The Natural Gardener
I’m experimenting with a more relaxed approach to weeding. While ripping up the odd imposter (and getting the whole root up) is quite therapeutic, frankly, I’ve better things to do than spend too many hours at weekends on my knees, picking off plants.
I like a managed, natural look, where I supervise self-seeders instead of digging them up straight away, casting my eye over their spread, curbing as necessary. Like a permissive parent, I let them get on with it, but woe betide them if they get out of line!
I do this for a number of reasons. Firstly, some of the prettiest plants can be so-called weeds, and we’re often all too keen to cast aspersions on ‘successful’ plants that thrive, inserting themselves around the garden. If you like it and it doesn’t invade like an army, keep it.
Pollinators also love weedy, wild plants, too. Watch and you’ll often find a bee homing in on a daisy, a deadnettle or a dandelion, ignoring everything else. This is why I leave them be.
My garden is home to quite a few charmingly-named weeds. It certainly gives them all a certain romance, knowing bees and butterflies have been visiting them since before the takeover of taxonomic Latin. Herb Robert (Geranium robertianum, also stinking Robert or death-come-quickly), can be a nuisance but is just as pretty and pollinator-friendly as its other geranium cousins. Dainty Epilobium montanum (broad-leaved willowherb) pops up in pots, while white and pink Centranthus ruber (red valerian) has taken over much of the front garden – but butterflies love it! I love purple toadflax (Linaria purpurea), and have been known to steer round it when it self-seeds on the driveway. Geum urbanum (wood avens or herb bennet), has rather monopolised my shade bed, but if bumblebees love its yellow strawberry blooms, then so do I.