For Nicole's Sunday in the Art Room I don't have "regular" art today, but I see my garden as an art room as well. It has dominantly native flowers, but also non-native poppies that I first sowed 14 years ago and they have come back reliably every year since then. What also comes back every spring is the weeds. Some of them I'm okay with, but others are really annoying and spread way too much. Like these ones:
Cleavers (Galium aparine), also known as "catchweed". It's a sticky, vining weed that clings to surfaces - like other plants. It was traditionally used as a medicinal plant, but medicinal or not, it has got out of control in my garden and I don't want it to climb into my natives and choke them. So I had to do something.
First I did the hard work of pulling the cleavers. Since we had some good spring rains in April, they were easy to pull, but gosh! there were so many. After I had cleared an area, I covered the ground with newspaper.
Then I covered the newspaper with a good layer of compost, hoping that this will suppress the weeds for a while.
Since this garden was created on top of an existing lawn after we had bought our home in 2012, by using cardboard and huge amounts of compost (if you're interested how to do that, you can read about it here), this now resembles a lasagna with all its layers of cardboard, compost, newspaper, compost.
It's a rather healthy, fully organic garden. Even while concentrating on battling the weeds, I still noticed little critters like this orbweaver hanging out on the clary sage (Salvia sclarea).
It is a very big garden and I'm far from done. Unfortunately, I have to pause wielding newspaper and compost because with all the bending (there isn't enough space to kneel on a knee pad while weeding because of dense planting) I hurt my right leg. It crept up on me and I didn't pay much attention to it. But the pain became progressively worse until I wasn't able anymore to walk down stairs in a normal way without stabbing pain. So on Thursday morning I called my GP and got an appointment in the afternoon. He pressed on some parts along my knee and thigh up to my hips (ouch!) and diagnosed Iliotibial band syndrome. Great! Now I'm doing stretches, hoping this will help with the pain, and no more weeding for now (or only in places where there actually is enough space for a knee pad). Wish me luck, please.
18 comments:
I love poppies -- the more in a garden, the better, as far as I'm concerned! Sorry that you have a sore leg from your War On Weeds. I hope the stretching helps you feel better soon!
I absolutely love this post. Yes, gardening is definitely an art form. The poppies are so beautiful. I would love to see full photos of all of your garden. Thank you for sharing with SITAR and have a lovely Sunday.
Happy Sunday
My linky today🇹🇹 is
HERE
much love
Oh, ich fühle mit dir. Unkräuter oder wie sie jetzt genannt werden: Wildkräuter wachsen überall und wild. Das Labkraut offenbar auf jedem Kontinent. Die Idee mit dem Zeitungspapier funktioniert gut. Habe ich ausprobiert. Leider sind die Zwischenräume meiner Stauden zu schmal. Da bleibt nur Hacken und Zupfen. An nicht gut zugänglichen Stellen nehme ich eine Gabel vom Essbesteck. Klingt seltsam, ist aber sehr effektiv.
Viele Grüße
Anette
Your Garden is lovely and way ahead of mine ... assuming you live in a place that has an earlier Spring and perhaps a warmer summer than I do. Sorry about your leg pain. At least you were doing something worthwhile to cause it. I took a nosedive off of three shallow stairs (didn't even see them coming) and landed on my face. Black eyes, a bruised chin and stitches on my nose for starters and surprisingly, my left leg got the worst of it. Painful to walk especially on stairs for awhile. I am past the worst of it so I can laugh about it now :) I am trying to pay more attention to where I am going these days. And, I am finally getting around to gardening, though I had to put it off today because of rain. Happy Spring, my friend ...
Andrea @ From the Sol
Dear Carola, I have never had a garden because I have always lived in an apartment...I now live in a 6th floor apartment. But I really love to see gardens, so thank you so much for sharing your beautiful photos!
I absolutely love poppies! They are one of my favourite flowers!
Your posts and photos bring me much joy, dear friend. I appreciate all you share on your blog.
So sorry about your knee.
Gardening is an art form too. My wife is quite good at it too, so I get to literally enjoy the fruits of her labor. Blessings!
Dear Carola, first of all, I'll start with what stuck with me the most after reading your post.
I wish you a speedy recovery!
Since I don't know the disease you're suffering from, I looked it up on Google. Now I know more about it, but unfortunately I can't help you.
I saw poppies from the car this weekend, but not many. Since I don't have a garden, I don't have to deal with weeds.
I wish you all the best, and may your pain decrease! Éva
How lovely to see the red poppies.
Hope your leg starts to feel better soon...take care.
All the best Jan
Ouch. I hope those exercises work quickly. B x
I'm sorry to hear you are in pain. Such a stupid thing to happen just as you were doing such important work.
Weeds are a pain. I'm just organizing somebody to come with a machine to clear my two parcels of land of weeds. By law it has to be cleared by the end of May and as I'm going on holiday on Thursday, it has to be done now! (The law is because of the fire risk)
If there is one thing sent to try us it is weeding, Carola. How many other tasks do we undertake, knowing before we even begin, that a week (days?) after you do it it will be time to start all over again? Miriam and I spent the whole afternoon yesterday weeding and tidying up, but I am sure we will be back at it by the weekend. Our reward, was a gin and tonic on the patio watching the birds. Now, that’s not bad! Many hugs - David
...Carola, it's an endless battle!!!
I get those cleavers too but never knew what they were called. I hate them -- so sticky! You have to have gloves to pull those (I learned the hard way!). You garden will be great. That opening image with all the poppies just took my breath away. I remember California poppies very well and wow -- fantastic! Truly art. Just be careful with all that gardening! I've had trouble with my IT band in the past and it's just miserable (mine got me higher up but same thing). I really feel for you. Please take care -- I know you'll be doing all the exercises (and/or PT) to get back in order as soon as possible.
Before I read your post I saw the photo with the poppies. They are gorgeous. They do not like gardens at all, even though I have tried to grow them a few times. Funny how sometimes now matter how much you make a garden spot work for a certain plant, it just doesn't like it. And some, like your weeds, just love it. I was out int he garden this morning until the black flies came out in droves. AUGH. Hope your leg feels better after stretching soon. hugs-Erika
What a beautiful display of poppies. Two yellow Icelandic poppies bloomed here yesterday.
Weeding is a chore and I hope the exercises do the trick for your leg!
The poppies are lovely, Carola, the injury from weeding is not. I also used newspaper and cardboard as mulch items when I did garden in VA. Now, newspapers are becoming obsolete and digital versions won’t make good mulch😏. Hope that the exercise and rest provide relief.
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