Time to Cut Back
Good god at the weeds. In my city garden, I compromised; broke down and used some chemicals. But on the lily farm, for two years now, the crinum lily fields have been organic. I just can’t taint the purity of my lilies.
Really, I can’t stand the thought of the toxins settling in the dirt, or that someone (me) would breath them in or the bees would vacuum them up. So I thought and thought. The only answer seemed to be: pull those weeds.
No one was happy at the enormous task. And, I am really not that kind of thinker. Did I say, the only answer?
That sort of thinking makes me crazy in life. I am a ‘more than one way to skin the cat’ kind of guy. I could cut them with a pocketknife. Vinegar? Borrow some goats? Sleep on it. Drempt a lovely dream of floating high above the field of pink lilies, warm and floaty, naked and not afraid, a magic carpet ride over a fragrant field in warming sun. I love solving problems in dream.
You can cut back all sorts of things now; in any perennial border. With summer heat and rain, things will grow and look great again by fall. Especially if you follow up by a summer topping of great compost and manure.
Crinum field cut!
Soon enough it’ll look like this again.