Let The DeadHeading Begin

I'm not having much luck with the Fancy Ladies Guild convincing them that in general, deadheading has no redeeming horticultural value, that a lazier approach holds kinds of beauty they are missing out on.

So when they turn to brown, off with their heads.

Joe Pye will never suffer such a fate.

Or you could just not do it all.

Just mow it down twice a year and be done with it.

This is a baby wild flower meadow planted by the homeowner where I had planted a whole new landscape around the house.

I give him a B for his prep and seed sowing work. For a novice homeowner that is miraculously good. Then it came up and started blooming and he crapped out.

I stepped in to take care of the baby meadow before it became a highly visible failed experiment. And because I wanted to.

It lives in a no mans land between the golf course and houses that I believe is at a minimum a sewer line right of way. For years this land has been a hillside display of varying mowing regimens.

One third of it is now a baby wild flower meadow.

Step number one: Mow a system of pathways regularly and invite people in. Once they enter, the newness will force their thinking to change. Then pick a weed or two and let the editing begin.