I'm turning over a new leaf here at Tiger Gardens, so to speak. In an effort to reduce maintenance and plan for the long term longevity of my garden I have embarked upon a quest to remove invasives from my garden, starting with the burning bush (Euonymous alata). It really is a beautiful shrub and I've always enjoyed it in the garden but after finding hundreds of tiny seedlings under the bush I decided weeding out those seedlings every year was not for long term solution for me.
Can you blame me? Just look at this mess! I took action immediately and turned my old burning bush into a bowling ball shrub! Like the color? Green matches everything:)
The burning bush is no more, now we have a 'Bowling Ball' sculpture in the garden. In front of the location of where the burning bush used to be I have planted a cleyera. Cleyera are evergreen shrubs that grow large in a short period of time. I have a whole row of these in this location so as to provide a buffer between the road and my garden. It will take some patience but the cleyera will quickly grow in and replace that invasive burning bush.Other invasives I have removed just this spring include: Common nandina (too many seedlings), golden euonymous (spreads by runners), vinca (spreads by runners), sweet autumn clematis (seedlings and difficulty in cutting away the old vine), and the bananas. I just can't see leaving these prolific and rampant plants in the garden for me to have to weed and prune in order to maintain order here. One day I might not be here to maintain the order then the title of this blog might be "In the Garden Run Amok" and I can't have that. Mainly though I wanted to reduce my maintenance and work in the garden so the invasives had to get....
out of the garden....
Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team,
In the Garden
I would of put the burning bush in the lawn and mowed the seedling. Or would that not work?
ReplyDeleteAny advise on cutting back a tuber begonia? The yellow/pink one I have in a pot is leaning and I want it outside. Will it do good growing back?
We don't have a burning bush on our property, but I've always admired them. Had no idea re. the problem with seedlings. I understand your efforts to reduce maintenance and work in the garden, but I'd sure hate to get rid of that beautiful bush....
ReplyDeleteI love the bowling ball solution! (We have 4 bowling balls in various positions around our yard!)
I didn't realize the Burning Bush was such a problem. I remember from childhood how pretty it was in the Fall as we had one in the back yard.
ReplyDeleteLove that bowling ball. Can't seem to get my hands on any. Things are different here.
Hope Skeeter & family are doing alright.
You gotta do what you gotta do. Too bad you don't have an area where you could plant these and let them run wild...bowling ball is cool.
ReplyDeleteDawn, No bushes or trees in the lawn if I can help it. I hate to mow around them:) I cut my begonias back and they do grow in. Cut smartly.
ReplyDeleteRebecca, I really really loved this shrub but geez those seedlings. Whew! I just can't-make that won't weed them out. Too much work when there are better alternatives. Gotta love those bowling balls!
Lola, Go to your local bowling alley and see if they will give you their old and damaged ones. I bet they'd be happy to have them off their hands. Burning bushes are very pretty.
Darla, There are so many good alternatives that putting one elsewhere is not worth it. But thanks for the suggestion.
Tina I know what you are talking about. We have such problems with our yaupons...they produce little plants everywhere (under their parent plant) The problem is that the yaupons are also very pretty in the front flower bed! What to do!
ReplyDeleteHave a great weekend!
Good for you! I wish that I had some invasive plants. My soil is so rocky that nothing becomes invasive around here, except bermuda grass! Carla
ReplyDeleteGood idea Tina - I'm thinking of getting rid of Lychnis coronaria as it is just popping up everywhere! Love the way you cut the tree to hold the bowling ball.
ReplyDeleteTina, you have an uncanny knack for posting information just at the right time for me! I was working in my little roadside garden in front of my 3 very large burning bushes yesterday and noticed all these little seedlings. I wondered what they might be--could the zinnias have reseeded themselves? I enlarged your photo of the BB seedlings, and sure enough, that's what they are. As soon as it dries out here, I'll be back out there pulling them all out!
ReplyDeleteI like your bowling ball shrub--you won't have to worry about it spreading, and it looks to be very low-maintenance:) I think you may have started a trend:)
Removing the burning bush was probably a god move. I've been encouraging my parents to do the same with a few of theirs. I do like them but they have a tendency to escape captivity! I was considering a couple cleyera for our front garden area - nice shiny foliage with a hint of color.
ReplyDeleteLinda, That prettiness is a good thing for these invasives or they'd be long extinct. You have a great weekend too! I'll be a plant swap and meeting with Dave-a garden weekend for sure.
