I have discovered in the last three years that my tendency to be less than assiduous in the garden often pays dividends in terms of self-seeding and natural plant propagation.

The second Winter that we were here I dug out a brand new flower bed intending to fill it with perennials, shrubs and bulbs.

The hard work was in the creation and the first year the weeding was a nightmare with nettles and field bindweed trying to take control. However, I also had to pull out barrow-fulls of oriental poppies that came up in year one and overwhelmed my carefully selected and planted perennials.

In year two it was the foxgloves that made a big display, and what a wonderful sight that was ( until they all went over in July leaving empty patches).

 

This year it is Lychnis that has self seeded all over the beds and I am very pleased. Last year they were really good performers with deep crimson flowers and silver foliage, I’m happy to welcome them back. I also think that those flowers that self-seed tend to do better because they grow in conditions that suit them. In fact the Lychnis should do well in the sun backed end of the bed where the soil is poor and stoney and the fact that it is higher than surrounding areas means that it dries out very fast.

In the autumn I was very busy and failed to trim back some of the perennials and actually only really cut back what was offensive to the eye. I left the penstemons as they stayed ‘evergreen’ and looked quite healthy. The only problem was that they drooped and fell all over the place. This week in the spirit of getting on top of things I went to cut them back and found that they had spontaneously layered, striking roots from some of the stems. Hey presto I now have 10 extra penstemon plants without the bother of lifting and dividing.

So I conclude that often less is more, even in the parts of the garden, like the beds near to the house that I feel I should give most attention to. Laziness pays off and there is little merit in constant clearing and weeding. I now aim to think of weeding as an infrequent activity that I do to simply make sure that plants that I do want are not overwhelmed by those that I don’t- in fact don’t even get me started on the iris foetidissima that comes up all over the garden- I loathe it and it has to go whenever I get to it. Some weeds I can decide are wild flowers, some remain weeds.