When to dig up my mixed bed?
Hello all,
I have a mixed bed that is riddled with couch grass and celandine. I have gritted my teeth through the celandine invasion, but now the couch grass is taking over and I'm itching to murder it! But I'm not sure when the best time of year will be to haul everything up and go through it with a fine tooth comb, without too greatly harming the plants that I want to keep. I've been putting it off for years for one plant or another, but would like some advice.
The plants in the bed that I would like to preserve are:
- two miserable overgrown heathers that have just finished flowering and need to be planted deeper to get rid of the bald bit in the middle;
- a miserable rose that's not flowered for years and is barely clinging to life;
- an abundance of cyclamen that has spread throughout the bed, and is currently at the fascinating seed pod stage;
- a small patch of spanish bluebells, currently leaves and seed pods;
- a large very old and happy yellow potentilla;
- a huge rosemary tree(!);
- a great swathe of day lilies that are about to flower - I need to shrink these back because they've taken over, but would not have to dig them all up as they have crowded out much of the couch grass;
- a great patch of comfrey that is taking over and is, of course, indestructible;
- a honeysuckle;
- one or two oriental poppies;
- a patch of giant daisies just coming into their own;
- one or two large euphorbias that are just finishing flowering;
- a peony that's just finished flowering;
- a hibiscus or twenty, just coming into leaf;
- a carpet of creeping jenny;
- and some tulip bulbs.
I think that's all that's there that's likely to be affected by my couch grass and celandine war. I thought hey, I should do it in autumn because that's when everything's dormant, right? But then the cyclamen comes into its own and I don't want to even step near it let alone haul it up lest I break it. So now I'm wondering if now would be the better time? Or is it too hot now to be exposing roots and stressing the plants out?
Any advice anyone? When can I cause the lease damage by "moving" these plants? Should I wait for the cyclamen to disappear below ground? For the day lilies to flower? For autumn? Earlier next spring?
Thank you for any replies. I know this is a lot to ask! It's a massive job and I've been putting it off for years, but that space could be used so much better if the couch grass, celandine, day lilies and comfrey weren't so abundant.
Posts
Following 3 surgeries in 2 years my garden has been neglected and subsequently invaded by couch grass, creeping buttercup, nettles, thistles and other nasties. Having recovered, I started at one end this spring and weeded as deeply and thoroughly as I could but where the weeds were entwined in the roots I dug up whole plants and bunged them into pots, buckets, troughs and old compost bags while I dug over and cleared the soil. Then I had to tease throught the roots to fish out bits of invaders. Dunking in water helps to work through fibrous roots without doing too much damage.
As I go, I split and repot in order to increase my stock and re-invigorate the plants then I bung some garden compost on eth newly bared bed and replant. Time consuming but do-able and very satisfying. It's a bit late to be lifting and dividing now but I'm still lifting and cleaning as I go and sometimes transplanting if they're late season performers and have time to recover before they should be flowering.
If you do just the cyclamen area now you'll be able to do other bits of the garden in autumn which is an excellent time for plants to grow new roots in soil that is still relatively warm compared to spring soils. Bulbs aren't too fussy about being moved once flowering finishes but before they go dormant again.
Thank you for your reply obelixx. Well done for doing such a lot of weeding - especially following surgeries! You are made of tough stuff! I have done a few couch grass etc. invaded patches of the garden but none of them had many plants that needed rescuing, so it was easier to just do it whenever. I agree it is very satisfying, and whilst in the process even found myself sorting through couch roots in my dreams!
I shall take your advice and try and get the cyclamen area up now. The cyclamen is mostly in with the creeping jenny, bluebells, poppies and heathers, so hopefully they shouldn't be too upset by my interference, or I can skirt around them a little.
Thank you!
All the things on your list with which I am familiar, will probably survive a nuclear war, along with the cockroaches. And that is about three quarters of what is on your list. So I can't speak for all of it. I think the whole thing about when to move things has a lot to do with getting the most out of them this season, and moving them to optimize their performance next season. So you have to work out what is more important to you in terms of getting something out of them this year, or sublimating them to a grand and better plan for next year, which does not involve couch grass and celandine. If you don't care about this summer's display, you could do it now so as to vacate the bed before the growing season is over and make the weeds more susceptible to glyphosate. My gut feeling is that you might as well do it now, while it's nice to be outside. Get the stuff out, clean the roots, pop it in pots in quarantine, give the weeds a chance to shine for a bit, then blitz them with glyphosate, blitz them again a couple of weeks later, and start again for next year. Rosemary can be a bit like lavender - has a life expectancy after which it's better to get a new plant. Roses the same really - new one might be in order. Creepy Jenny I accidentally planted and can't get rid of, giant daisies - arghhhh! can't get rid of them, bluebells and potentilla are pretty tough once you have provided them with the right conditions, euphorbias grow like weeds if they are happy, tulips - well they are all underground - let the foliage get sucked back into the bulb, but otherwise, they are not involved in all this - you can lift and replant which is what lots of gardeners do anyway. If it is nice weather, and you are not bothered about sacrificing this summer's display, and you have the passion to do something now, go for it. Personally I can't wait to re-organise my raised beds, but I feel too much like it would be impolite to interfere at the moment. And if you feel like that, maybe September and October would be a good time to act.