Generally, if you get something wrong in the garden the solution is easy: dig it up, move it and start again. However, there are a few plant mistakes that are somewhat harder to put right.
These are the thugs of the plant world, the things that run amok through borders and defy all attempts to remove them. Often, they grow from just a tiny piece so digging them up can make the problem worse.
My garden has more than a few – some I inherited and some errors that I’ve made. They are easy to forget over winter but, as things start shooting in spring, it’s impossible to ignore them.
A pretty nightmare
Top of my list of villains is Saponaria officinalis or soapwort. It has pale pink flowers that appear in late summer, seems impervious to slugs or snails – always a bonus in my garden – and copes with my dry, sandy soil. On paper, it sounds perfect.
In fact, it copes rather too well with the conditions. One plant has spread throughout my main flower border and even out into the lawn. Definitely one of my plant mistakes.
Forced to call in professional help with the garden last autumn (you can read about it here), I decided to use it as a chance to clear the bed and get rid of the soapwort. It hasn’t worked. I left the border empty over winter and planned to plant it up this spring but shoots of my foe are already appearing.
The only solution seems to be to keep digging it up as it appears. So, this year the border will be used for annuals and the salvaged perennials will spend the summer in their holding bed in the kitchen garden.
Running wild
My second big mistake was planting solidago – the exact variety is long forgotten. This is another ‘runner’ and has spread itself liberally through the main shrub border.
The lost of several shrubs last year gave me the opportunity to tackle the solidago problem but, again, it’s not all gone. Luckily, it’s easily dug up and is something I will keep tackling.
The wrong sort of bells
A couple of my plant mistakes were things I inherited with the garden. Chief among these are the bluebells – not the beautiful English variety but their thuggish cousin the Spanish bluebell.
These are everywhere in my garden and almost impossible to remove. So many times I have dug down a long way, gently pulled on the plant and come up with a handful of leaves, the bulbs still somewhere halfway to Australia.
Tackling them just before they come into flower gives more of a fighting chance as the bulbs drop further down once the flowers open. Mostly I’m resigned to their presence, enjoy the colour while they’re in flower and cut them back quickly before they have the chance to seed.
A pet hate
Everyone has a plant that they just don’t like and with me it’s hypericum. There’s something about the slightly waxy yellow flowers that reminds me of the sort of thing the Victorians displayed under glass domes.
I’ve been trying to get rid of it from the front garden since we moved in – nearly 25 years ago – and have lost count of the number of times it has been dug out. It’s still there and seems likely to be resident longer than us. I wonder whether the previous owner regretted planting it?
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I have a few of these thugs too, some of which I planted in ignorance! Most came from my mum with the ‘recommendation’ that they were good doers! The worst culprits have benn Crocosmia, Lysimachia ‘Firecracker’ and Solidago. I now treat my mum’s plant suggestions with a large degree of caution!!
I was always wary of my dad’s ‘gifts’. Often ‘good doers’ do just that bit too well!
Ha yes Lysimachia ‘firecracker’ is a permanent resident – hey does pull out easily!
Better than my bluebells then!
I’m so pleased I stumbled across this, I was about to plant soapwort in the garden, had a nice little spot for it. Thanks for saving me!
Now the challenge of where to put some soapwort as if still love to have a go at using it for hand wash.
I’m still digging it out of the border. Not sure I’ll ever be rid of it. Such a shame it’s a thug because it’s very pretty and flowers during that gap between summer and autumn blooms. I wonder if you could grow it in a container?
Oh my, soapwort is one of my garden enemies and it is all my fault. Silly stuff just does not go away even after decades of digging it out. And I too inherited Spanish bluebells, the thugs. They should come with warnings – I saw soapworts plants for sale and really wanted to warn anyone considering it.
One thing I planted but was warned about was sweet woodruff. The woman I bought it from.told me it needed to be in a restricted area or it would be everywhere. I took her advice and it has been very well behaved in its own space. Golden feverfew was bought decades ago and I find it popping up all over, but it is very easy to control. I find it rather jolly (in the right place!) but easy to remove if unwanted
I’ve heard the same about sweet woodruff and haven’t dared plant it. I too have golden feverfew – it self-seeds everywhere. As you say, easy to pull up, or move, and that zingy green in spring is so good.
I have Sweet Woodruff. It does spread and spread, but very easy to just pull out of where you don’t want it. I just let it do its thing and when it gets to the woodchip path, or its somewhere I want to plant something just cut it back, dig it out, pull it up. Could be a bit of a nuisance, but its one of the more tolerable thugs I think.
It’s something I’ve wondered about growing for a while as it’s useful for those shady spots that nothing else likes.
Two pet hates for my sandy soil, Japanese anemone, doesn’t flower well,impossible to irradiate.Also very pretty rockery campanula, inherited but overpowers everything else!!!!!!
My Japanese anemones refuse to stay in the border and will grow only in the adjacent gravel. Every time I move them, they march back out again.
Yup, soapwort- planted about 25 years ago and STILL digging the stuff out, lol.
I also have Sweet Woodruff, which can go mad but I was advised by the seller to put it in a restrained area and its a lovely ground cover that I harvest for drying (sweet scent). But I could see that wanting World Domination given the chance.
Soapwort – still a nightmare here. I had wondered about sweet woodruff as it’s good for tricky spots but maybe not.