A Weed By Any Other Name...

. . . would smell as sweet?

Sign in the Desert Botanical Gardens, Phoenix Arizona

It's been a beautiful week here in central Illinois with mostly sunny skies and warm temperatures--the perfect time for working in the garden. I'd like to say that I've gotten a lot done, but the truth is, I haven't. There are so many projects I have planned this spring that I'm a bit overwhelmed. Each day I work as much as possible outside until my energy is exhausted, and by evening I'm ready for bed by 8 PM! Meanwhile, the weeds are growing like . . . well, weeds:)



We all recognize this weed, of course, but I have trouble recognizing many other weeds. I have been known to let an unfamiliar shoot of green grow for a couple of months, hoping it might turn into a flower I had forgotten I'd planted, only to have my mother tell me that it was some type of weed. My gardening philosophy has become "if I don't know what it is, and it's not bothering anything, I'm going to leave it alone."



Many people spend a small fortune eradicating dandelions so they can have a lush lawn. I pull the dandelions that have wandered into my flowerbeds or that have managed to take root in the landscaping rock around the house. But our yard is much too large to worry about killing the dandelions there. Besides, what would my grandchildren have to pick for a "bouquet" if we didn't have any dandelions?

The same is true for all the violets. I don't really want them in my flowerbeds, so I am constantly pulling them there. But they are so pretty and dainty that I leave them alone elsewhere; they're certainly preferable to other, much uglier weeds.

Here's one of the many weeds, though, that I can't identify. It is growing in what I call the "back forty" near the farm outbuildings. In mid-April it was topped with these delicate purple blooms. Does anyone know what it is?

Nearby is another unknown weed that likes to grow around the edges of concrete structures like the old cistern. Lately, I've noticed it creeping into the lawn as well. After seeing a post of Racquel's about ajuga, or bugleweed, I thought perhaps that is what this is. However, after googling bugleweed and finding some images, I don't think it is. Any i.d.'s on this one?

Blogging has given me a serious case of "plant envy." One of the many plants I saw on blogs last summer that I coveted was goldenrod. Imagine my surprise last fall when I discovered I had several plants already! Oh, I know this isn't the hybrid cultivar that gardeners plant, but rather the "weed" that grows freely around this area. These were all growing near an area with the fuel tanks; in fact, one was growing through a crack in the concrete! Please don't enlarge this photo--you're apt to see some junk in the background:) Actually, I've been planning a flowerbed back in this area with lots of natives and plants to attract butterflies, so I decided to leave the goldenrod alone. We'll see how it turns out.

One man's weed is another one's flower.--Me

Last month while visiting the Sonoran Desert Museum in Tucson, my husband called me over. "Rose, come look at this--can you believe this?!" He pointed to this sign for a planting of milkweeds, shaking his head in disbelief. To a farmer, a milkweed is just one of the many nemeses in a soybean field, something to be pulled or sprayed immediately before it spreads, choking out the beans. I tried to tell him that milkweeds are hosts to butterfly larvae, and that gardeners plant different varieties to attract the butterflies. He knew about the attraction to butterflies, but wasn't convinced they should be planted at all. I think I'll just tell him I'm planting asclepias in my garden; any more information might send his blood pressure soaring:)

A few weeks ago, Beckie stopped by, and I proudly showed off all my tulips that were in bloom then. I pointed out this weed growing near the house that I'd never seen before. Neither of us knew what it was, but both agreed it was pretty. We thought it might be some kind of wildflower . . .wrong!! While reading the weekly gardening column last Saturday by our local horticultural expert from the county Extension Office, I had an unpleasant revelation. This little "wildflower" is actually garlic mustard.

According to columnist Sandra Mason, garlic mustard "has been the scourge of forested areas for years but now has moved into gardens." It is native to Europe, but "here in the Midwest, it loves the partial shade of our deciduous forests and backyard gardens, where it can literally blanket the ground and choke out other plants in its path." Seeds germinate in early spring, sending up a 2 1/2 to 3-foot tall flower stalk with small, four-petaled white flowers.

Even Mason admitted the flowers are "pretty," but the danger of garlic mustard is its invasiveness and effects on other plant life:

• "Because of its ability to dominate relatively undisturbed forests, garlic mustard has led to the decline of populations of native plants and the insects and animals that rely on them. Not only does garlic mustard shade out other plants, but it also produces chemicals that can keep other plants from growing around it. It's definitely a bully biennial in the forest or the garden." ("Waging war on the garlic mustard weed," The News-Gazette, 2 May 2009)

Mason recommends using weed-killers such as Roundup (glyphosate) to kill the weeds or hand-pulling them and then removing the plants from the site so that seeds do not germinate.

Looks like this little "pretty" has got to go! While some weeds may find a home here where this gardener is too tired to pull them, garlic mustard will not be one of them. Please pardon me if I get behind in blog reading the next few days--I have some weeding to do!

Many gardeners will agree that hand-weeding is not the terrible drudgery that it is often made out to be. Some people find in it a kind of soothing monotony. It leaves their minds free to develop the plot for their next novel or to perfect the brilliant repartee with which they should have encountered a relative's latest example of unreasonableness.

~Christopher Lloyd, The Well-Tempered Garden, 1973

When weeding, the best way to make sure you are removing a weed and not a valuable plant is to pull on it. If it comes out of the ground easily, it is a valuable plant. ~Author Unknown