Clematis and lawn mowers
That brings back memories. With me, it was my father's scythe. I'd
come home from work to find my yard scythed, including young trees.
The way I protected my clematis was to plant them in tins - there are
big ones that juice used to come in. (Now that I use frozen
concentrate, I don't know whether they still put it in cans). I'd
have the tin partly in the soil, and partly above to protect the
stem. Many clematis have to be cut down each year anyway, so as long
as the stem within the tin is safe, the plant can resprout if it gets
chopped off. By now, my clematis stems are thick and tough - there
is no possibility of an accidental lopping. And as soon as I got rid
of every bit of grass in my half acre, my father stopped coming over
with his scythe.
Diane Whitehead Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
