Very philosophical - beats actually working. But while spending an hour moving along the steep front bank, I had to make many decisions about what to pull and and what to leave in place. I also have a middle course for the many things I am ambivalent about - I clip them down without pulling them out. My thinking is to give other things a chance to compete.
Some things are purely evil and come out without a second thought. There are fewer of these than you might think, at least in my yard. English Ivy. Raspberries. Poison Ivy - except it can't be pulled, must be sprayed, so its a trip back oft postponed. Honeysuckle. Lambs quarters. Sweet Clover. Dandelions.
But many more things have at least something to recommend them, and I pause and reflect before yanking. I often make different decisions about them in different places or times. My decisions may appear whimiscal to an outsider, but being who I am I'm constantly looking for the decision criteria behind what I'm doing.
Native versus non-native. Doug Tallamy (Bringing Nature Home) has the most succinct explanation about why natives are always better than non-natives: they are the foundation of the wildlife food chain. No natives, no insects, no birds, no squirrels or raccoons. It is a fact. Exotics "untroubled by insects" are better than concrete from a cover and temperature-moderating sense, but provide little or no food for insects. I have set aside the steep bank for natives, but there are some legacy plants from before my conversion, and I have never gone nuclear on them.
Blooming versus boring. Non-natives that are interesting and beautiful have a chance with me. I've gone out and bought them, though I think of those parts of the garden as my exotic "zoo" where I need to keep them caged.
So what filled a whole big brown bag full of weeds? Raspberries (use gloves!) and only one sprout of english ivy. Much vinca (that I have posted about before) - it had spread much further below and around the ash tree than I had realized). I pulled a lot of wild oats (Chasmathium latifolia) - its a native grass that seeds and sprouts prolifically. I planted it, and I want some of it, but I try to keep it within some bounds. This is one where I'm looking to allow other plants to compete successfully - there were a whole bunch of smaller wildflower plants looking pitiful around the roots of the grass. I planted some liriope back when I first got here, and it keeps spreading upwards. Eventuallly I will nuke it, but it will be a big task so I'm putting it off for now.
I have many oaks and a few hickories growing on the steep slope. It is already crowded with trees, so I pull willow oaks without a second thought (many in the neighborhood) red oaks go away too, white oaks I cut back or pull, but with some ambivalence.
A couple other things I've planted or encouraged have proliferated too much. In particular, the blue heart-leaved aster (the very last thing to bloom each year), dark foliaged somethings (agastache?), and goldenrods proliferate in wide sweeps. I hit on cutting them back a few years ago, just trip them down and give other things a chance to thrive among them. Allows ambivalence. The asters for sure branch out and bloom - I'm not so sure about the goldenrods but I don't mind.
Eventually I will need to make more choices but for now I've done some OK and worthwhile cleanup.
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