This post is another example of a situation where “garden management” left undone has become a huge asset.
Mind you, I am not advocating for this sort of thing. But for a few years, I had unfortunate surgeries that kept me from doing just about anything in the garden–certainly anything as major as pruning large hibiscus syriacus shrubs after they bloom and before they go to seed, as should be done.
And so they self sowed everywhere. As with all weedy plants, I am still dealing with that unfortunate problem.
But in this one instance, the hibiscus actually solved a problem that I had been battling for 20 years in this garden.
This great wall of hibiscus hedge now keeps my neighbor’s riding mower from throwing all sorts of grass and weed seeds into this garden.
I even lost a viburnum to pesticide drift from their property–because of course we don’t spray at all. So there will be no more of that. If anything, some of the great wall of hibiscus might get hit with their toxins–but there’s plenty more where that came from!
Now I just need to keep the “mother plants” pruned after flowering or it will become one great garden of hibiscus!
Gardendaze 