Ignorance is not bliss when it come to plants

Ignorance is not bliss when it comes to plants. Plant the wrong plant in the wrong place and one may find themselves with an aggressive, spreading ground cover that takes over an area and smothers competing plants--plants you may have liked.

The voting is still out on the plant shown above with the green leaves rimmed with bright yellow. It has spread very nicely, according to my neighbour, and so far it has played nicely with the other plants in the garden. The question is: will this cooperation continue?

City folk love their gardens. One can be forgiven for thinking that there might be an ongoing, unspoken contest being fought here. Each home each succeeding year sports bigger, more spectacular, more numerous flowers and shrubs. 

But mixing and matching plants is no easier than mixing and matching neighbours and sometimes the wrong plant gets put into the mix with disastrous results. Luckily, bad plants are easier to uproot and remove than bad neighbours.