ReplyDeleteCarla, Gotta hate that Bermuda grass. It is most adaptable for sure.
Linda, Thanks! At first I thought perhaps a birdhouse, but I could not make it work. The bowling ball fits perfect and is quite a statement. Makes the trunk more interesting I think. I like lychnis. It never spreads itself around here. Funny how things are pests in some spots and not others.
Rose, That is what those things are for sure. The burning bushes are very prolific and had a good year. Birds eat those little red things in the fall and spread them around in the woods. Maybe not as many as under the bush but still a lot. Now that you mention it they do look kind of like zinnia seedlings-if only!
Dave, They'd be smart to replace the burning bush with something like 'Brilliantissima' chokecherry. It rivals alata according to Dirr. If I had more sun I'd be growing it. As it was mine is doing better in my daughter's garden due to having a bit more sun. Nonetheless, my small chokecherry flowered wonderfully each year. See ya tomorrow! I have to go dig some more stuff....before the rain.
I've never found sweet autumn clematis to seed much. In fact, I was very excited to find one seedling near my fathers huge vine. I dug it carefully and am now babying it in a pot till I have the area perfect to plant it. Must be the difference in climate that makes things more prolific in the south.
ReplyDeleteI've noticed things seed more freely at my Dads. He has sandy loam soil while have pretty heavy clay.
Marnie
Good plan Tina! I am taking out the nandina, too. If I spent everyday for the rest of my gardening life I could barely keep ahead of the bird deposited honeysuckle, Euonymous alta and fortunai. But we soldier on! gail
ReplyDeleteI agree with your strategy! Cleyera is a nice shrub. I have one beside the front willow. The deer sampled it in the winter when it was young, but now leave it alone.
ReplyDeleteThe Burning Bush is a pretty one, but I had read it was invasive. I think it sounds like a really smart idea to get rid of the invasives. Gardening is enough work to add invasive plants to maintain on top of it.
ReplyDeleteConfession time. When you said 'look at this mess', I saw a beautiful arrangement of flowers. :-) It goes to show.
ReplyDelete'In the Garden Run Amok'. Here I am, smiling. :-)
Greetings from London.
Oh darn, I wish I were still there as I would have carted it back to Maine with me. Always wanted one or 2.
ReplyDeleteI've never seen my burning bushes produce seedlings. It's interesting what will overtake a space in one gardening zone but not in another. Somedays, I wonder why a planted forsythia, but I just make sure to attack it once in a while to get those suckers underneath. Nice bowling ball sculpture!
ReplyDeleteIt's a good idea to plan for less maintenance in the garden. That's what I've been trying to do too, replacing perennials with shrubs as the perennials die out.
ReplyDeleteI wish I had your resolve, to remove some plants once and for all - I can't get myself to remove them entirely. I have about 5 large burning bushes, and WISH I had seedlings - I keep looking, but have only found a couple of them. It's interesting that I don't get lots of seedlings, as others report. On the flip side, though, the rapid growth has taken me by surprise, and I'll need to move some plants around them if I plan to keep them in their current locations.
ReplyDeleteGood for you, I need to take a page from your book & make my life a bit easier in the garden. :)
ReplyDeleteBye bye burning bush :( I have two Cleyera and love them!
ReplyDeleteLola, I will be back soon. Just taking some time off to tend to tons of stuff missed around here the past 3 weeks...
ReplyDeletetina
ReplyDeleteAfter you, I should embark on a quest to defeat the WEED-monster at once!
Hi Skeeter -missing you girl!!!! Hope all is well -Ciao
ReplyDeleteGood to hear from you Skeeter. Have been wondering how your parents are doing. Missed ya girl.
ReplyDeleteI had a wonderful visit with Jean & David. They are wonderful people. They stopped by my home while the were in Fl.
Yeah, you know us, we talked a mile a minute.
Skeeter I am so glad to see you back on here as Tina told me you were helping your parents but I have not got caught up yet so if she posted on it, I have not read it yet. We had a devil of a time getting out of there as Riverside was closed down but we finally made it. You have had a rough time but your friends and parents had a good trooper to help out. Hope things will settle down for you now. My prayers are with all of you. As a mother, I do not think anything in the world could be worse than losing a child. Enough said.
ReplyDeleteTo all the ladies I met, it could not have been any better and as soon as I get caught up some here I will write you all. A month away is not easy getting caught up and it is also time to get the garden in.
