I am beginning my gardening quest at the front of my house.
I think it’s important to feel good when you walk in the front door of your
house and until recently I wasn’t.
Why?
We have a serious weed problem here at Aidanvale.
It’s not just us. Our entire street is completely overrun.
The garden beds built around the beautiful crepe myrtle trees in the footpaths
are completely overrun with weeds. Houses up and down the street are completely
overrun with weeds. You can see the attempts that some people have made to tame
their gardens. There are a couple of houses that have perfectly immaculate
gardens, totally weed free. I can just imagine how long it them to achieve that
small miracle. Other houses have taken the complete opposite approach and
completely given up the fight and allowed the weeks to take control (our next
door neighbour is a prime example). Then there are the majority of us, my
family included, who make attempts but they just don’t seem to work.
When we first moved into Aidanvale we were quite
conscientious about weeding the front garden. Then over time we prioritised it
less and less and of course eventually the weeds came and overtook most of the
garden beds.
Walking up your front steps through a sea of weeds isn’t a
nice feeling. For me anyway. My husband doesn’t seem to mind but he is a lot
less sensitive about things like that than me.
The one garden bed that didn’t become overridden was the one
garden bed that it planted out almost entirely with some type of fern. I am not
sure what type of fern it is and to be honest, I am not a big fan of the look
of the ferns in the front garden bed. I am more of a flowers kind of person.
It did get me thinking though. The more plants that were in
the garden bed, the less likely it was that the weeds could become prolific.
Probably very obvious to a keen gardener but to a novice brown-thumb like me it
felt a little bit like a revelation.
Have we found the solution?
Maybe the solution to our weed problem is to just plant out
the garden beds as much as possible. Lots of plants, some ground cover and a generous
dose of mulch. That might actually do the trick.
With that in mind we headed off to Bunnings looking for
shade suitable flowers that would produce some colour and keep those weeds at
bay.
What did we come home with?
For the top garden bed, we purchased some impatiens, some
azaleas (a couple of which were already in the garden bed hiding under the
weeds so it seemed like a good idea) and some native violets as ground cover.
We already had an agapanthus in the garden so we split it up into smaller
pieces and planted it in a row along the back of the garden bed.
This is the result and I must say that I am pretty proud of
it.
No, it’s not fully planted our according to my theory.
That’s because given our track record caring for our poor old garden, we didn’t
want to spend a lot of money on a large volume of mature plants that we might
yet again fail to care for.
I love the splash of colour that we have in the garden bed now.
 |
| Australia Native Violet (Viola hederacea). We planted five of these to provide ground cover |
 |
| My gorgeous little Azalea Red Wings. At the moment it is a very tiny little plant and I really hope that it grows |
 |
| One of my gorgeous impatiens. I love the two toned pink. We have another 5 impatiens, all of which seem to be growing in different colours |
 |
| The impatien peaking out from under an agapanthus |
So we are starting small and we will add to the garden as we
need to. For now I am very happy with how it looks. One week later and already
some weeds are starting to peek through. Hopefully, though, if we keep on top
of it the mulch and the plants will eventually do their job and keep those nasty
weeds at bay.
If anyone has any tips at getting rid of weeds and keeping them away, I am more than welcome to any tips.
No comments