The wonder of my garden is that anything grows here at all, and that's become increasingly true since I've begun to feel the effects of climate change in the last few years. The solar radiation has vastly increased, and my property with lots of hardscape and huge rock formations makes it that much worse. The soil, if you want to call it that, is decomposed granite, and even drought-tolerant plants don't do well here. The only reason anything survives is that I'm still able to give the garden a reasonable amount of water, although that may become a problem in future years with the increasing drought.

I'm sorry you're a bit down with the weather, I know what that's like, but it's not too bad here and I've been out putting some roses in and generally getting on with things now it's a bit drier...

My garden grows alright, except I have one major issue that plagues me more than anyone else around here. From April - August, although I see it as early as February and as late as October, I am invaded by a weed which is a relic from the Carboniferous period, a great survivor and I have to admire it for that. I doubt a nuclear weapon would get rid of it. Roundup is useless on it unless repeated applications year after year, and grow nothing in the area until it's thoroughly poisoned.

It is called Field Horse Tail Weed or Equisetum arvense, often mistakenly called Mare's Tail [which is a different plant], and second only to the dreaded Japanese Knotweed, which if I had that I would have to consider throwing myself under a bus, but what I have is bad enough. It seems to grow about a foot overnight, appears in clusters right in the middle of plants, especially roses. It enjoys rich moist soil on an open site. It's inhibited only by dense growth, especially shade from trees.

My neighbours have it too but only half of what I've got, because I enrich the soil so much, it makes a beeline for my garden, and has spread all along a border in the back and is even trying to get to my front garden, which thankfully is clear of it so far. I think it's trying to spread underneath the house as a quick route to the front.

To garden without this weed would be heaven. Maybe I'll get there one day, but for now I put up with it and try to pretend it isn't there, but it costs me half an hour every day pulling it out for 4 months. I try hard to make sure it's not visible in any of my photos, although some people think the weed is rather..erm.. fetching?..

Apart from that, all is well...

I'm on Jessie Hildreth #3 here, who knows why? Numbers 1 & 2 were so gorgeous I think I loved them to death. I dug one out to protect it after Spring 16 frosts and that was wrong. The next Spring I planted one end of March 17 and that was wrong. We had another month of freeze/thaw wet in the coldest Spring in years, and it died. I may have given it too much root stimulant planting it too. Number 3 is in the ground as of last 8/31/17 and I am hoping the third time is the charm. I also had an Arcadia Louisiana Tea die when I left it out on the patio during that wet Spring weather. The dry alcove would have been perfect, just a few feet back toward the house. At least your troubles Ingrid are a global warming/climate change problem rather than ignorance and inexperience. I will say I am loving my Tea roses here, and I would be making a lot more mistakes if I did not get so much information from this forum. Here's to 2018 over the hump for Jessie Hildreth #3!

In my garden EVERYTHING grows - weeds & volunteer plants as well as the "on purpose" plants, which grow to sizes WAY bigger than they are supposed to - especially roses.

For various reasons, I have been neglecting my garden for over 9 months. Today the sun is shining, and it is in the 60 F, I feel much better (lost over 40 pounds in 2017 - that helps a LOT!), so I have run out of excuses. I started way out by the sidewalk, because: 1) The many dead leftover tall Dutch Iris stems out there are so ugly I am embarrassed, and 2) The privet tree volunteers have to be pulled up soon, or it will be too late, and even a shovel will not get them out (learned lesson - in some parts of my garden, I have to just cut the wanna-be trunks which are emerging from the old privet stumps).

Starting on that bed, of course, I have also been battling with English ivy which has leapt over the low fake stone wall, and with Dawson't Apple Blossom and some kind of gorgeous white once blooming rose, both of which are climbing up our crab apple tree. Of course, they have also put out long canes which are going the other direction, and are trying to cover the flower bed outside of the wall (the apple tree is on the inside of the wall). I even tore up one cane which had come down out of the tree, over the wall, buried its tip under the ground cover African daisies, and rooted! As I said, noting dies in our garden when neglected - they just all fight to take over more territory!

Anyway, I have made some progress on about 10 feet of that 60 foot long bed. Good feeling - hope to get more done tomorrow.

Jackie

Cath, I think the wild onion you describe is what we call onion weed here. I have finally (fingers crossed) found a way to defeat it. I paint undiluted glysophate (generic name for Roundup, but you can get it stronger as glysophate, and cheaper), on the leaves. For years, I have dug it out, only to create dozens of new ones, which I never got to in time. I also, (if I can't be bothered getting the glysophate at the time), pull off any flower heads I see, because they create hundreds of new ones. I had it throughout a whole bed at the beginning of the year, and don't think I have any in that bed now, AND the glysophate hasn't killed anything else, which, as there's catmint throughout, I thought was bound to happen, but I had gone past the point of caring. It didn't take me long either. I am thrilled, if you can't already tell!

