woodland garden or weedy mess?

[charlie]

Over the years we have been here constant mulching has produced what can best be described as a "woodland" soil, now when I am out and about I am often next to other nurseries selling beautiful and interesting treasures for shade and woodland gardens, my problem is that native woodland plants have colonized these parts of my garden and while they do look quite attractive in the own right they grow to huge proportions swamping all but the most robust of introductions.

So how do you guys do it, keep your garden beds so clean and clear looking?
You can see what I mean with Celandine in these pics

004 by charliepridham, on Flickr

005 by charliepridham, on Flickr

But the bluebells and primroses are as bad!

[Chrisg]

My garden was totally covered in Celandine. It was everywhere, front, back in the lawn. I have pretty much decided that the entire beds and lawn are being dug up and removed. I am hoping that once the main bits are gone, a year of digging the beds to stop any growth and removing bits as I find them will solve the problem. The bluebell are not much better, so the same goes for them. My woodland (and i use that term loosely) will then be planted up using more choice plants.

But I am guessing the area I have is much smaller than the area you are dealing with.

[AndyC]

I can't help you Charlie, I don't do 'tidy'. I often find that the bits of garden I leave to their own devices end up being more attractive than the bits I've cultivated. :roll:

[Mark]

I found it easier to dig up the plant and clean it off rather than try to dig up the weeds. Once the main plant is out you can blast the whole area with weedkiller then re plant after all the weeds are dead and cleared.

It's a shame it don't work on my lawn as that is full of daisys and clover :x

[tony]

Its more a case of getting things to grow at all on the beach like soil I have here, dry shade doesn't really describe things very well and the hard water we have here makes irrigation counterproductive with alot of plants, especially as most woodland plants seem to prefer a low ph.

[AdamD]

Our house was a new-build and as a result the back garden was empty and I did not have the problem of over-exuberant natives everywhere.

That was the good news, the bad news is that there was little topsoil in places and the subsoil was compacted crap.

It's swings and roundabouts I guess.

[STEPH]

I found it easier to dig up the plant and clean it off rather than try to dig up the weeds. Once the main plant is out you can blast the whole area with weedkiller then re plant after all the weeds are dead and cleared.

It's a shame it don't work on my lawn as that is full of daisys and clover :x

Weed 'n Feed deals with that very nicely, we have a zillion dandelions to be eradicated.

[islandcassie]

Yes Steph - we always found Weed 'n Feed to be excellent, in fact if I have the weight I bring some back here where we have a clover problem.