Can We Grow ‘Weeds’ in Our Gardens and Flowerbeds?

I’d just like us to think for a moment what a weed really is. The dictionary says that a weed is an unwanted plant. But there’s more too weeds than just rejection.

There is defiantly a bit of horticultural snobbery about weeds, because they are easy to grow, don’t show enough of the gardeners growing skills. It’s true that most plants that we consider to be weeds are quick and vigorous growers, that freely self seed and on occasions they grow to the determent of other plants around them, such as bindweed, which as its name suggests, grows very quickly up the stems of other plants and strangles the life out of them.

Have you ever bought a plant from the garden centre that grows so vigorously it’s as if it wants to take over the garden and next doors as well? I remember hearing people say that they have a plant that grows like a weed, or they advise others in the garden centre that the plant they are selecting will grow like a weed. Of course this phrase is meant to be negative of the plant. Yet when you think about it, ‘weeds’ are super evolved and well developed plants that have adapted perfectly to suit its environment. Not only are they vigorous growers but they also are very good at seeding themselves. So why is it then that we don’t want to grow these sorts of plants in our gardens and flowerbeds?

Imagine a tub of confined bindweed growing up a wigwam of canes, their beautiful white trumpets nodding in the summer breeze. They wouldn’t look so much like weeds then would they? They would happily brighten up a dark corner of the patio. And evening primroses are so pretty with their big yellow blousy blooms, which flower for a considerably long time because the flowers open in rings up the stem. As one set of blooms dies the next open. And thistles, big daisies and teasels, can you not see a place for these in amongst your more formally accepted plants?

The really great thing about growing weeds for your garden is that the seeds are free. Simply take a walk down the canal, or along a country lane and look out for weeds that you find attractive, and collect their seeds into a paper bag. You will need to take a pencil with you so you can write down the name of the seeds on the bag. If you don’t know what it’s called you could simply write a description of the mother plant or draw it.

When you get home fill a pot with compost and plant your seeds and water them in well. Being weeds, you are sure to soon see seedlings because, well, they grow like weeds, and they have very successful propagation rates. When the seedlings are big enough to handle, re-pot them on and treat them regular plants.

Weeds shouldn’t be confined to only the ‘nature’ area of the garden, they can have a beauty all of their own, and they are exceptionally hardy. And it wasn’t so very long a go that planting grass in the flower bed sounded absurd, and now it’s the norm to grow ornamental grasses; and now its time to liberate weeds and to accept them into our hearts and gardens, and enjoy them.

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How to Grow New Plants for Free From Cuttings

June and July is a great time of the year to collect new plants for your garden. Plants everywhere are bursting into action and actively growing and producing seeds, creating easy pickings for people with green fingers to add to their horticulture collection.

Because plants are growing vigorously at this time of the year, they are ripe for cultivation by means of cuttings. You could take cutting from your own existing plants, or maybe your friend has a plant that you have had your eye on for a while. However, I recently took a couple of cuttings from a beautiful shrub that was grown in a car park on a business park.

It’s a good idea to keep some small scissors, and a few food bags in your handbag or glove box, and when you see a plant that you particularly like, take s few cuttings.

Take cuttings on a cool day or in the morning, this is just to prevent your cutting from wilting. Choose healthy, pest-free and non-flowering shoots of new growth. Cut about a 4 or 5 inch length and pop it into a plastic bag. For each plant you want to cultivate, take a minimum of 5 cuttings. Not all the cuttings may take, and if they do you can always give surplus plants to your friends as gifts.

Fill a clean plant pot with cutting compost. And then prepare the cuttings that you collected earlier. With a sharp knife, cut the stem just below a leaf. The cut needs to be clean and straight.

Remove a couple of leaves above this cut and that’s your cutting ready. Now use a pencil to make a hole in the compost around the edge of the pot. Don’t simple put the cutting into the compost because it might damage the cutting. Firm the cutting in by pressing the compost around it.

You should be able to fit a few cuttings all around the edge of the plant pot. When the plant pot is full, water it well and leave it on a sunny window sill and leave the cuttings to do their thing.

Just make sure that the compost doesn’t dry out completely. Your cutting may wilt in the early days, make sure that they are not getting too hot, and use a mister to spray water on them from time to time and they should revive. One last tip, don’t try to re-pot or plant out too soon. Let the cuttings root system get well established before you take the cutting out from the plant pot.

