Saturday Snapshots

Published on by Margaret

I’ve been spending more time in the garden recently and so have had less time to write on my blog. The garden has definitely been looking as though it needs tidying, deadheading and cutting back to do, and weeds are getting on top of everything!

So when the weather hasn’t been too wet I’ve been out there with my secateurs, garden fork and my dumper truck, cutting, digging and pulling up weeds – nettles, bindweed, ground elder, creeping buttercups, and other weeds whose names I don’t know.

The dumper truck is one of the best things we’ve bought recently and it has made collecting and moving weeds so much easier. Here it is empty:

Dumper truck P1010882and here it is full:

Weeds P1010892These weeds all have strong roots (don’t I know it!) and spread enormously with long, white runners forming a dense network. If you simply break them off they regenerate (I know that too!!). Even though I tried to get rid of these in the spring, they are still in the ground.

The nettles are difficult to tackle earlier in the year when their stings are so painful and they’re growing next to, behind, and in between rose bushes with particularly sharp thorns. What makes it worse is that their roots are the other side of the fence. At this time of year the effect of their sting is only minor and soon disappears and I managed to get at them better.

I hate bindweed – it chokes everything within its reach. I read in Richard Mabey’s book Weeds that the vernacular name for bindweed is ‘Devil’s guts’ – how appropriate.

I think I shall have to resort to weedkiller!

For more Saturday Snapshots see Melinda’s blog West Metro Mommy Reads.

 

14 thoughts on “Saturday Snapshots”

  2. Yup, I’d agree bindweed is a bugger of a plant … I also detest sheep sorrel. I admire your fortitude … I SO need to get outside and work on putting our gardens to bed for the season! The garden wagon looks a keeper!

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  3. We too have a problem with bindweed… no matter how much you dig it out it still comes back. I’m going to tell my husband about your dumper truck. I’ve not seen the like before and it would be much easier I’m thinking than hauling the wheel barrows around. We’re busy at the moment trying to turn our front garden into something that’s a bit lower maintenance.

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  6. Our son gave us a garden cart about 5 years ago. We will probably need to replace it soon but it has worked hard! Thanks for sharing your tasks.

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  9. Right now, in Sydney, our impossible weeds are onion weed and clover. Trouble is the clover looks so pretty when its pink flowers blossom!

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  10. Margaret – I so very much wish I was good at gardening, but I’m really not at all. I admire your ability to make it all look good.

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  13. In my experience all weeds have horrid roots which spread and sprout! Love that dumper truck – we have an ancient metal wheelbarrow, which is very heavy to push, and has a wobbly wheel and mind of its own.

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