What are weeds in your garden?

Viola Odorata

The most important to know is, that -objectively seen- weeds don not exist at all. Because they are all plants anyway. Actually it is a very subjective view on a certain location where certain plants are not welcome in the view of some one, for exempel a farmer, a florist or a gardenista.

All the plants you can buy in a garden center are found one day long ago somewhere in the world and brought to Europe. They were collected at first, afterwards they tried to breed them to get stronger, bigger or more colored plants in flowering and leafs. Some plants came from warm countries and never got used to the cold in northers Europe. Now they are sold as summer plants for one year or for your greenhouse 😊

The definition of weeds for me are plants who appear growing of other plants, or are killing other plants in my garden. My biggest enemies are Sevenleaf (Umbelliferae) and an invading grass called (Elytrigia). They invade by making underground roots as far as possible, special into the roots of other plants, so it is difficult to take them away. But when they take over, they will kill all your other plants. So I spent a lot of time digging them out. 

Today I'm living in Småland Sweden since 2016 and I want to create a natural garden on the countryside. A little like Piet Oudolf, a very famous dutch garden designer abroad. With a wink of course. Not totally natural and wild or formal but something in between. Something from nature and something from me. Colorful all year, easy to maintain.

It takes time and a lot of money before I realize this beautiful garden with one can visit for fun.
That's why I''m very tolerant for plants coming up spontaneously (because they grow very well on this location) and nice to see as well without being aggressive. Like wild daisies, combines, violets, forget me not, forest anemones and honeysuckle.

forget me not

How to recognize weeds in your garden?

You can learn by looking to small plants and the way they grow as often as possible while maintaining your garden by hand. You will only learn bij trial and error. It takes time of course, but it also brings a lot. Your garden, which you are growing yourself is a gift. With some time and attention it will pay you back with a lot of joy and relaxation. It shows you the natural life, the seasons of the year and how to handle real life. Today i heard a very good quote: to take care of a plant is to take care of yourself 😍

Corona brown in the green garden

Everything you give attention is growing. So its up to you, your choice...

My advice? Go out and get some energy. Go out in your garden and pay attention to the small things you see... See the plants changing, coming out. Starting up for a new season. You will see things you have never seen before, all though they were there. Green is the new energy (as I said before see: green is the new energy).
You will be out of your head after half an hour, having no more worries for a while. Losing the feelings of fear. It works for me. Sometimes a go out with a head full of problems about future. But I know also, I can not influence it right now, maybe later I can. For now a try to be as mindful as possible. On this moment we can not (travel for) work. So we stay at home. We only can wait and see for some weeks or months.



That's why we started gardening fulltime. Every day. It gives a lot of satisfaction.
It's good to see nature is going on as if nothing special has happened. The spring is coming now in Sweden. We see the plants growing. The bulbs we planted last autumn. We see the birds we have never seen before. At the same time we try to create a new garden, our garden. When we go inside, a little tired, feeling the hard physical work in your body. We like to see the results of the work of today. Last weeks the weather has been wonderful, really sunny days. When you are outside whole day, like we, you get a very healthy sun brown face... The so called Corona Brown look 😂




I just started to pick and celebrate each day. Thankful for the things around me right now. I'm sure, there will be better times again. Take care of each other with love where ever you are.

Big hugs from Sweden