Heart of the Garden

What’s wrong with this picture?

Answer: Lemon balm and creeping jenny are invasive. 

It’s so pretty and green. What could possibly be wrong? Well, these are BOTH horrible invasive weeds for one thing. And I spent the last two years trying to get rid of these two jerkinators.

I was digging around in the backyard a few years ago and realized my hands smelled like lemon. I dragged them over a few different weedy things to find the cuprit. It was lemon balm! I know this area had previously been a rock garden and this must have been a sole surviving remnant of the seventies!

I uprooted a clump and planted it in the front yard to give it full sun. It exploded. And spewed it’s babies everywhere.

I took this picture thinking how successfully I tore up grass and replaced it with a hardy, pretty ground cover that I’d bought at the independent garden center. Creeping Jenny. Sounded kind of scary, but I thought I could trust the enlightened organic-minded people what with the alternative lilting music piped into their fancy schmancy store. Actually, turns out, just because you charge $10 for a sixpack of impatiens doesn’t make you better than Lowes. Creeping Jenny is a certified invasive weed. It has taken over a good portion of my front yard now. Regret!

It should have had a sign that it was FOR CONTAINERS ONLY!

The place I bought it from was recently bought out by Urban Outfitter, so lesson learned. Don’t trust anyone except real farmers and gardeners, not retailers.