“A weed is a plant growing where we wish something else to grow, and a plant may, therefore, be a weed in some locations and not in others.”
Handbook of Nature Study, page 512
This week as I was watering the garden and flower beds, I spent some time thinking about weeds. The boys and I discussed the definition of a weed and how our yard is filled with plants that we call weeds that others might actually cultivate in their gardens. The unidentified weed above is growing alongside a few things I planted and it has proven to be healthier and more prolific than anything I intended to grow.
The definition of a weed and a plant in my yard come dangerously close. If the plant has some redeeming value like a pretty leaf or a pretty flower or a colorful berry, I sometimes leave it in the ground.
The unidentified plant from above looks like it is covered in beads to me and it is hard to really call it a weed but since it is growing in my flower bed where I didn’t plant it….it is a weed although I left it again this week and didn’t pull it out.
This beauty of a weed actually is growing in the gravel along my walkway. It is so green when most of my yard is turning brown already. It has a delicate white flower with a little yellow trumpet center. The leaves are a pretty shape. I left it in the ground too.
This weed is found all over my yard. It has the softest velvet leaves. I hate to pull it out…so I don’t. It is actually easier to pull it up when it is larger so leaving it in the ground really is a timesaver in the long run.
This blackberry vine is creeping under the fence from our neighbor’s yard. We have a constant battle with blackberry vines. I do have two places that I let them grow in the corners of the front yard so I can harvest a couple dessert’s worth of berries each summer. My husband whacks the vines as soon as he sees them. My husband considers this a “weed”.
This little tiny red berry is on a creeping plant under my crepe myrtle. I have spent a lot of time pulling it up but decided it can just stay. It is no longer considered a weed but a ground cover. (See the tiny mimosa trees also growing among the rocks? More on mimosas below.)
Right now, the plant shown above is my biggest “weed” in the garden and lawn. Tiny little mimosa trees are growing *everywhere*. We cut down a huge mimosa tree earlier this year but the seeds from the leftover seed pods are sprouting by the hundreds, if not thousands. I was making progress pulling them up by making it a goal to weed out fifty seedlings a day but I grew tired of the chore and now they are everywhere again. I need to get back to working on them a little every day. My point is that some people might consider a mimosa a great tree in their yard and actually encourage its growth but for our family the mimosas have to go and so they are considered a “weed”.
For more information on the weeds and seeds challenge, here is a link.
