The gardening that looks like wandering

It was a warm July day and the meadow project I’d installed was growing tall – the sunny environment and loose soil made the plants happy as daisies.

And so I wandered. The Wild Strawberries in the groundcover layer were filling in nicely. The Silverweed was too, but it could have used a little more water – something to keep an eye on. The grasses were slow to get going, but that’s normal for the time of year.

The Beebalm with its scented leaves was growing like crazy. It hadn’t succumbed to mildew yet. I made a note to keep an eye on it, however – this species can be aggressive in the right environment.

The Ohio Spiderwort was doing well. It had finished flowering but its seed heads were hanging on in there. Ideal for new plants next year.

But what was that over there? It wasn’t something I’d planted, I was sure about that. The plant was tall and vigorous. I got closer and saw Mugwort – an invasive that likely came in on the topsoil. That would have to go. Luckily, the loose ground made the young plant an easy pull.

And over there? And over there? And over there? Horseweed. I see it everywhere in new installations because it likes disturbed soil. It’s an annual, so no need to pull it and create more disturbance and more weeds. Just lop off its head before it goes to seed.

Designed to change

Ecological landscaping expert Larry Weaner calls stewardship an extension of the design process. Each time you decide to intervene, that intervention changes the course of the design because your decision favours some plants over others.

The skill is knowing the differences between plants – how they grow, how they propagate themselves – and exploiting those differences to keep the design going in a good direction.

Unlike the traditional model, where the goal is to get it how you want it, then hold the line and keep it there, ecological landscapes are designed to change. Pulling an aggressive plant gives less aggressive plants a chance; stopping an annual spreading its seeds helps ecological succession advance a step.
So the decisions I make on this July visit – removing invasives, keeping other plants in check – are as important as the decisions I made on the drawing board in March.

What happens during wandering

A lawn crew can keep the grass cut, but they can’t decide what plant needs pulling or just trimming, or whether the Beebalm is just fine or a problem in waiting

That’s why my brief wanderings are doing more than appears. I know what should be there and what shouldn’t, what’s outcompeting things and what’s struggling, which weeds you can leave and which must go.

I’m aware which plants are growing in June and which don’t get going until August, so I know if a plant is failing or merely slow.

Most importantly, I know when not to intervene, when to allow the plants to do what plants do, however impatient I might feel.

The next summer

The next year, things were different. There was no more Mugwort and fewer Horseweed. The grasses were bigger and most of the bare patches had disappeared. There was some Yarrow I didn’t install but which fitted in just fine. The Beebalm was even bigger – it might need some tending next year.

And this summer to come? As I do my slow wander, I’ll see Little Bluestem swaying in the wind, hear the sound of bees in the Coreopsis, and smell warm grass under the summer sun.