When Mother Nature gives you Lemons, make Lemonade!

Last year when I started thinking of where the vegetable garden might grow, I noticed there were lots of Queen Anne’s lace in the spot I had picked out. So beautiful. So delicate. So picturesque.  Fortunately, a sharp gardener called Robert Woods let me know that I was looking at Goutweed. Apparently it has a reputation among gardeners.

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What innocent bloom can this be?

“Goutweed is a majorly rhizomatic plant, meaning that even the smallest piece of root will sprout into a new plant, which will in turn send out new rhizomes to once again invade the entire garden space.”

Goutweed is one of the earliest plants to emerge in the spring.

“Goutweed is one of the two most beautiful and most invasive weeds in the garden. You should be forced to sign a waiver when you buy it releasing the nursery from any responsibility for losing your mind trying to get rid of it. It’s lovely looking in the shade but a plant that should be put in a cement lined pot and then planted, surrounded by more cement.”

I admit that I was thoroughly intimidated and I choose a different spot for the vegetables..250 feet away! At the same time, I figured it was futile to try and dig out all the runner roots and rhisomes that come with this determined plant. Instead of fighting it, I reasoned that I could shape it.

The green looks so lush and thick.

I thought that I would embrace the stamina and ground cover quality of goutweed and shape it with the lawn mower!

The green of the goutweed contrasted well with the apple blossoms. When they fell, the white goutweed flowers bloomed. Mother nature is quite the artist!

Currently, the Goutweed flowers are in bloom and I feel like I’m living in a postcard.

The bucolic look of Goutweed just before it forms a million or so seeds.

I played around with one of my Goutweed photos in Adobe Photoshop and had a good time altering the colours. I’m no William Morris, but I did think of the Arts and Crafts art movement at the end of the 19th century and their love of the patterns in nature.

I continued altering my photograph and finally  made a little poster to honour the beauty of Goutweed everywhere.

I altered one of my photos using Adobe Photoshop to make a poster.

So while I have saved the goutweed and am trying to contain it,  I didn’t get a vegetable garden without challenges either. It seems I planted it in a former couch grass field.

“This species can become a pernicious weed, spreading rapidly by underground rhizomes and quickly forming a dense mat of roots in the soil that strangles other plant growth. Even the smallest fragment of root is capable of regenerating into a new plant, thus making it exceedingly difficult to get rid of. A good thick mulch through which nothing can grow, can be applied to the area, though it will need to be left in place for at least two growing seasons to be fully effective.”

At least the butterflies and finches like to feast on it.