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How to make Apple Tree Weights to Train Your Apple Tree

I recently bought a new apple tree for the garden. I have a modest sized garden and it wouldn’t have room for a large apple tree, and besides, my neighbour wouldn’t be very happy if I had a large tree blocking the sun light to their garden, so I have decided to bend the branches of my apple tree so that it grown downwards.

I saw this done to an apple tree on a gardening television program. Bending the apples trees branches over has a few benefits, the tree wont get taller, its fruit will be at picking height and I wont need to climb a ladder, but also the tree will bare more fruits that are of a better quality. Additionally you can keep a look out more readily for spoiling pests and diseases.

According to gardening experts, bending the branches of apple trees increases the yield of fruit because the apple tree then makes less foliage and instead produces more fruit. But also the fruits are of better quality because the tree is effectively upside down; more liquid inside the tree reaches the fruits.

It is suggested to train your apple tree, that you tie weights to young branches. The weights might be half a brick or a plastic bottle filled with water. I didn’t fancy the prospect of attaching such unsightly things to my beautiful new apple tree so I thought up an alternative solution, which would look less intrusive – Apple tree weight pebbles!

I simply took a lovely big pebble; I have a few in the garden that we had collected from the beach with the kids when they were little. They were perfect, large weighty, and had been selected for they pleasant appearance.

I glued the pebbles onto clothes pegs with ‘No Nails’ glue and I left them to dry over night.

The following morning I pegged the ‘apple tree weights’ to the ends of the branches below the foliage, applying one pebble weight to each branch. Sure enough they pulled the branches downwards and hung there pleasantly.

Not only do the pebble apple tree weights look astatically pleasing, but they are also kind to the tree. There are two holes in the jaws of the clothes peg, and one is smaller than the other. I was able to select a hole for each branch they wouldn’t be a pinch fit for the tree. Obviously if it were a snug fit on the tree, the branch wouldn’t have room to allow the branch to grow and widen. A tight fit would also hinder the movement of sap down the branch and affect my apple crop, which certainly isn’t desirable.

Another advantage of the pebble apple tree weights is that when a branch has been trained and stays in position without need of the weight, I can simply un-peg it, and peg it to another branch very simply and easily.

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Simple Topiary Chickens Without Trimming

By S. Roberts

Since I was a child I have always admired topiary. The art of creating a living sculpture from buses and trees has always appealed to me. I would look in aura at topiary peacocks, squirrels and bunnies, even if they weren't particularly well formed.

I remember also as a child my mother clipping three small box buses into dome like shapes. Not quite the sculptures I admired but certainly less brash and easier to maintain. Funny to thick that nowadays simple topiary of geometric shapes is so popular, more so than the more elaborate birds and animals that were so fashionable in by gone days.

We recently moved house and in the garden were two dwarf conifers, which were rather old and had reached a height of four and five feet. I have never been a fan of conifers because they sap the earth's goodness without a single bloom to show for it.

Not really wanting such dull specimens in the garden I pondered on how to make them more appealing. And with a little tree training I transformed the two trees into a Mother hen and chick, giving a topiary appearance without any of the hedge clipping of trimming skills.

How to make a Topiary looking chicken...
Take an aged dwarf conifer and look down into the construction of its stems or branches. The tree sends up 'clumps' Mentally divide these clumps into four.

The tallest clump will form the head.
The smallest will be left as a tail.
The other two clumps will form the chicken’s wings.

You may have to dig the tree up if the largest clump is facing the wrong direction. But with a good watering the tree can be replanted happily.

Using a length of green garden wire, fix one end of the wire to just above half way up a wing clump. Then thread the wire down through the main body of the chicken so that the wire can not be seen. Pull the wire so that the clump bends down to form a right angle, this forms the wing. The tip of the clump points out behind the chicken. Fix the other end of the wire to the to the woody base of the tree where it wont be noticed. Do the same to the wing on the other side of the tree.

Creating the head of the chicken works on a similar principle to the wings. Attach one end of a piece of garden wire approximately one quarter of the way from the tip of the head clump and pull the tip down and bend it over roughly 45 degrees to form the head. Fix the other end of the wire to the main branch f the head clump. Arrange the greenery to hide the wire.

Leave the chickens tail to stand upright proudly at the back.

As a finishing touch wire a couple of fir cones in place as eyes.

The result is simple topiary chickens that don't require clipping and continual trimming. I'm sure you will agree that they are 'cheep' and cheerful.


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S. Roberts wrie for http://www.santaspostbag.co.uk/ http://www.artclaysupplies.co.uk/ and http://www.bigboystoyz.com/