Singing in the rain

I’m sure we are all glad to see the back of August and the end of a fairly disappointing Summer, yet again. Rather than our athletes breaking Olympic records in China, the very wet weather scooped up all the prizes instead. Everyone seemed to suffer; from the farmers and festival organisers to the tourist attractions and my tall hardy perennials. So, what can we expect in September? Hopefully there’ll be a good long spell of dry weather now the schools are back, which often happens, especially once the shorts and skimpy t-shirts are neatly stored away. One thing’s for sure, the weeds are going to get bigger and even more annoying.

Massive Dandelions, protruding through the Geraniums and clumps of Rose Bay Willow, tall enough to pass as a proper plant to the unsuspecting newcomer. The Daisies, that I genuinely love scattered in my lawn, are by now well established in the shrubbery and pretty tough to remove, as is the creeping Buttercup, living up to its name rampantly in every direction. Next up the couch grass, which by now has turned half of the flower bed into a quite presentable lawn. Not surprisingly the maintenance man complains about the extra work he and his ride-on are expected to do. To be honest at this stage, my neighbour might even stop and admire the new wild flower garden or more likely, recommend their all-time favourite weed killer.

My biggest garden curse is Ground Elder, it knits itself so tightly together underground that the busy ‘Nanas at Shreddies’ would be very jealous. Lastly, I can’t ignore that folklore pairing the evil Nettle and the apparently caring Dock. Remember as a child being falsely led to believe, albeit in a very compassionate way, that one gently relieves the dreaded sting from the other and that they are somehow connected. It is now, obviously, pure psychology and the latter only more of the myth. Although I suspect there is a kind of weed brotherhood, because in my garden they’re like an invading army, cleverly camouflaged and specifically skilled for our soggy conditions.

However, all those pesky weeds may have been ‘Singing in the Rain…’ but now that the autumn sun is shining we can have that ‘……glorious feeling I’m happy again’ by deploying our very own seek and destroy manoeuvres. Joyfully piling them high in the wheelbarrow to be unceremoniously carted away forever!

Written September 2008