A long line of 'oopses'
Oops. The latest in a long line of 'oopses'. I've possibly made yet another BIG mistake. No need to panic - yet. I just need to think very carefully about this pretty plant. It's Goldenrod, Solidago, and in the most inhospitable garden I've ever created it is running rampant. I take full responsibility for deliberately planting it there...
Goldenrod - Solidago
Oops. This could become another Ginger Mint. I caught this sweetie just in time before it over-ran my Herb Spiral. You'd think that the word 'mint' would have alerted me to its rampant tendencies. Oh dear. There's none so blind than those who cannot see - and who love variegated plants.
Alkanet Flowers
In the Beginning...
One of my very first 'oopses' involved Alkanet. It was growing here when I arrived, and I happily transplanted pieces of it into new garden areas. But I can justify its subsequent spread because the bees feed on its little blue flowers, particularly in winter.
As for my adventures with Golden Hops - well, I just have to turn a blind eye, and pretend I didn't plant three of them to cover one moderate sized tree stump (which has since rotted away). Another example of my dodgy gardening judgement involves Creeping Charlie. He arrived as the cutest little variegated cutting. I didn't know he'd revert to being plain green and then assert his manhood by creeping all over the lawn.
Goldenrod, my latest 'oops', came from a friend's country garden, and I planted it just last year. I'd never met this perennial before, and loved its pretty yellow flowers - their flowering coincided with the blue Salvia uligosa. I do remember commenting on the somewhat 'virile' root system. Anyone reading this who knows it's the weediest weed ever should show a little kindness - please don't roll about the floor laughing!
The Disgraceful Golden Hop
But what to do? It was only one little bucketful, out of which I've released the Gardening Kraken. Oops, oops, oops. I'm inside to have lunch, a drink, and a think. Maybe confined to a huge pot or not at all?
Five Hot Hours Later...
Grr... I've just spent five hours - FIVE HOURS! digging out, with great difficulty, what started life as one little bucketful of Goldenrod. Hopefully I've got all (or most) of the roots. Oh boy. I feel I've just dodged a gardening bullet. Those roots had wrapped themselves all around the Iceberg roses, charged through the Agapanthus and the Pittosporums, and were hurtling off up the hill towards the unsuspecting Dahlias. Out of control. Oh dear, dear me. Not a moment too soon.
Pretty please...
Please, please, let this pretty mistake be laid to rest. RIP, Goldenrod.