Friday 18 September 2009

Vinca Major: Major Problem

Every time I hear the word "Periwinkle", I think of Miss Marple's cardigan.  It leaves me with pleasant thoughts of charming, peaches-and -cream old ladies in quaint country villages.  Not this type of periwinkle, though:


Although beautiful to look at with a multitude of homeopathic uses, this type of vinca major is a tenacious, Australian-classifed weed. And we have plenty of it under the old lichen covered Granny Smith apple tree, thank-you very much. So much so, that it was climbing it's way up towards the new spring blossoms, at a menacing pace, threatening the season's prospective fruit crop. It had a faithful blood plum in it's sights, too.
I will go root away The noisome weeds which without profit suck The soil's fertility from wholesome flowers - William Shakespeare
We tugged at long tentacular vines.  We dug clumps of young periwinkle from the garden path.  And then... oh yes! and then, we brought out the Wippersnipper.  Thick glossy leaves flew through the air.  Long stringy stems wound themselves in coils and purple flowers disintigrated, - soggy and shrunken. 

"Ma, ma, I've got snail livers all over me.  Just look at this - massacred sluggy bodies on my skin.  Euwww"

A promise of a trip to the movies was met with much alacrity and there was no more talk of molluscan kidneys and giblets.

1 comment:

The Daily Connoisseur said...

Weeds are so bothersome... but I am always grateful when they at least have a flower. That way I can tolerate looking at them until they are pulled out!

CATERPILLARS & KEEPING IT REAL

 Table talk amongst our children is and always has been, -  a rabbit warren . We start off in one hole and end up in another -  quick smart....