Are these weeds or plants worth keeping?

Danger Phoenix · 15 Aug 2020 at 19:44

I've been working on the garden during the lockdown and am now getting round to sort out a flowerbed I had to clear out - I couldn't make out what was what and just mowed over the lot lol

These have grown over the last few weeks and I can't work out if they are weeds or were actually planted by the previous home owner (we bought the property 5 years ago).

Anyone able to tell me what they are and whether I should keep them?

robj20 · 15 Aug 2020 at 19:47

It's only a weed if you don't want it. See what happens then decide.

Danger Phoenix · 15 Aug 2020 at 19:57

robj20 said:
It's only a weed if you don't want it. See what happens then decide.

I've already waited to see what grew after I mowed over it... now I'm going to be putting cardboard down and mulch on top, so need to work out whether I should smother these or work around them.

bremen1874 · 15 Aug 2020 at 19:59

The app on my phone recons it's 'Dove's-foot Crane's Bill'.

Psycho Sonny · 15 Aug 2020 at 20:27

Weeds are plants.

It's just society has deemed them not to be pretty enough to live.

It's essentially plant genocide.

seven317 · 15 Aug 2020 at 21:08

It's a species of Hardy Geranium, good ground cover plant can be bought in it's various forms in all good garden centres.

Hedge · 15 Aug 2020 at 21:24

I wouldn't be too precious about anything. Just get the foundations right then grow things you know or have an interest in.

We bought a house with a very established garden and until recently I felt guilty messing with it.

I've since gutted loads out but left one half untouched for wildlife. I do like seeing frogs and hedgehogs etc cutting about.

DXP55 · 15 Aug 2020 at 21:37

if in doubt burn it out.
You never know it might turn out to be a baby Triffid

Danger Phoenix · 15 Aug 2020 at 21:57

bremen1874 said:
The app on my phone recons it's 'Dove's-foot Crane's Bill'.

seven317 said:
It's a species of Hardy Geranium, good ground cover plant can be bought in it's various forms in all good garden centres.

Are they both the same? They look different lol.

The garden was Shirley's (the person who owned the house before) passion, so I was thinking that if there were quite a few of them, they were planted intentionally. We let the garden go quite a bit though, so just wanted to make sure.

Sounds like I should keep them... makes it harder to put the cardboard and mulch down... but saves on replacement plants to cover the bare spots

DXP55 said:
if in doubt burn it out.
You never know it might turn out to be a baby Triffid

Funnily enough, my flame torch got delivered this morning. Looking forward to burning ****

kinetic747 · 16 Aug 2020 at 10:07

Second pic is definitely a hardy geranium and worth keeping. Its quite easy to divide if you want more plants elsewhere. Not sure about the first pic.

seven317 · 16 Aug 2020 at 10:11

Same genus yes. Image search Cranes Bill and you will see it's many forms, both wild and cultivated.

gort · 16 Aug 2020 at 19:24

My lawn is probably something like 30% grass 50% clover and 20% dandelions plus a few miscellaneous flowers. This summer when they were all in flower it looked like a meadow, with loads of bees and other insects all over it.
I held off mowing it back as long as I could as it looked lovely and I was doing the bugs some good!
Not using the lawn for anything else so saw no reason to trim it down.

jcr · 18 Aug 2020 at 08:43

gort said:
My lawn is probably something like 30% grass 50% clover and 20% dandelions plus a few miscellaneous flowers. This summer when they were all in flower it looked like a meadow, with loads of bees and other insects all over it.
I held off mowing it back as long as I could as it looked lovely and I was doing the bugs some good!
Not using the lawn for anything else so saw no reason to trim it down.

i still mow the lawn to keep it looking uniform, but i adjust the blade height so that i dont cut the clover. the bees do love the stuff.