Comments on: doodle by andre: perennial peer pressure

By: chigal

chigal — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 16:44:01 +0000

I tend to pull only the weeds I can identify and relocate the ones I can’t into an experimental pot, for the spring. I had a bumper crop of wild mustard this time, after recognizing the seedlings as some kind of brassica and letting them grow. Didn’t let it go to seed, but I’ll know what it is (and probably let it grow again) if it shows up again.

By: Nancy

Nancy — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 01:53:06 +0000

Alas, today I discovered a small, tidy example of Asclepias, the beautiful Orange Milkweed or Butterflyweed growing in my garden. I was overjoyed, because last year I planted two of these supposed perennials, but they winterkilled. I watered it and looked at it two or three times to make sure it was really there. After supper I walked over to look at it again, thinking I would show it to my husband as insurance against his overly vigorous WEEDING, but it was TOO LATE. It was GONE…he already got it sometime during the afternoon…he was sorry, but it is still gone, and he still doesn’t know what it looks like. Not meant to be, perhaps…

By: Helen at Toronto Gardens

Helen at Toronto Gardens — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 00:19:57 +0000

I’ve been thinking about weeds a lot lately, as I actually have a great fondness for many of them.

Those I like, I often leave untouched when weeding. For example, I let a Verbascum rhapsis shoot up from my patio one year. It was fascinating to watch (though I know it makes way too many seeds, and I see its offspring from time to time).

There aren’t many blues that match the Echium vulgare (Viper’s bugloss) in flower. Last year in Wales, we saw a huge specimen of this growing at Bodnant Gardens. It’s all over the meadows here in Southern Ontario.

Ox-eye daisies, fleabane, the fragrance of common milkweed. I love them. In my garden, the weediest things are morning glories (Ipomeoa), which can take over by August without a firm hand.

By: Deirdre

Deirdre — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 01:40:23 +0000

I have a big bed that I haven’t planted because eventually it’s going to be driveway. I weed it selectively. I take out the blackberries and bindweed, and leave the foxglove, verbascum, and california poppies. One neighbor did suggest that I’m not doing anything in that bed, but others have admired it. There have been more admirers than critics.

By: Fred from Loudonville, NY

Fred from Loudonville, NY — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 00:27:36 +0000

When it comes to weeding, Even if you think you got them ALL, when you walk past the garden AGAIN, you see that you missed some. Weeds are not JUST happy in broad day light, they can be found lurking under BIG LEAVED plants, like hostas. To me, VOLUNTEERS, from plants that self seed too much, are WEEDS. Feverfew sends out OH to MANY seeds, that come up everywhere, even through my Preen applications to the flower beds and boarders. SO, a plant that is desirable to me, is a plant that is “in a place”, where I want it to be. A plant could be a weed if a person can’t recognize it, for what it is. I bought a “rudbeckia” plant and found myself, the following year, TRYING to rip it out, thinking it was a weed, because it’s foliage was not like that of the Gloriosa Daisy that comes up yearly in my garden. If I was to go and weed, at Margaret’s garden, some plants, I would know, and others (shade-woodland) plants, I would have to question their importance. It is funny, that some cultivated plants have weeds that look just like themselves. ALSO, Margaret likes weeds! She grows the evasive Bishop’s Weed, and in the past, I have seen, (if I am right) the Japanese Knotweed in her garden.