Three Strikes… You’re Compost!

Success in horticulture is not always guaranteed. There are always a few plants that don’t live up to our expectations: they don’t flower well, they grow poorly, they have disease problems, etc. And the gardener’s reaction is often to look for a “miracle product” or another technique that will force the plant to perform well. But is this always the right solution?

Spraying environmentally harmful products over and over again is not good for the health of our planet, or even for our own health. Increasing the amount of fertilizer to make a weak plant bloom better ends up polluting our water. Pruning to control the height of an oversized plant takes time… and where do you put the pruned branches? Wouldn’t it be better to say: enough is enough?

At least, that’s the view of a laidback gardener, but I imagine even a die-hard gardener must get tired of repeating the same efforts to maintain a plant that is clearly not in the right place. And most of this “extra work” adds to the cost of gardening, too. In my opinion, the best thing to do when a plant is struggling is… to remove it and replace it with something that will thrive better.

A Few Examples

Slugs love your hostas and reduce their foliage to shreds. There are certainly products available to control slugs, but they must be reapplied every two weeks throughout the summer, which is a lot of work. These products are expensive and some are toxic to children and animals. Wouldn’t it make more sense to get rid of the hostas that slugs love so much and replace them with plants that slugs don’t eat? There are even hostas that slugs won’t touch, so finding a good replacement will be easy.

Again, your living room window is 1.2 m (4 feet) above the ground and there is a shrub in front of it whose branches are hanging over the window and blocking the view. You will need to prune it to control its growth. Wouldn’t it be simpler to remove the shrub that is too large for the location (even if it means replanting it elsewhere where its height won’t be a problem) and replace it with a naturally smaller shrub? After all, there are plenty of shrubs that will only grow to 90-120 cm (3 or 4 feet) tall, or even less.

And One Last Example

You have a beautiful perennial phlox that blooms profusely every August, but it needs to be treated with fungicide 7 to 10 times per summer to control powdery mildew, a disease that discolors its foliage. Wouldn’t it be wiser to replace this naturally disease-prone plant with another phlox that doesn’t get powdery mildew? And there are plenty of choices.

Three Chances, Then Compost

I’m not saying you should pull up a plant after just one bad season. The problem may be sporadic, and it would be sad to get rid of a plant that has failed only once. However, when a plant has the same problem year after year, why embark on a series of endless treatments? Get rid of the problem plant and replace it with a suitable one.

By eliminating demanding plants and replacing them with easy ones, gardening will become child’s play!

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Larry Hodgson has published thousands of articles and 65 books in French and English during his career. His son, Mathieu, has made it his mission to make his father’s writings accessible to the public. The text was originally published in Le Soleil on May 25, 2009.