Definitely fits with my philosophy of ‘life’s too short’. When my Dad was alive he was a slave to his lawn: mowing, feeding, raking; eradicating every last scrap of moss, daisy and buttercup. He was obsessed and it robbed him of both time and money. I think it stole his joy of gardening too because he was chasing an imagined perfection he was never going to achieve. When he died we couldn’t get anyone to cut the lawn for week and weeks and it grew into a beautiful patch with daisies, clover and mixed grasses. I thought it looked delightful. He would have been horrified! We sold the house with it like that, too.
This approach is the main reason I subscribe to your substack, thanks for changing my thinking! This year, for the first time, I've learned to embrace our garden's wilder bits, which means I now really enjoy gardening without feeling overwhelmed by "weeds". Just one example - realising that Herb Robert actually makes nice ground cover has made my life much easier! And the bees love it
Thanks Louise, I'm really happy the Wild Way has helped, thanks for the feedback. I love Herb Robert for that reason, I actually planted it into our garden here from the driveway! It's created a lovely light ground cover under an alder tree and is slowly seeding down hill in dry shade. Amazing really!
I’ve had a similar revelation about herb Robert this year! We had a monoculture lawn when we moved in, and slowly having allowed some self seeded cherries trees to grow, wild strawberries, and the herb Robert to spread, strimming around them as necessary when the grass gets really high, it looks so much better.
I absolutely love this article! I am a passionate defender of the natural world (and a novice gardener, learning a great deal as I go along!). I have just started hosting events for children to help them reconnect with nature, and one of the things we try to share with them is how to let go of the human-centric way of compartmentalising different species, losing the labels of 'pest', 'weed', 'vermin' etc. Thank you for helping to shift perspectives and for facilitating a more compassionate way of viewing the other lifeforms we share our spaces with. The interconnectedness of life is utterly magical - the more I learn, the more it fascinates me. Thank you for another beautiful article that will undoubtedly help forge the way for a more gentle and accepting relationship with the natural world in 'our' garden spaces.
Thank you, I have no doubt this kind of approach is the way forward. It is working in our garden. Slowly in some spots but it’s heading in the right direction and that’s the main thing 💞
I love this ethos. I've been so much more relaxed over the last year or two about the perceived 'pests' and what everyone calls weeds and it definitely makes for a happier garden experience. The plants I add still survive and the 'weeds' just add an extra layer of colour and interest often when not much else is going on.
Thanks Emma, it's a good head scratcher challenge to incorporate the most vigorous 'weed' colours into a colour scheme. I'm not sure I've quite achieved it yet in our main garden with the buttercups bit it's getting there. On the patio it does work with the stronger purples of the aquilegia and colour of the stone.
Excellent. I did wonder if they might ‘drown’ my new, little, wild flowers (field scabious, lesser knapweed, sanfoin, ox eye daisy) but hopefully not 😊
Ah lovely. I’ve just watched it ❤️ seeing what looks like cow parsley, I am having trouble getting seeds to germinate!! Mad as it grows everywhere around here, in long grass, on clay. I’ll just keep sprinkling till it gives in and grows 😁 thank you for your help xx
They’ll just grow through buttercup - they grow alongside one another in the wild. If they are really tiny you could just pull off some buttercup leaves to give them light. Once established they will outgrow the buttercup with ease.
Your thinking intrigues me. I'm just a few years into gardening and re-wilding in upstate New York. The issue of letting weeds be weeds is rather challenging because I don't have enough strong-growing plants to compete with the thick grass (former cauliflower and dairy fields) and goldenrods. Some are great, but if left alone, we would having but goldenrods. When we arrived, they had formed a tall, thick wall shutting out other plants, birds, and small mammals. Now we have been hand-weeding, keeping some and making space for more diverse species. But it is a never-ending, thankless job except for the appearance of more birds and rabbits, and some lovely new/native grasses, cranberries, and surprising plants that I have never seen and still struggle to identify. I'm such a novice. Thoughts?
In these situations my best advice is to head around the block to see what plants nearby look like they might be thriving and either are clearly competitive with those plants or look like they might be able to. Also heading into the wildcat look at plants in nature. Sometimes some plants are just too big and vigorous and you do have to step in, which might be the case. It is with us and brambles here in the uk. They are just too big to outcompete with anything but trees.
