So funny! Yesterday I posted about one of the most thrilling attractions in Las Vegas, but in comments, there was more conversation about my lack of garden weeding.
So today I bring you… weeds.
Or… what I thought were plants.
Never ignore that perfect, little unknown plant. EVER.
Do you remember this flower bed I showed you last summer? I wasn’t sure what that growing clump was, right beside the milk can. So like a complete fool curious gardner, I let it grow.
I thought it was lovely! So green with little care… (AHEM RED ALERT!) and I even suggested you grow weeds yourself as free fillers.
Such sound advice! I hope you (didn’t) listen!
But I should have known better. Because I don’t own a green thumb quite that green.
If anything in my yard does well, it’s usually because it’s a….
MULTIPLYING WEED.
That pretty little weed must have dropped a few million seeds. Perfection. And took over my poor flowerbed. This bed was spotless not even a whole month ago. And now this.
It was bad guys. So bad. And so hard to pull out!
So as usual, I avoided it as long as I could. But after sitting in the sun one afternoon, the mess got to me.
Shamed out of my gravity chair (boy those things are great!), I donned the garden gloves, rounded up the hose, and saturated the soil first, so I could stand half a chance of pulling the weeds out.
Do you try and weed after a rainfall? I usually do, but… well… not lately. Ya think?!
There are tiny glimpses of pretty to come…
They’re just… hiding.
And just for fun? Here’s my mom’s treasured garden back on the farm. I’ve had to do my fair share of weeding in that garden too.
And it’s far from Pinterest worthy, but it’s a great start!
Read my garden woes in the story, “What we don’t have, and that’s ok” here. I’m sure you’ll relate.
Anyone know what that crazy thing is? I suspect I haven’t seen the last of it…
And… to be continued.
I have a rule that keeps me fairly safe. If it has a square stem, it has to go in a pot. You can bury the plastic nursery pot if you want it in the ground. The crazy thing is that what is a weed in one area is a treasured garden feature in a different growing zone. Some salvias and many of the plants in the mint family, which is extensive, spread by underground runners and they can consume a garden patch like kudzu!
Good luck with your garden!
Wow! Square… I will be checking! Thanks for the fabulous tip!
I can totally relate to your story. I did the same thing with a pretty vine (weed) last summer. It grew so fast it just about over took the clematis it started growing on. LOL
Oh I hear ya. And then there was the time (well, actually every spring!) I call in a gardner to help me rip off the vine growing innocently and all charming like up the side of my house… all the way to the 2nd story roof. Ever try and pry that stuff off of stucco? It removes the paint!
I have a very spotty side of the house… needless to say. LOL
It’s all in your frame of mind, isn’t it, really? I love your lush garden!
“A weed is but an unloved flower.”
― Ella Wheeler Wilcox
“When life is not coming up roses
Look to the weeds
and find the beauty hidden within them.”
― L.F.Young
“The strongest and most mysterious weeds often have things to teach us.”
― F.T. McKinstry, Ascarion
“The women loved everything that grew on God’s earth, even weeds. She knew that even the weeds were capable of doing miracles she never could.”
― Emily Flim
What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have never been discovered.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
A weed is no more than a flower in disguise, Which is seen through at once, if love give a man eyes.
James Russell Lowell
A weed is a plant that has mastered every survival skill except for learning how to grow in rows.
Doug Larson
Sorry for the long comment.
Oh goodness… Doug Larson and I certainly share the same theory! I truly love the look of weeds… if they’d just stay small and controlled! 🙂
LOVE your ‘long’ comment! Those are some fantastic quotes!
We had 1 1/2 inch of rain so I was out weeding in my bathrobe this am. Why are weeds so hardy???
Haha! I’ve been tempted to run out there in the AM after a rainfall, but freshly brewed coffee always won. Maybe I should try your method… it may get done!
Some of my worst garden weeds have actually been plants I purchased and deliberately planted – like Chameleon plant with it’s deceptively pretty white, red and green variegated leaves. Most of my soil is clay so the only way to weed is right after a rainfall.
Kinda scary isn’t it? I guess they wouldn’t sell very well if they were labelled with a big fat WARNING label….
I hope that you are not removing that gorgeous silvery Lambs Ears!
Ha, no way! I need real flowers pronto! I will happily let this one further develop. And I’m hoping for sooner than later!
But they sure are green!
And so are the heavy moss accents in my lawn. Amazing really! haha
In once nursed what I thought was a strawberry plant for the better part if a growing season much to my dismay; so very glad I am not the only one!
‘The strawberry plant that never produced’… I’m certain they exist! 😉
Love this Donna! Even us ladies that know quite a bit about gardening have done crazy things like this before. Once up at a friends cabin we spotted the prettiest purple flower. I didn’t know what mountain flower it was. My friend said, “dig one up and take it home”. I gladly oblique. After blooming the pretty purple flowers turned into cockle burrs. lol! Took quite some time for this pretty knowledgeable gardener to live that one down. Your garden looks great now that it’s weed free, for a while. 🙂
Haha, well cockle burrs are kind of fun? Just never fall in that bush… I use to pay in cow pastures growing up and rarely came indoors without a few thousand stuck to me. 🙂
It is said that “Weeds” are God’s flowers growing in the wrong place! I have to agree…my weeds are all over the place, and I decided to thank God for His graceful beauty!! Can we give an Amen?
