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| Debris from the border. |
The autumn clear-up of the cottage garden has started in earnest, with a good session this afternoon cutting down the standing growth of the perennials. It's a very satisfactory process, although it does reveal the multitude of weeds growing below them and some areas are quite mossy: a good mulch is needed. In the process I'm also removing plants that don't justify their space for whatever reason. In a small garden there's no space to keep passengers: everything must justify its existence in some way and any garden needs to be constantly refreshed with new plants and new ideas. Today's casualties were a very dull and unpleasantly sticky
Salvia, a
Stachys whose name I've also forgotten, being a very unmemorable plant (though I have a lurking suspicion that it's rather unusual), and
Clematis heracleifolia 'Wyevale', a leafy brute that certainly doesn't warrant houseroom here. In my sights are a big bush of
Sambucus 'Black Lace' - a lovely plant but in the wrong place, and a clump of
Rodgersia pinnata that is not 'Superba', and there are a lot of things that need 'lessening' as I go. It's good to get it done at this time of year, as its's all too easy to forget in the rush of spring and then you're left with the same old things taking up even more room than before.
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| The ousted Stachys. |
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When clearing, as you describe above, I always regret that there is no gardening friend to hand who would appreciate the discarded plants. I say, "at hand" because I am not willing to go to the bother of potting on plants and storing them simply with the possibility that someone might want them at some stage. They go to the compost heap but I do regret their loss when they could serve another while in another garden until their new owners realise just why I was throwing them out in the first place.
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