It’s hard to believe how a plant that is so quaint, in one setting, becomes a nightmare in another.
This little garden faerie, so demure and coy, was molested by English Ivy. Today I pushed the marauder back further, given the blessings of recent and long-overdue rain. Strand by strand, I uncovered native Columbine and parts of my struggling Rosemary plant from the dark green creepers.
In England, ivy is a rather frowzy gentleman, lending his charm to old buildings with a result as cozy as a Harris Tweed, a briar pipe full of bright and burley, and a “hot cuppa” on a chilly and damp afternoon.
Yet bring the English gent to the New World, and he becomes a lager-lout, sprawling, intruding, wrecking.
One principle of my garden-practice involves what I call “necessary cruelty,” where one simply has to intervene when Nature gets out of balance. I planted those first sprigs of ivy in an attempt to control erosion at the edge of our property. Now, it’s a carpet, joining another from my deceased neighbor’s garden (where poison ivy joins the party in the vegetable mosh-pit).
Now that two young fellows have bought that house, I’m actually pleased that they’ll do some judicious spraying of Roundup (the only toxin I own, with a quart of concentrate lasting me many years). The new neighbors promise to be very careful of my garden. I’ll go over to assist with my heavy-duty weed-whacker and sprayer on The Day of Doom.
My own organic methods of pulling and trimming work for me. Readers seeking to reduce another pest, Bermuda or “Wire” Grass, might want to look back at an old piece I did for Whole News (follow this link to all of my old columns). By there’s a lesson in the ivy beyond necessary cruelty: knowing the land and not planting foolishly.
Blessed Mabon and may your gardens go to sleep peacefully during the Dark Half of the year.
As a belated PS, I want to thank anyone who recalls my old monthly column of this name in the long-defunct free publication, Whole News. It appeared in an era before blogs got popular, and I hope this blog will interest my fellow UUs, neo-pagans, and open-minded souls walking any spiritual path who seek ways to bring a bit of mindfulness and sustainable practice into their gardens.
Tags: nativeplants, weeds
Thanks for posting this and restarting your blog. I like it so far and I’m looking forward to the coming posts.