Last year I cut out three beds for winter squash and courgettes. The plan was that these frost-tender plants would grow in the shelter of the blackberry hedge against a backdrop of tall purple malvas. This year I have only one planned vegetable bed.
A gift of honeysuckle has spread all over the first bed mixed in with the native wildflowers. (I hesitate to call them weeds). Slowly and surely it is finding its way to the metal fence. The malvas have completely taken over the third bed. Nettles and convolvulus poke in profusion up from the weed heaps in the hedge which should be slowly turning into compost. In the remaining middle bed I have sweetcorn.
Once, I would wanted to maximise every inch, and spent time weeding and weeding. Now, as long as the weeds and wildflowers remain the other side of the boards holding in the compost piles I am content to let them be. Experts spend time researching permaculture, garden design experts plant in swathes and batches, I have the margins - a corridor for wildlife, a sunbathing spot for cats, food plants for caterpillars, nectar for bees. I have a profusion at the margins.
I planted out my ripening strawberries around the decking yesterday - just for the birds,to give them a treat. They too deserve their space and reward in our gardens, as you point out.
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