WARNING - neglected landscaping post. If you’re like us, and haven’t had house guests in months, and have an entryway that you don’t use, some of your walkways may have gone unweeded... oops... Unfortunately, our unused entryway also happens to be our front entrance. On a positive note, when you have native plants in your gardens, many of the plants that pop up in your walkways are beneficial native plants instead of the more common weeds like crabgrass.
Interesting observation during today’s storm. We installed two gardens with many of the same plants a few years ago. We used wood mulch in the garden closest to the house at the time of installation in 2018. In the garden behind it we used salt hay. Neither garden has had a reapplication off mulch since their installation, but the plants in the garden with wood mulch (particularly the wild bergamot and showy goldenrod) are taller and a bit floppier, while the ones in the salt hay garden are shorter, stouter, and less likely to flop. My best guess is the garden with salt hay is a little drier than the garden with the wood mulch, so the plants are a little shorter and stronger. Anyone else have any thoughts on this? You can see in the video the bergamot in the foreground is blowing all around, and the flower heads are drooped over from the rain. The bergamot in the salt hay garden, visible in the back right, seems to be much stronger and less affected by the wind and rain. Also unaffected by the wind and the rain are the ruby-throated hummingbirds that have been nectaring on the bergamot flowers all morning.