Good luck with your eradication efforts. I have a few invasives, but fortunately they are perennials or annuals and not woodies.
ReplyDeleteHey Skeeter!
ReplyDeleteHappy to hear from you! I hope things are progressing without a hitch, (ha!) construction and hitch go hand and hand! Best wishes to your parents.
Hi Tina, it looks great as a garden ornament!
ReplyDeleteWe have a burning bush hedge, and three in the foundation landscape. Keeping them pruned is a pain, but has helped prevent their spread. It takes a lot of vigilance too, spotting and removing all the silver maple and buckthorn seedlings.
If I had my way, the burning bushes would come out and be replaced by lower-maintenance, noninvasive shrubs.
Your burning bush will probably resprout - we had our tree service cut the ones in our foundation landscape almost to the ground, and they have all resprouted and are flourishing, (I boo, but reducing their size was the best compromise I could negotiate, while hoping the severe pruning would kill them.)
i don't know what a burning bush is, but it looks like you succeeded getting rid of unwanted invaders. Great work!
ReplyDeleteHi Tina, Good for you! I've gotten rid of some barberries, which I loved, but which are invasive here... I have one huge and one tiny burning bush... I notice they're starting to be considered invasive here, but mine never puts off any seedlings, and its a good block from the neighbor's driveway, so I'm leaving it. It is good to focus on lower maintenance plants and those that won't take over local wild areas. :)
ReplyDeleteI understand what you mean about getting rid of invasive plants. when I started this garden, 3 years ago, I vowed never to grow anything that was invasive and hard to remove. However, a friend gave me several clumps of London Pride, one piece had a small piece of campanula growing in it that try has I might I cannot weed out. After my month away I see it is trying to take over my primula bed. I'm going to dig it and all the London Pride up and burn it.
ReplyDeleteInteresting that your invasive plants are ones that we pay good money here in the UK for!! I hope your hard work pays off
ReplyDeleteWhen the heat gets unbearable here, I begin to look at what might be best done away with and more nice evergreens planted. Then I notice the Virginia creeper taking over the evergreens and I start making other plans....
ReplyDeleteI may never get it right, but the bulldozer stands at the ready.
If I learned on other gardeners' mistakes...my garden life would be easier. Currently, I fight vinca. I lost my battle with crocosmia already.
ReplyDeleteIsn't it interesting how each area of the country has it's nasties? I REALLY wanted Virginia creeper but now I don't after what I read.
ReplyDeleteGood luck!
I like your sculpture.
Hi Everyone! Thanks for dropping by. I've been out all day and am exhausted but will be by to talk with you all as soon as I am rested.
ReplyDeleteMom, Don't worry about catching up. I think you just did with everyone!
Skeeter, Hey girl-long day! Got your message just have been out. Will reply later.
Didn't realize burning bush was invasive. I know what you mean though...got too many invasive vines...just too much work.
ReplyDeleteGood for you... getting rid of plants that just aren't nice players in your garden is a good thing. Love the green bowling ball!
ReplyDeleteHi Tina,
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in the garden today, I was hungry, and grabbed a few kale leaves and blooms to munch on. While doing that, I remembered you had asked how I eat them. I'm pretty sure I didn't get back to you. I sometimes eat torn up kale as a salad, and other times add it to lettuce. I love it with Brianna's blue cheese or poppy seed salad dressing. They are more expensive than other salad dressings, but they have healthier oils in them. I also like their other kinds. I also sometimes tear some kale into soups I am making. I should try cooking them like spinach to see how they taste. I enjoy kale raw so much, that I don't cook it often. Let me know if you find a way to fix it that you like.
Speaking of burning bushes, my next door neighbor has one that has been poking through the fence in my veggie garden more and more each year. She's hired someone to prune it, but I've told her I don't mind trimming the branches that come into my garden. I kind of feel bad, because I am cutting more and more on it over time. I don't want to let it poke through much, because it looks like it wants quite a bit of space.
Oh, and speaking of bowling balls, the neighbor across the street has a whole bunch of them here and there in her yard. Yours looks quite spiffy on the branches of the no more burning bush.
ReplyDeleteI guess sometimes you've got to be hard on yourself and your plants and accept that certain things aren't mean for you. You're wise and learned unlike me, who still believes that he can grow strawberries from seeds and other exotics that don't belong here, but I guess it's my youth that's doing it. May be I'll become wise eventually, may be...
ReplyDelete