GROUND ELDER PROJECT

Veilchenblau, what a glorious rose. Sadly either last summer or over winter this beautiful rose tree died.  It is not completely lost because a cutting is growing profusely in my daughter's garden.

 

Most photos on my blog hove in on the beauty of whatever is flowering so you rarely see the nitty gritty of the masses of ground elder that strew so many of my beds. Every year I tackle various areas by weeding out the spaghetti roots of ground elder and I give up on the bindweed, which I was advised by a reputable gardener, could really only be removed by a JCB due to their long root run.

A couple of years ago in recognition of my arthritis caused by Lyme Disease and my age I decided to give up even trying to weed the area behind the greenhouses, of ground elder. I covered it in synthetic weed suppressant and large bark chippings except for one or two trees and shrubs. It has worked very well and serves as an extra place to put the rather large number of plants I have taken from cuttings and not as yet found homes for. The above photo gives an idea but it is only part of that bed.

Today I decide before I planted my replacement for Veilchenblau then I needed to make some effort to clear at least the back of the bed and so with my earlier success I decided to weed out as much ground elder as was convenient and cover in weed suppressant and small bark chippings. I need more chippings to finish behind the seat.

I needed a new home for this lovely acer which was getting too large for it's usual position, so this a trial to see if it works behind the seat.

So far I have only dealt with about half the border, so I have much more to do. You get the idea of the problem from this photo. Centre back are several clematis which will need careful managing. The peony is about to burst into flower so I won't be disturbing that just now. The small shrubs back right will also take some managing to suppress weeds at their base.

Most years I stand my Agapanthus at the front of this border mainly because I run out of space elsewhere, but it does help to dress the border this year. Some small shrubs were dug out cleaned and replanted and I also planted a new rose rather to the left of the old one so I am hoping it is far enough away to thrive.

My new rose is Albrighton Rambler  thank you David Austin. Planted a little behind the Choisya ternata White Dazzler.