Weeds, or Wild Plants

[Maggie]

Anybody else like to identify weeds and sometimes let them grow to see them bloom? :grin They do get annoying when too prolific, like the creeping charlie, for example, but I do like the purslane and the creeping bellflower... I love watching everything grow! :-)

[SueQ]

I am this year but not purposefully. :O I am just having trouble keep up. :giggle

[Maggie]

Oh, we do, too! For example, we didn't purposefully let the thistles and stinging nettle grow. Ouch!

[TheSweetLife]

There is this grassy type of weed that I am just letting grow in my garden because it is a new yard and we don't have enough plants to fill it up yet. I figure it doesn't look too bad and it doesn't have thorns or anything so I don't mind it. I read somewhere that it is a sign of a mature gardener to learn to live with a few weeds :)

[flowermama]

Well, my son and I keep wondering what makes a plant be considered to be a "weed." Do you know? :think We just found out that our park has a lot of wild chamomile growing in it! Would that be considered a weed? :think And foxglove (which I know the leaves are poisonous!) grows wild around here, as do California poppies, yet you can buy seeds for these plants in the store. Anyway, it just kind of seems confusing. :O :giggle

[Lady TS]

One of dictionary.com's definitions of weed:


A plant considered undesirable, unattractive, or troublesome, especially one growing where it is not wanted, as in a garden.


We have chicory out the wazoo here. I let one grow and dh was trying to yank that monster out of the ground and I was like :giggle
Thistles abound, but not because I'm nurturing them. :/

I have peppermint that I planted I think three years ago and it's trying to run rampant. I think it's turned into a weed. Same with my tarragon...it just doesn't taste the same as it did growing in CO. Weird.

[SilverMoon]

Sometimes I let a weed grow a bit so I can figure out what it is. I have a lot of lamb's ear, phlox, gayfeather, fountain grass, and black eyed susan that's self seeded around the garden and path. This year I'm letting all the little ones grow and I'll move the plants in the fall to the spots where I want them to grow. I figure they're new plants, and they're free. However, I think I need to start giving away a lot of the lamb's ear because it's really trying to take over.

[Maggie]

That's interesting! We bought some lamb's ear and phlox. It's pretty funny, though, when we see things being sold at garden centers that we have too many of, like tall daylilies and ferns, and even creeping charlie(!). (We don't like ferns and tilled under a whole bed of them when we moved here.)

[canadiyank]

Ack, you tilled the ferns! Nooooooo....! LOL! I live in the desert but grew up where ferns abound, so I miss them.

You know what I hate? Bindweed! http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/WEEDS/field_bindweed.html It is freaking EVERYWHERE here and you can't kill the stuff! It grows up all my plants and chokes them to death. I HATE IT. I yank it and I yank it and I dig it and I yank it and I yell at it (I've even sprayed it with round-up! :O ) and it STILL won't go away. Argh, it is infested throughout my garden. :banghead

[mama-hobbit]

I have been known to transplant "weeds" into my yard from the side of the road.

:O

[Maggie]

That's cool, mama-hobbit! :grin I would do that!

Jeri, sorry I didn't respond earlier! I agree that it's confusing as to what's a weed and what's not. I don't really consider anything to be a weed. Well, if it's invasive and prickly, like thistle, I sometimes do, but then, Eeyore likes thistles. :mrgreen To EAT! Ouch! :giggle