Definitely fits with my philosophy of ‘life’s too short’. When my Dad was alive he was a slave to his lawn: mowing, feeding, raking; eradicating every last scrap of moss, daisy and buttercup. He was obsessed and it robbed him of both time and money. I think it stole his joy of gardening too because he was chasing an imagined perfection he was never going to achieve. When he died we couldn’t get anyone to cut the lawn for week and weeks and it grew into a beautiful patch with daisies, clover and mixed grasses. I thought it looked delightful. He would have been horrified! We sold the house with it like that, too.
I love that story, how attitudes change. Thank you for sharing 😊
This approach is the main reason I subscribe to your substack, thanks for changing my thinking! This year, for the first time, I've learned to embrace our garden's wilder bits, which means I now really enjoy gardening without feeling overwhelmed by "weeds". Just one example - realising that Herb Robert actually makes nice ground cover has made my life much easier! And the bees love it
Thanks Louise, I'm really happy the Wild Way has helped, thanks for the feedback. I love Herb Robert for that reason, I actually planted it into our garden here from the driveway! It's created a lovely light ground cover under an alder tree and is slowly seeding down hill in dry shade. Amazing really!
I’ve had a similar revelation about herb Robert this year! We had a monoculture lawn when we moved in, and slowly having allowed some self seeded cherries trees to grow, wild strawberries, and the herb Robert to spread, strimming around them as necessary when the grass gets really high, it looks so much better.
I absolutely love this article! I am a passionate defender of the natural world (and a novice gardener, learning a great deal as I go along!). I have just started hosting events for children to help them reconnect with nature, and one of the things we try to share with them is how to let go of the human-centric way of compartmentalising different species, losing the labels of 'pest', 'weed', 'vermin' etc. Thank you for helping to shift perspectives and for facilitating a more compassionate way of viewing the other lifeforms we share our spaces with. The interconnectedness of life is utterly magical - the more I learn, the more it fascinates me. Thank you for another beautiful article that will undoubtedly help forge the way for a more gentle and accepting relationship with the natural world in 'our' garden spaces.
Thank you, I have no doubt this kind of approach is the way forward. It is working in our garden. Slowly in some spots but it’s heading in the right direction and that’s the main thing 💞
I love this ethos. I've been so much more relaxed over the last year or two about the perceived 'pests' and what everyone calls weeds and it definitely makes for a happier garden experience. The plants I add still survive and the 'weeds' just add an extra layer of colour and interest often when not much else is going on.
Thanks Emma, it's a good head scratcher challenge to incorporate the most vigorous 'weed' colours into a colour scheme. I'm not sure I've quite achieved it yet in our main garden with the buttercups bit it's getting there. On the patio it does work with the stronger purples of the aquilegia and colour of the stone.
What does get along with buttercups in your garden? I love them, big thugs 😂
Almost everything really :)
Excellent. I did wonder if they might ‘drown’ my new, little, wild flowers (field scabious, lesser knapweed, sanfoin, ox eye daisy) but hopefully not 😊
p.s. I've just posted a video to my notes showing out garden outgrowing the buttercup. Some are still visible but soon won't be.
Ah lovely. I’ve just watched it ❤️ seeing what looks like cow parsley, I am having trouble getting seeds to germinate!! Mad as it grows everywhere around here, in long grass, on clay. I’ll just keep sprinkling till it gives in and grows 😁 thank you for your help xx
Don’t you worry - if you’ve sprinkled cow parsley seeds it will definitely grow!
They’ll just grow through buttercup - they grow alongside one another in the wild. If they are really tiny you could just pull off some buttercup leaves to give them light. Once established they will outgrow the buttercup with ease.
Your thinking intrigues me. I'm just a few years into gardening and re-wilding in upstate New York. The issue of letting weeds be weeds is rather challenging because I don't have enough strong-growing plants to compete with the thick grass (former cauliflower and dairy fields) and goldenrods. Some are great, but if left alone, we would having but goldenrods. When we arrived, they had formed a tall, thick wall shutting out other plants, birds, and small mammals. Now we have been hand-weeding, keeping some and making space for more diverse species. But it is a never-ending, thankless job except for the appearance of more birds and rabbits, and some lovely new/native grasses, cranberries, and surprising plants that I have never seen and still struggle to identify. I'm such a novice. Thoughts?
In these situations my best advice is to head around the block to see what plants nearby look like they might be thriving and either are clearly competitive with those plants or look like they might be able to. Also heading into the wildcat look at plants in nature. Sometimes some plants are just too big and vigorous and you do have to step in, which might be the case. It is with us and brambles here in the uk. They are just too big to outcompete with anything but trees.