Starting to like weeds...

The more time I spend in my gardens, the more I am realizing that I actually love the plants that I call "weeds". They are all beautiful and different, and they each have their own unique characteristics that make them special.

Also - they are native to the area, hardy, and have a lot of history to them here.

Trish will think I'm crazy, but I think next year I'm going to cultivate some of these "Weeds" in my landscaping!

Anyone else feel the same way? Do you have a particular weed that is a favorite of yours?

Dave

the spurred butterfly pea that I posted pictures of. This year we've let it go, and it's covering the edge of our yard that's uncultivated. It's really bringing me a lot of joy and it's blooming it's little head off!!

Dave I'm with you!! Wild flowers are sprouting all over my garden now, on the fringe of the woods, and I'm hoping to identify them all. The weather has been dangerously hot so can't get out to get some pictures. There is a lovely plant now, about 4 feet tall with white flowers. Is there such a thing as a tall, white asclepias? That's what it looks like! And one solitary coreopsis is growing in my baked, compacted clay at the bottom of the garden and is doing better than my cultivated ones :-)

According to my guide to north american wildflowers (weeds), there is an Asclepias variegata (White milkweed). Grows 1-3 feet tall, small white flowers with purplish centers.

I've planted Queen Anne's lace and wild chicory, purple asters from the woods, woundwort, birdfoot trefoil, wild black-eyed Susans, and a couple of others I've pulled up since. LOL!

Also a little thing with flowers like fleabane, but leaves like an aster. And another one, I have no clue. Tiny white flowers in a cluster on greyish green foliage.

Not to mention that my ostrich ferns all volunteered... The woods are full of them here and I love them.

zippy thank you for the information. I was really happy to know it might be an asclepias, but the leaves are not variegated and the flowers not fully opened yet, so don't know if the centres are purple. But will keep a closer lookout now :-)

In spring,I favor the henbit blooming'

What is the henbit Sis??

Well Louisa,I do not know the botanical name,just a weed'

Purple Loosestrife.
I know, I know but it's so beautiful.

I posted this on the Wild Plants forum, but it applies here too:

Wild


The hills want to stay wild,
meadows left unmown
for only a year or two,
sprout goldenrod and thistles,
wet spots grow willow and Joe Pye weed,
sumac creeps around the edges
where pasture becomes low scrub and brush
becomes thorn apple and popple
becomes ash and maple and cherry,
forest settling back into fields
hard won more than a century ago.
My gardens are microcosms of this wilding,
tiny worlds welcoming
asters and adder’s tongue,
daisies and Queen Anne’s lace.
I weed out purslane and sheep sorrel,
working around the blue-eyed grass
and violets that edge into the midst
of roses and salvia, conceding
my cultivated desire
to their native claim.

You are amazing Kathleen!!! I can read your poems over and over and never tire of them.

Blue Bonnets, Indian Paintbrush, Evening Primrose, Dames Rockets, Yellow Yarrow, and Tickseed.

"eyes"

Henbit: Lamium amplexicaule

The variegata in Asclepias variegata refers to the flowers, not the leaves.

(The National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Wildflowers is a really great book. Lots of color pictures, organized by flower color & shape.)

I was looking for some info, and came across this old thread...

I love weeds too, and am learning how to allow them to companion with my other plants and vegetables. I read a book earlier this year that was written in the 1950s, and it really opened up my eyes to the volunteer plants all around. Esp this spring, they bloomed so early, and attracted many beneficials!!! My neighbors annd friends thought I was nuts to let the Tumbleweeds grow, but they seem to have cured my hardpan (another story)

Some "weeds" were coming up volunteer at a friend's garden, and she said they were Spanish Needles, and this year the squash that had these neear it was the only one without squash bugs, so she let me pull some that came up around her roses. I planted them around my cucumbers, and we will see how that goes. They look similar to marigold, only with very tiny yellow blooms. I am hoping they reseed well, and then I will move them around where I want next year...

So, what were your favorite weeds this year, everyone???

LOL, I've learned to love goldenrod. I'm still pulling it in some of the gardens, but it and the native asters are now very established parts of the perennial bed on the other side of the east drive. I moved some boneset and JoePye weed up there, too and vervain and let the browneyed susans stay. Queen Ann's lace, yarrow, the little creeping veronica and heal all.

I get the tall grass brush-hogged spring and fall but in the middle... I had a friend come over to see my "Japanese iris show" and he suggested I throw wildflower seeds into the tall grass. I said, "Why?!" On further inspection, he noticed blackeyed susans, white and pink yarrow, daisies, purple cowvetch, queen anne's lace, and fleabane. This year, I threw seeds from red opium poppies and hollyhocks into the field. So instead of bringing weeds in, I'm sowing plants in with the weeds!

too cool, boojum, keep on sowing, you shall reap

kathleen, I so loved that poem, I printed it out (with your name on it), and called a friend who is a writer/artist/naturalist and read it to her, she absolutely loved it, thank you for sharing!

Does anyone besides me love to eat the wild purslane and milkweed mixed in with their spring garden salads?

I enjoy the Johnny-Jump-Ups and Forget-Me-Nots that pop up in our gravel driveway in the spring, the slow growing Dead Nettle (easy to contain here in the Inland Northwest), and the Virginia Creeper in the autumn, but miss the healthy stand of Bishop's Weed we had in the spring.

Now I know some of you are groaning at the Bishop's Weed, so here's a tip on how to kill it! I relocated ours to the base of some large lilac trees we have -- it was a nice, bright variation in color from the darker green of the lilac leaves! Guess the lilacs didn't want to share their water. :)

Oh, and I've nearly done in both the spearmint and peppermint that I bought and planted on purpose! Wish I had that luck with the milkweed, but then, it was here looong before I showed up. ;)

Donna

you are 2 funny donna

oh the tales we could tell of weeds that live and plants that don't!

I am loving the prickly lettuce that is blooming yellow right now, and another tall similar plant with delicate white blossoms

When I used to work in the city, I would often pass tiny, nameless "weeds" that had sprung up between the cracks in the sidewalk or were growing through small cracks in buildings. Their flowers, although miniscule, were quite lovely (yellow, pink, lavender, etc.). I usually stopped to examine the flowers more closely.

What amazed me (and still does) was their tenacity and ability to endure such adverse conditions, and still produce a pretty bloom for the passersby to enjoy, should they care to look more closely.

I let some "weeds" grow, undisturbed, in my garden (not ONLY because I'm too lazy to pull them - LOL), because they are gifts from above, they are supposed to be there, are survivors, and serve a purpose. Some are also a source of natural beauty.

So I agree with Dave. I like "weeds" too, and will select some of the more interesting ones to grace my garden along with the cultivated plants, and find out more about the flora native to my area. Good idea Dave.

Jean