RIP Chaos Garden
As I mentioned in the Chaos Garden post, the area was a hot mess before clearing it out in 2022. So many weeds and brush were trying to grow back, last year the boyfriend and I set out to get the area to where it could be mowed. That meant walking the area and picking up rocks and other debris that had been tossed there by the previous homeowner. As of today, about 80% of the area can be mowed. There are still a few areas we need to work on.
Anyway, last October when I ‘started’ the chaos garden, my intention was to have stuff in an area that would be more difficult to mow anyway. Last week, as my mom and I were getting ready to head to our favorite garden center, the boyfriend decided to do some weed-eating. I wanted to make sure he didn’t weed-eat my plants (which I had marked with white tags). He nixed the whole ‘chaos garden’ idea and said I could not expand to this area. He pointed out all the weeds and vines that were growing up and around the plants I’d pointed out to him and said it was silly to plant stuff here with all the crap (weeds) out there. The whole idea was to keep things cut back in the area to make it easier to maintain. I promised I’d dig the plants up the next day, even it it was raining, since he threatened to weed-eat them.
The ride to the garden center is a little over an hour, and I probably fumed about half the way. I mean, most of the plants were against the brush/tree line anyway. But, I knew he was right. Seeing the area fill in this summer, I knew it would be a lost cause. So, the next day, I dug up all the plants I had planted back in October (thankfully the rain held off). I wish I had taken a ‘before I dug them up’ picture. When I planted the stuff back in October, it was a nice, neat-looking area.
Two of the plants that were close to the big tree trunk were almost invisible from the weeds currently growing in the area. This was after I had dug up the plants.
Mimosa trees, muscadine vines, briars, blackberry vines, and poison ivy – to name the biggest culprits. Not to mention the oak tree is putting out a new sucker. While I’m sad I don’t get to have this area to plant some of my bigger-growing shrubs and plants, this is turning into a hot mess that I know I will not maintain – probably cannot maintain without killing the plants I had planted.
I did leave 2 plants behind. The bee balm since it’s next to a tree stump I can’t mow over.
And the ‘Silver King’ artemisia, because honestly I have nowhere else to plant it. I don’t want to put it anywhere else since it spreads by rhizomes.
I am going to work on clearing more of the top corner (it’s on a slope). I do want to work around and save the mountain mint, but there’s a dang beautyberry bush growing over it. I don’t mind having the beautyberry bush (there’s one to the right of the mountain mint/beautyberry combo), but I would like to see the mountain mint thrive a little more here. These plants were already here.
I’ve relocated all but 3 of the plants I dug up. Two will stay in pots, and I’m not sure where I will put the baptisia, so it’s in a pot for now. In hindsight, I am glad to have one less area that needs meticulous maintenance. I am going to work on cleaning up some debris to make sure there is nothing I shouldn’t mow over and just mow most of this area this summer. Since there are still technically plants in this area, it’s not truly dead, but I won’t be adding anything else to the chaos garden.
