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The Deep Middle


Gardening & writing in the prairie echo

How to Show Weedy Purpose and Avoid Fines

9/20/2020

8 Comments

 
No topic is hotter than how to avoid and / or work with weed control when they come with a stern letter. In my town, any report filed online by a neighbor must be followed up with an inspection and letter. Sometimes it really is a weedy landscape full of invasive threats, and sometimes it's a well-intentioned gardener who, for a myriad of reasons, has a garden that's a bit too wild.

I've written before on how plant selection and management is critical, and how gardeners often don't give these things enough research and attention. But if you are in a predicament where you can't start from scratch -- or do a significant makeover -- there are some strategies to employ which show your landscape has purpose, at least to the casual passerby.

Let's explore our garden at HQ, which has had its run ins with the law. And that's ok -- you can't change minds or policies by playing it safe with a monoculture of lawn. So first up, the oldest part of the 1/4 acre suburban lot:

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Let's all agree that this is a "wild" garden by any standard definition of traditional suburban landscaping. There's no lawn for starters, but further, the plants are diverse, not tiered by height, and spreading organically. Some would call it messy, some would call it lush and healthy. I want you to put post-it notes or fingers over the wooden bridge, arbor, and fountain. What happens? It's a patch of (pretty? functional?) weeds. Someone has clearly let it go (I confess I have this year purposefully, as a way to repair damage and let the plants fill in some spots, teaching me what / how / where to manage next year -- a very different kind of gardening for sure). 

But include those three hardscape features (bridge, arbor, fountain) and something happens -- the garden is shown to have purpose. It is an intentional space. Not only that, but these linear, hard objects give the eye some place to anchor upon, making the plants more legible. It's a simple trick, and while it won't please or convince everyone, it will likely convince those who matter most. Other objects one could use are sculptures, benches, and trellises.

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This second image is our front yard, and the plants were chosen even more intentionally because it is a more visible space (it's not behind a fence). So to start off, read the posts I linked to above about plant selection and management. While plant choice and management -- thinning, adding -- count for a whole lot, so does a six-foot-wide lawn pathway moving up the middle of the two beds and up around the front of the house. That delineation serves as a place for the eye to rest and to be anchored, and a welcoming access point to move through the wilder landscape; it also ties into the rest of the lawn-dominated suburban neighborhood even if the lawn is not 100% perfectly-manicured fescue. In addition, there is a small sign saying that this is a pollinator garden with a website for more information.

These small strategies can go a long way toward both avoiding and working with weed control. So while your first priority is likely to be removing really tall plants or those that flop over onto sidewalks -- and some that have spread too easily -- your second priority is to include a bench, an arbor, a path, a sign, or a sculpture to show intentional gardening and not just laziness. If we're going to change minds we can't forget that especially in lived, urban areas, there are still de-facto gardening rules -- and playing with them, bending their seeming constraints, can lead to some real creativity, satisfaction, and ecosystem function (wildlife habitat, storm water runoff mitigation, soil stabilization, air cleaning / cooling...). Prairie up.

8 Comments
James McGee
9/27/2020 05:03:37 am

The picture of your pathway in the front keeps making me imagine a covered wagon coming down it.

Reply
Diana
9/28/2020 09:54:10 am

These are really good points that I wished I had known 10 years ago when I planted my native landscape! I had no idea then how to deliberately choose the plants for my landscape, nor did I understand the need to remove the thugs. Nor did I really understand how to show intentionality. I guess maybe it takes awhile to figure some of this stuff out. One thing I still struggle with is the issue of pathways....I have a fairly large rural space, and installed bark chips around the house and through the garden area. But, it's alot for me to keep up...grubbing out the volunteer seedlings, and trying to deadhead grasses and forbs that enthusiastically drop seeds into it. I'm not sure what the best option is here. I have tried installing an area of ecograss, but with one of the fescues a creeping variety, it got out of hand creeping into planted areas I didn't want it to, I am trying to remove it. I see you have a mown path in your front yard. Is that just turf grass? I wouldn't want to plant that after the fact because it would infiltrate my native plantings. Got any suggestions?

Reply
Benjamin
9/28/2020 12:56:20 pm

I would consider just keeping a path mowed, otherwise letting it fill in with whatever. You can even move the path year to year -- just a mow a new one. Might be easier than trying to keep up with a perfect fescue lawn path or wood mulch.

Reply
Diana
9/29/2020 06:31:35 am

Yes, that sounds like the easiest strategy!

Anne Madison
10/3/2020 08:35:13 pm

Any ideas on establishing intentionality on a fairly steep slope? My front yard is a narrow, steeply sloping half acre.

Reply
Benjamin Vogt
10/3/2020 08:36:57 pm

Lots of ideas, which is why I offer online consults. Look into sedge.

Reply
Laura Metzger
11/7/2020 11:13:37 am

Our steeply sloping front yard is planted with swaths of native grasses. Every year we replace more lawn with grasses. I’ve begun to add flowering plants as well, a sweep of goldenrod, a strip of black eyed Susan. I’ll try to get a photo to share. We’ve had more success with Kentucky native grasses than sedges.

Reply
Sharon Calvin
10/7/2020 09:28:47 pm

This is such a good point! I find that as my garden matures, it’s becoming more important to make sure that intentionality is apparent. That was my task this year in the garden. Thanks for putting it into words!

Reply



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    Benjamin Vogt's thoughts on prairie gardening in Nebraska. With a healthy dose of landscape ethics, ecophilosophy, climate change,  and social justice.

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