My front flower bed is COVERED in pretty little purple violets that hitch hiked a ride in a peony start that was given to me. Lila gave me the peony and I noticed the violet at that time and thought "Isn't that a sweet thing?"
Uhg! I have been raking, and raking, and raking all of the leaves out of the flower beds for the last week. I never have to cover my beds in the fall as the tree leaves do a great job. We have way to many trees in our yard. In the fall we rake up, suck up and mulch all the leaves that are not on the flower beds. Because spring showed up in two short days. I was a little overwhelmed in getting the 9 or so flower beds cleaned off. Plus also getting the veggie beds ready to go. Then there is the small 30ft x 30ft prairie that they had planted before we lived here that needed to be cleaned out. More raking. I will see if I can get that done today. Then one can not forget about the house work. Calgon take me away. Sorry Stratsmom but I hate the violets that invade my flower gardens. They grow so profusely and dense that they crowd out other good perennials. I am always digging them out and disposing of them. Maybe yours are different as you can see the flower. Mine you really do not see the flower as they hides under the leaves. AAnightowl I also do not use chemicals on my property as we have pets that us the yard. I have gotten some IronX from Gardens Alive to use as a natural weed killer. You mix it and spray it on your lawn and let dry before you go out into the yard. Once it's dry it doesn't come off on you, your pets or wildlife. Vinegar also works as a great weed killer. But you need to spray the weed directly and not any other vegetation as it will kill that also. I always have a sprayer filled with vinegar when I go out into the garden. Well I better get outside and get the Prairie cleaned out. Boy I sure could use a good massage after that.
Tooty--I had forgotten about vinegar for weeds! I will try that on the terrace this year. Strats--I have seen lawns with violets in them. Actually very pretty in the spring. Maybe it depends on where you live or what species of violet it is?
These little violets are cute and smell wonderful. They just TAKE OVER EVERY VACANT INCH OF DIRT!! :-x I think I'm going to try moving them to the front parking strip, there they can do whatever they want!!
Strats--I have done something similar with pachysandra. Here, it takes over everything relentlessly. I have succeeded in penning it in between a cement porch and a brick walkway. The only way to go with pachysandra.
I love the violets here, and have at least two colors. I do thin them out at times, especially when there are too many around my roses. Usually, I move them to a new spot where there are none... I much prefer them over many other invasive weeds such as henbit, chickweed, and so many that I have no idea what their names are. I even like the dandelions better than most of the other weeds here. And no, I dont want my yard full of them, it is just most of the other weeds are so darn pesky. Some other weeds/wildflowers that I like are: heal-all, goldenrod, oxeye daisies [but they can be invasive if you do not go after the extras] and the black eyed Susans.
I don't know, but Philp Nulty's garden looks darn near perfect in his pictures... Mine is nowhere near so good looking. But my yard is huge, and I keep making more flower beds because I need someplace to put the babies they all make.
"Stratsmom, show me a gardener who is on top of things, has everything cleaned up/mulched/fertilized on time, and I'll show you either someone with a tiny, tiny pot of ivy, or a liar!" My thought is: show me a "perfect" garden, and it'll be a McDonald's!!! I get so sick of their manicured lawns, everything looking the same. BTW, I have a violet growing in my spring garden (that is what I call it) that is lovely, and has never spread to the lawn. It finally needs division now as it is a green donut, with nothing in the middle. I'll take a photo of it when it blooms & post it here. There clearly are violets & there are violets. Nightowl: I can so relate with the quandry of where to put all the babies & divisions of perennials! This morning I am taking a car load of perennial divisions to a town wide yard sale. They will benefit some cause....I think it is the conservation commission. Or maybe the Historical Society. I don't really know! For me it is better than throwing them on the compost heap (shudder).
Cayuga, I just cant throw them away. Though I have hardened myself to throwing some of the rose of sharon babies into the compost heap. Finding homes for them is so hard here. Mine are old fashioned rose of sharon bushes. When I find someone tossing them, I usually bring more home... Well, I do have two homes lined up for some of my rose of sharon and forsythia babies this week.
On our road we have an unofficial adoption agency working. If you have starts/seeds/cuttings of anything, you offer it to someone down the road, and if they don't want it, they usually know someone who does. The only downside is that most of our gardens, both vegetable and flower, contain the same plants, but in different configurations. If a new flower or vegetable pops up somewhere, we know the gardener has been to a (gasp!) nursery or garden center and actually purchased a plant! AAnightowl, you'd fit in around here perfectly, as would any Stewie gardener.
Oh yeah... I go out and buy plants too... I bought some tomato plants, and some petunias Thursday. I bought pansies earlier this spring for my bday.
I just have to laugh because we are all so much a like My Grandpa's theory was if a flower had jumped out of the bed and decided to grow in the lawn or driveway or wherever then it became a weed. I completely disagree with this (even though I loved him to pieces) I too will dig the babies and move them to a new bed or try to give them away! I am always thrilled to see a bleeding heart or columbine baby I figure if they liked me enough to try to grow I owe it to them (Have I completely lost it or what???) :-o
