty good job at clearing it. Sounds like a tough task though.
5 Jan, 2020
One of the advantages of growing on a balcony is that I can avoid the majority of weeds! My bane is fighting annual grass & Chickweed! They both hide under the plants in pots & I have to be on top of them constantly!
Nevertheless, I can sympathise because for years while I lived at home with my parents I had to fight couch grass all the time. The soil here is clay & it was a terrible job trying to get it out of the borders! Also on the allotment I had to fight against it all the time. When I got my own plot, after working with Gerry on his for 2 years, I found I had "inherited" an unused compost heat & it was full of Bindweed! (I have posted photos of wheelbarrows full of it!)
6 Jan, 2020
I hope you have beaten it Hb. Best wishes( & luck) for the New Year.
9 Jan, 2020
Only time will tell if I have got it all out but if I haven't it will be easier to spot it and get at.
10 Jan, 2020
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You have my sympathy, couch grass is a terrible thing to get rid of. I remember doing it in my parents' garden many years ago. I know how it gets through the roots of other plants and you have to 'dismantle' the whole thing to get rid of it.
I hope the couch grass will not return to your rockery.
4 Jan, 2020