Kes, all my roses, including Teas, would rather face east, but I have no east to give them. Your dahlia sounds lovely, and I am going to see if it's available here. I tried agastache, but it died - so many deaths in this garden. I think my soil is too heavy for agastache. But I have found some penstemons survive my 'care', a darkish purple one, called Blackbird?, being the most hardy here. I read somewhere on this forum, that Chinas grow in forests in their native land, so clearly you wouldn't think they'd like too much sun, but I have Mutabilis in all day sun, and it's happy - apart from a blasted fungus infection. Most salvias take over the world here.

Jackie, I am so envious of your 40 lb weight loss, but not envious enough, it appears, to do what's required. With your new found energy, I'm sure you'll have your garden shipshape in no time.

Marlorena, thankfully I don't have that weed, but I do have a few of my own. I don't know the name of the worst offender, but as a friend said, it's going to take over our suburb. It's a climber, and before you know it, has literally thousands of purple black berries on it, that the birds clearly love. I also have Madeira vine. It was rampant when I came here. Grows up trees, and is so vigorous and heavy it can smother them. But it is way more obvious than the other sneaky little nameless devil.

Trish

Well, I don't know the names of any weeds. But one plant that grows very pretty thinking it was a huge weed. Well, not knowing about it. I try to remove it once. It grew back so, I ask and ask around. My daughter loves the colour. It was pink than after 1 year I stubble upon that 'weed' among other weeds. It was 4 o' clock plant. Last year, it did not grow. I don't know why maybe it never reseed or my dog Riddick really kill it. So, I saw seeds at Home Depot but not the sweet pink color that grew here. I am hoping it will grow back.it has a beautiful scent . Another , grows called rain Lily. It grows among the grass. I hired a lawn mower guy and he always cut it. So, that is gone.the flowers blooms when it rains only. The whole yard has pink flowers and it is very pretty.

There is one particular weed that does not die no matter what I do. It grows a lot and within a week it covers anything it touches. It grows 8 inches a day. I read upon it. Within 2 years, it is everywhere. I hate this weed. It stinks when pulled. Then , one day, I saw so many bugs and I got worried . I hope this bugs will not infest my whole backyard. I did not know it was a good bug or a bad bug. So, I Google for a week about this bug. Nothing.

I am very close with my neighbours. Having tea with them and this weed & bug pop up. My neighbor, Geo, who loves to Google showed me about this bug. And I was still unsure became of colour and looks. She came over and saw it and said it is same bug on her phone. We both Google it and both of us learned that this bug loves this weed that grows and only eats this weed. Problem solved.

My weed has huge leaves with thousands of holes all over. I can't remember this bug name but it is a beetle that Agriculture of Florida releases this beetles that only eats air potatoes plants. Beatle is from Asia.

This air potatoes plants kills any trees, plants anything it touches. Hard to control except for this beautiful ugly bugs, urggg. I hate bugs and Dept of Agriculture is tracking this bugs . So, there is a web page and anyone reports where it is and this is how the government tracks.

Now, since my last hurricane, Irma wiped my bugs out. I have not seen it. So, I want it back or hopping it laid some eggs in ground and will hatched and come back. If not to order this bugs and it is free but the wait time is at least 6 months and longer. They mailed bugs out free. I cannot believe I have this invasive plant growing here out of blue. How, I got it and none of my neighbors is a question I can never answer but if I don't control it. It will jump over. Now, I am thinking about birds. Maybe a potato drop in my yard. Urggg way too much headache to wonder why ?

Jin

I got fed up today with cleaning up after December's ice storm and haven't done much but admire the cyclamen. We've had C. hederifolium and C. cilicium for years, both seeding and spreading, then fall before last I bought C. coum, which went unwatered through ten months of so of drought and a very hot summer. It survived! Four out of six or nine plants are in leaf, and one is blooming. I want to try more cyclamen species.

The ice storm is going to take months to clean up. I still have two big broken limbs to try to saw down out the largeish willow in the shade garden, after working perched up in the tree the day before yesterday sawing down the other smashed branches and some that were hung up, then lopping them into stackable branches, to be used for terracing later. Some of the branches landed on top of the overgrown 'Spray Cecile Brunner', flattening it, so that SCB is consequently finally getting a badly needed cutting back. The flowering ash has been cleaned up: all smashed branches removed, cut up, and spread about where useful. Some are finding employment as steps in the steep clay ground. DH rebuilt 'Treasure Trove's pergola, which half a moderate-sized black locust had fallen on, not breaking, but bending it; then managed to straighten out, more or less, the bent lengths of rebar, part of which are going into a new support for 'Souv. de Mme. Leonie Viennot', which perennially needs more space. The officinalis peonies, invisible this time of year, got terribly trampled while DH worked on 'Treasure Trove's pergola, but the two-inch-tall Daphne odora 'Aureomarginata' survived. I don't know about the peonies. They had an awful year in 2017.

Right at the boundary between shade garden and woods is a hugely smashed field maple, and beyond that, who knows. We haven't even gotten down in the woods yet to see the damage.

Something I'm currently fretting about is the possibility that I may not be able to order plants online because of the post office's package "service". SDA accepts a package, sticks it in a warehouse, and that's that. At the moment we're trying to track down the Christmas presents DH's daughter in the U.S. sent. The post office says SDA has them, and SDA say the P.O. has them. I went through this back in the fall with books ordered online in France: it took me a week to locate them and a two hour round trip to pick them up. No point in paying money for plants and then having them die. I can only hope foreign nurseries use other couriers than the mail. This is incredibly frustrating.

