Round the garden in 80 days #21

As we move into the second quarter of my 80 days around the garden series, we have another episode on clearing unwanted undergrowth.

This patch at the back by the Reinette Orléans looks worse than it actually turned out to be. For a start, the French beans and their poles were gone in flash. Then the nettles, grass, violets, evening primrose and crocosmia were easy to lift. No doubt the rain last night and into this morning helped. I did have to use a trowel to lift some of the mint.

The nettles and grass will possibly have come from the horse manure I mulched with last autumn. The violets, well, since they are taking over the garden anyway, will have been self-seeders, as will the evening primrose and crocosmia.

I wonder if birds are the cause of the crocosmia. There may originally have been some of this persistent plant in this spot but it was taken out years ago. It is useful for filling spaces and provides interest for most of the year. I don’t want it, though, because of its tendency to take over.

Anyway, there is plenty more mint to dig out but I was on taxi duty, which meant no time to tackle that which is invading the space of the nearby hosta. I doubt the latter flowered this year – certainly, I saw no flowers – because it had to share the patch it occupies!