Hey everyone! The plant area near my waterfall has really become a mess. There are two lily planters down there and everything is intermixed with parrots feather. There are a bunch of flower buds on the lily, so I would sort of hate to chop them down. But in an effort to get that area looking less messy, I am tempted to whack everything down and let it start over. There are tons of roots hanging down from the parrots feather and all the oak tree doodles (and now the little Sputnik shaped doodle holders) have fallen in and collected in the roots. The tannins from the debris are making the water dark. It kind of seems like cutting it back would be the most efficient thing to do. I didn't cut them back in the winter because everything was still growing - and I wanted to leave some cover for the fish.
What do you think?
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OK, In my opinion, it's time to evoke the 'Rule of Ugly'. This is my one, hard & fast, gardening rule. It typically is more relevant to a land-based garden, but works for water gardens as well. What it entails is this: When you look at your garden (water or otherwise) & think "My, that's UGLY!" Get in there with your scissors, cutters or pruners & start cutting until you think "That's not ugly anymore." The plants will either grow back & look better, or they'll die (and if that is the case, did you *really* want something 'ugly' in your garden to begin with? I'm thinking not...) So, my advice is: PRUNE away!! Do what you need to in order to make your (water) garden look nice to your esthetic eye.
I just spent a couple of hours this afternoon in my pond taming bog bean, potting up a lily that had gone 'rogue', and generally making things neat enough to appeal to my sense of aesthetics, while still maintaining just enough 'messy' enough to keep the local wildlife happy. It's a balancing act.
