Hillside Update

Last year, I started my wildflower hillside which, what I believed, was an incredible success. This year, it looks completely different and I think it may have taken a step backwards. It started out beautifully in the spring, all blues and purples and then the pink coneflowers began to bloom. However, the weed situation is appalling and I think the crown vetch is winning the battle for space. One thing I did notice is that last year I had quite a few thistles that I pulled out and I have not seen any of those this year so maybe I did win that war. Now the coneflowers are fading and I am not seeing the black-eyed susans blooming like I did last year.

I'm not sure why it doesn't look as good as it did last year, but I have a couple thoughts. One is that it has rained so much this summer and most of these plants are considered "drought tolerant." Does that mean they don't like a lot of rain or that they are able to survive with our without rain? I do note though that the rain beats them down and so they are on their side rather than standing up straight and they don't seem able to get back up. Their blooms seem way to heavy for their stems so they just can't get themselves picked up again.

Another reason could be that I have just not spent the time out there like I did last year. This is a very different year from last year and that was where I found my solace with everything that was happening in my life. The need for that has diminished. It's hot, it's humid and lots of rain seems to bring lots of mosquitoes and they nearly chase me back inside as soon as I get out there. With all the rain, things pull up easily, but everything is all mixed together so it's hard to always pull what I don't want. The roots are far away from where I see the plant and all too often I don't get to the root. I would like to see it from underneath, I think it would be a massive network of roots like subway tracks.

Clearly this continues to be a project. I may be too late, but this fall when things have died back a bit (especially the mosquitoes), I hope to spend more time out there pulling those plants that aren't what I want to see out there. Then next spring before it gets hot that's where I will be hopefully able to recognize which plants stay and which ones have to go. And so it continues.