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Weeds are on a roll — but need a firm hand in smaller spaces

CIAR BYRNE

has unveiled the new generation of its best-selling Corsa supermini — spearheaded by a more powerful pure electric version.

The five-seat Corsa hatch is already 2023’s best-seller and the new version promises 15 per cent more range and power. It is fitted with Vauxhall’s nextgeneration 51kWh electric battery and an upgraded electric motor producing 115kW (156 hp), offering greater performance and a 255-mile range.

It is expected to sprint from rest to 62 mph in around 6.6 seconds — up to a second less than the current model — to a top speed of around 93mph. There will also be a lower-powered option at launch.

Petrol variants will also be available, but no diesels. Prices for the electrics should start at around £35,000, with the cheapest petrol models below £20,000.

RAGGED robin, green alkanet, red valerian and buttercups all featured in show gardens at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show this week. Once upon a time we might have called them weeds, but the Royal Horticultural Society is now encouraging us to embrace them. In designer plots — including Horatio’s Garden, this year’s best show garden at Chelsea — they are specimen plants, growing in among a vast array of more traditional ‘garden’ plants.

But I know that in my own garden, green alkanet (Pentaglottis sempervirens) and red valerian (Centranthus ruber) would take over and smother everything else if I let them.

A disclaimer here. My garden is on the messy side, but that has more to do with having three children, a dog who loves to dig, and a husband who would rather go for a long bike ride than mow the lawn than my personal preference.

I’m all for a more relaxed style of gardening that’s good for wildlife and fits in with our time-poor lifestyles, but I think it’s a matter of editing rather than allowing dominant self-sowing species to run rampant. It’s all very well rewilding if you have acres of land, but if you have a small garden, you must make choices.

Green alkanet has attractive bright blue borage-like flowers and is great for pollinators. It also has (to my mind) horrible scratchy leaves and deep taproots that are almost impossible to eliminate.

I leave it in corners of the garden for the bees, but I have no qualms about clearing it from other beds to allow the astrantias and salvias to flourish.

I have embraced No Mow May, but now June is on the horizon, I’m looking forward to cutting the lawn to offset the flower borders. Call me strange, but I love weeding. There’s something therapeutic about kneeling in between the flowers, forking out unwanted intruders.

I do draw the line at using chemicals. A well-maintained garden, regularly weeded and mulched, should be able to withstand pests and diseases. When invasive plants become too much, I dig them out or cut them back, which will weaken them without the need for pesticides.

It’s a myth that tidy gardens can’t be sustainable. Martyn Wilson, the designer of the RSPCA Garden at Chelsea, explains how he has given dry hedges a new and neater twist.

Traditionally, these would be made from cut twigs and branches, but he’s used corten steel baskets with holes for hedgehogs, where gardeners can put their prunings to form a wildlife-friendly shelter. His planting scheme includes ragged robin (Lychnis flos-cuculi) and meadow buttercup (Ranunculus acris) for pollinating insects, but these grow alongside cultivated species, and are neatly contained within flowerbeds.

‘What we’ve tried to do is create a space that invites wildlife into the garden, but it’s a space you can sit in and enjoy,’ Wilson explains.

What’s important is whether a garden is biodiverse, supporting as many lifeforms as possible. And that’s just as achievable in a neat garden as one that’s been left to its own devices.

To make our gardens more resilient, the RHS recommends growing as many plants as possible, including lots of perennials, trees, shrubs, and hedges, and trying different varieties to see what works best in your garden, using rainwater butts, making a home compost heap, and growing your own fruit or vegetables.

If you’re doing some or all these things, whether you want to keep your garden tidy or let it grow a little wild is up to you.

Escape: Long Haul

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2023-05-27T07:00:00.0000000Z

2023-05-27T07:00:00.0000000Z

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