Wednesday Vignette: The Price of Inattention

Back in April, in a Tell the Truth post, I included photos of the clover (Trifolium repens) overtaking the flagstone pathway in my front garden.  I justified leaving it alone based on the arguments that clover fixes nitrogen in the soil; its dense foliage prevents the raccoons from digging; the bees like it; and the flowers are pretty.

I also said that, when our long-awaited remodel started, the clover would get trampled down anyway.  What I failed to consider was how far it could spread, especially as we continued to get rain into May and as the date for our remodel got pushed out time and again.  It spread last year too but not to the extent it has this year.

Not only can you not see much of the path here, you can barely make out the Artemisia versicolor 'Seafoam' (the silver gray foliage), Cordyline 'Renegade' (burgundy foliage), or Phormium 'Tom Thumb'.  The clover is also encroaching on the surrounding Leucadendrons, hellebores and other plants on the left.

Yesterday morning, before the temperature climbed into the 90s on the second day of our first heatwave of the summer season, I spent a good hour cutting back the area immediately surrounding the flagstone path.  (I need to buy a string trimmer.)

You can see most of the flagstones again and I cleared much of the clover choking out the Artemisia

but the clover's steady march into the beds on either side of the flagstone path still needs to be curtailed

Lesson learned.  In addition to cutting back "weeds" like Erigeron karvinskianus (aka Santa Barbara daisy) and Centranthus ruber (aka Jupiter's beard), I should be cutting back the clover in late spring.  Hopefully, next year I won't allow myself to get distracted.

This post owes credit to both Alison of Bonnie Lassie, who spearheaded the idea of "Tell the Truth Tuesday," and Anna of Flutter & Hum, who hosts Wednesday Vignette.


All material © 2012-2019 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

My favorite plant this week is another weed

I could have presented Echeveria 'Afterglow' as my favorite plant this week instead of as the focus of my Wordless Wednesday post but the Echeveria lost out to another plant that I've been watching for the past few weeks, Trifolium repens, also known as white clover.

Yes, I know it's often thought of as a weed but it isn't common to my eyes - I can't remember seeing it pop up in any of my gardens.  Unlike the weed I featured as a favorite plant last year, Hibiscus trionum*, I didn't plant the clover.  My guess is that seeds hitchhiked in with the additional topsoil we brought in last year after digging out our front lawn and that our recent rains caused these seeds to sprout.

I was struck by its pretty leaves before the flowers appeared (even though I was unsuccessful in discovering a four-leaved clover within either of the 2 clumps growing along the path).

The bees, already spending time feeding happily on the flowering thyme and geranium in the front garden, also seem pleased with the clover, even though they defied my efforts to get a photo of them on the clover this morning.

Bee on Geranium x cantabrigiense 'Biokovo'

Bee absorbed by Thymus serphyllum 'Minus'

According to my western garden guide, the clover needs regular water so I don't expect it'll survive our long, dry summer.  It therefore seemed appropriate to acknowledge its presence in my garden, however brief that may be.  After all, it's helping my garden by drawing nitrogen from the air and fixing it in the soil.  It may not be the most exciting plant I've proposed as a favorite but I appreciate the common members of the plant community as much as the exotic ones.

Loree of danger garden features a favorite plant wrap-up on the last Friday of each month.  You can see her May summary here.

*Contrary to the dire predictions posted on-line concerning Hibiscus trionum, it hasn't proven at all invasive in my climate.


All material © 2012-2015 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party