How to protect the garden from boys, dogs and weeds?
7 June 2007
We got home from our holiday and the garden has bloomed quite literally. This has to be mostly due to the boys and dog being away. The boys use the grass as their football pitch which is fine, but now that we have plants I’m constantly cringing as I see the ball sailing through the air towards my new ‘babies’. We have goals posts like these that do a little to protect the poor flowers, but apart from totally banning football there is little else I can think of doing. If I do ban the footie there will be a mutiny!
The dog does what dogs do and as a result two of my plants in particular are suffering badly. The are both chamaecyparis (conifers to you and me) and are both turning brown. It seems that for both of these it may be too late, but I can’t bring myself to give up them just yet. I will be purchasing some spray to try and deter him from using my plants as his toilet.
The next problem is the grass. The garden really has beeen neglected and the grass is in a bit of a mess. This isn’t down to the use as a pitch it is the weeds. I have some clover, broad leaf weeds as I believe they are called and dandelions, so I need to cut out the weeds with a tool I have learned is called a weed grubber or a weeder like here. The alternative is to apply weedkiller which will be needed to treat the clover anyway. I imagine that once the weeds are eliminated I’ll find there’s not much grass left and a bit of reseeding will be required.
Meanwhile the bedding plants, lobelia, petunia and snap dragon (antirrhinum), in the pots are looking fantastic. The sweet pea are growing at a rapid rate each day too.
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