I agree that often plants do well with a degree of benign neglect (if you've dug them good holes first).

Air potatoes plants a total weed. It is killing my tree by shed.

A tree that died from Air potato plant which the bugs killed. But new shoots growing over it.

This thread obviously touched a nerve. Kes, I forgot to mention that I love dahlias! and am too lazy to grow them! So, my compliments for your efforts. I do understand about the frustration of being stuck inside. Good luck in better weather so you can get outdoors and back with your plants! I enjoyed your factoids. Also you reminded me that I need more salvias, and not least because the deer hate them. My helper dug holes today that are intended for lavenders (which are intended to annoy the deer), but I was looking at other empty spots and wondering what to fill them with. Salvias would be perfect.

Titian 10b - thank you, thank you, for the advice about how to get rid of wild onions (aka onion weed)! After I posted yesterday, I went back to that same bed and found that they were all over in about half of it. I first noticed them years ago, 3 houses down the block, on the strip of land between the street and the sidewalk. Unfortunately, the street storm gutters run downhill from that area, past our house, and several years later, we started noticing wild onion in our strip between the sidewalk and the street. I did not realize how invasive they are, so we dug them up, which evidently just helped them spread. I will definitely try your system of getting rid of them - it is so helpful to know that someone, somewhere, has found a strategy which works!

Melissa - I recall you posted about your ice storm, but I don't think I understood the extent of the damage when I read your post (perhaps you did not yet either). What a mess! Good luck with your cleanup - it sounds exhausting.

Jackie

Marlorena, if you want to have another go with Roundup on the horse tail you must crush the stems before applying Roundup (banned in Sweden for gardeners BTW) or inject it into the stems. I have it too but I pull it out whenever I see it and when I give up, it's a lost cause anyway, I trust an old nursery owner who claimed that the deep roots were good for loosening the soil and the silica content added an extra nourishment to the soil.

Marianne, thanks. I don't use chemicals, there's just too much of it. I'm surprised you have it too, I didn't know it was in Sweden.. it gets everywhere..

Titian, Roundup comes in different concentrations. Do I understand you correctly that you use it undiluted (I too paint it on the leaves). If so, what concentration is the one you use, that is, how much water is it supposed to be mixed with for normal use?

Cath

Don't waste your time.

Horsetail is immune to Roundup. Certain primitive plants don't react to it at all - liverworts also come to mind.

These are not so-called superweeds that have developed resistance over time, but instead plants that were always immune or highly resistant right from the beginning.

Most things do ok in my yard. I do have a small spot where roses struggle and possibly other plants too. I tried a couple different roses and they never thrived.two of them did a lot better when I moved them. a few feet from that spot is a healthy iceberg that blooms well. So I’m not sure the exact reason why things struggle in that spot. The one major weed I deal with throughout the season is the grandpa ott morning glory seedlings. I like the look of morning glories but they reseed too much for me. I’m going to try something like mandvella or clematis next season instead of morning glories.

Cath, I use glysophate 360. The dilution rates are 5ml, 10ml or 15ml per litre depending on the weed. And yes, I use it undiluted and paint on the leaves. My sister-in-law used to use undiluted turpentine, and she reckoned that worked, but I haven't tried it. I did the bed that was rife with it around 3 months ago, and when I checked again today, there were none.

For other invasive weeds like Madeira vine and the climber whose name I don't know, I scrape the stem as low as I can get to on the plant, and immediately paint on undiluted glysophate too. I was advised to do this by a woman who works in bush regeneration - ie native plants. It works!

I love threads like this. I had no idea things like potatoes could be invasive weeds. Here in the north, a lot of our Southern neighbor's worst nightmares can't stand the deep freeze. The worst offenders in my garden are a type of nightshade (with young children and a collie I'm always trying to pull it out, but it can spread from neighbor's yards) and this mystery annual wild pea that has a relentless grip on my southern and eastern bed. It's a very pretty tiny blue flower, but I cannot get rid of it, it gets everywhere, and drives me nutty.

In my garden, the most exciting thing right now is tracking the rabbit's movements through the snow in the yard. They are on constant prowl for winter food. They do all my raspberry cane pruning for me, and of course will happily devastate the roses and honeyberries, if given the chance.

Everyone sounds so industrious as they battle their pernicious weeds!

I have been mostly working inside the house. For days I have been sorting through closets, bookcases, sewing/knitting stash, photographs. I'm decluttering and donating, or in the case of photos, putting into albums and discarding the rest. Every so often I feel weighted down by Things I have mindlessly accumulated. I do want the things I really want; I just don't want the ones I merely have. Funny how they sneak in!

I pruned and weeded some parts of my garden in November before we went to New Zealand. There is definitely more that needs to be done, and I will get to it, but possibly not in a timely fashion this year.

Rosefolly

Titian, thank you for the more detailed information. I will try it!.

Cath