Amen!
Hi there, was just reading your story about your weed and how it took over your garden. (thought sure you would show the one taking over my garden too, some sort of weed morning glory that wraps itself around EVERYTHING! but no… yours was different) In the following pictures I saw you planting some Lambs ear…. Watch out! They too will take over the garden, they send runners out all over the place. Keep a close eye on them!
Have a great day!
Oh Donna, I can so relate! I’ve done a heap of gardening in my time, but generally on gardens that I’ve planted, so I know what’s what. I’m now having a heckuva time with the gardens at this house we moved into last fall. They are a mixture of some very lovely flowers and plants and terribly noxious weeds…almost like a jungle…it’s soooooo hard to sort out the good from the bad sometimes, especially in early spring. I have dug up the biggest garden three times pulling everything and had someone roto-tiller it twice…I’ve even resorted to Round-Up, it was that bad…still it fills up with weeds! How can a yard kick your butt? Well, I’m finding out the answer to that, my friend! Wishing you much luck with your beautiful yard!
You guys… there is such an interest in gardening! Why haven’t I focused more on this?
Thank-you for your encouraging comments! Now I know where to shoot for sure.
Be careful pulling weeds. Both my sister in a northern state and my daughter in a southern state both have poison ivy this year from not having long sleeves on. Wear gloves, long sleeves and carefully remove and wash clothing after removing something that you don’t know what it is.
Too funny! I didn’t even look at your Vegas post yesterday, because I had to get outside to do some huge weeding! It took discipline not to check out it but figured I gotta do what I gotta do. Then today you post about weeding your garden. Love it!!
P.S.
Lambs ears are good when you have no TP and need some 😉
Hey, I have that same plant in my yard! But the craziest is a little lemon balm plant I brought home and is taking over. Ah well, at least it has some use.
So true! Some weeds can be very deceiving! And those propagate the best. Sit back and enjoy some ice cold tea for all that hard work!
Does it sting? It looks like nettle.
Sorry but I would have left the weeds. I thought they were beautiful and they were green.
You did great. That is a lot of work. I have done the same thing with some cute little plant that resembled Ageratum (sp) and it ended up a nightmare of the worst kind.
Ha ha ha Donna, something I would totally do! In fact I need to take a closer look at my back flower bed because your weed is looking awfully familiar. Yikes!
I HAVE A HARD TIME SOMETIMES FIGURING OUT THE WEEDS FROM THE PLANTS. LUCKILY I HAVE A FRIEND WHO IS A LANDSCAPER WHO DOES KNOW AND SHE CARES FOR MINE. I9N FACT, SHE IS PUTTING IT IN.
I HAVE A HARD TIME SOMETIMES FIGURING OUT THE WEEDS FROM THE PLANTS. LUCKILY I HAVE A FRIEND WHO IS A LANDSCAPER WHO DOES KNOW AND SHE CARES FOR MINE. IN FACT, SHE IS PUTTING IT IN.
Oh, wow! Your garden is perfectly imperfect!! Gorgeous even!!! I love gardening at first, then he has to do the trimming…terrified of spiders!!!!!!! Anywhooo, you’re amazing in everything that you do. Thank you for being so generous with tips and tricks. You’re a wealth of knowledge
I feel your pain! I will never, ever boost to having a green thumb, but I do try… sometimes. Actually, to be completely honest I usually have to ask my neighbor (who is a plant expert of some sort) what I’m dealing with. I figure as long we keep “trying” and learning we’ll eventually get it, right?! 🙂
Ha! Just pulled some of these out this morning! I too thought that they were a perennial when they were small (black eyed susan maybe), but they just keep on growing upwards and never flower! Mine seemed to have shallow roots and pulled up easily after the rain, but I wonder if I have left a big root system underneath? Anyone have a name for this plant? Definitely has the square stem.
Ha! I thought I was the only one who that did that.
LOL! I just had to comment. Last year, I too had a beautiful, fast growing, really tall plant, that I figured I must have forgot I planted previously. I tended it with care and watched it flourish all season, till it reached almost 4 feet tall and was heavy with buds! Guess what it was? Rag Weed! Garden On 🙂
Looks like stinging nettles to me. They TOOK OVER my flower beds this year, because I ignored them for too long. Then they started popping up in my lawn. I think I have them under control now, but those you definitely have to get when they sprout, because they have a crazy root system that will spread like wildfire and take over everything. They still pop up, but some pulling and a squirt of Round-Up usually does the trick.
However, when I first started dealing with them, I ended up with a rash on my hand and face because they got me. I was even wearing gloves, but I guess I got the juices on me somehow. Not pleasant.