Sierra Foothill Garden

Arrrgggghh! I did it to myself,…I planted Mexican Primrose in my front beds in my impatience for something to fill in while waiting for my evergreens and groundcovers to grow. Now, after four years, it has spread to the back garden and I have had it with the dried brown stems in the off season and the general invasion into every corner of the front garden!

Last Spring, I decided to dig it out of one side of the bed, actually sifting the soil in hopes of saving the existing desirable plants, Sages Iris, snow in summer and the groundcover Teucrium, new to me and so wonderfully fine textured.

Now you can see that the Mexican primrose has totally engulfed the evergreen juniper here.

On the other side of the bed it is popping up, the long oval brighter green, all through the lemon thyme and the Shasta daisies.

So, what to do, what to do?  The digging and sifting did not work and I can see many seedlings popping up from the soil.  They loved the five inch rain we had last week! It is drastic measures that are needed and today I dug out the good plants, potted them, and sprayed a systemic herbicide on the rest, feeling as ruthless as I ever have in the garden. Arrrrgh, I hate the idea of killing good plants, but they are no longer ‘good’ when infiltrated by primrose rootlings.

Those two pony paks, installed when I was impatient for quick results, will cause me to regularly watch for more little baby primrose plants in every season, and will continue to teach me a lesson about the patience of Nature.   All in good time.