This is a short addendum to our GardenRant discussion of plants that are rampant spreaders, which I call weeds when I don’t want them.
In the spirit of going with the flow and getting positively Buddhist about it, here are a few weeds I’ve learned to love.
In the center is what I call creeping sedum; it landed here on its own accord a couple of years ago and I’ve let it have its way. So the dry streambed is almost covered up but that’s a good thing - the water is slowed down by the sedum.
The pink on the left is Mexican or evening primrose, Oenothera berlandieri, which I admit to introducing here with 10 seedlings from a neighbor. You see how happy it is here in its first full season. I just learned in Burpee’s Complete Flower Gardener (which I’m reviewing tomorrow on the Rant) that it’s been used over the years to treat quite an array of ailments, from eczema to hyperactivity.
And on the right you see a few clover blossoms. I keep having to remind myself that most people view clover as a noxious weed - BAD PLANT! - because except for the stinging danger to barefoot gardeners, I think it’s positively saintly.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Carol 05.21.07 at 7:22 pm
Wouldn’t we all be a little better off and happier in the long run if we just accepted some of the “weeds” that find their way into our gardens, either by our own introduction or by chance. I like your attitude about these “weeds”.
Pam L 05.21.07 at 11:55 pm
I think I could handle the clover better than the awful bindweed I am diligently trying to keep at bay. It literally pulls down some plants in it’s never ending attempt to climb towards the sun. We had clover in our lawns when I grew up in the East and as kids we loved it, making clover chains or searching for the occasional 4 leaf clover. I’m not sure my Dad felt the same, but he didn’t wage war against it either.
Heather Galindo 05.22.07 at 10:01 am
On your advice, I put clover seed on the “less happy” areas of my lawn that were sort of bare and very easily getting weedy. Well, it worked ilke a champ! It was beautiful and green and lush and I don’t have any other weeds. While I was in NY last, it got overgrown and looked pretty bad when I got home, and now it’s just a bunch of clover stems. But it did a marvelous job of keeping other weeds at bay, feeding the soil, and keeping the soil stable (otherwise it would have just been muddy from the dog and rain and no sun in the winter). I’m hoping I can get grass growing again in these areas because Clover’s only fault is that it grows too fast and I don’t like to mow that often. But I’m so grateful for the suggestion! Really made my job a lot easier this year. I can focus on the garden and not the lawn so much.
Don 05.24.07 at 5:01 pm
That’s why gardeners move every few years: to get away from the stuff we planted that we now can’t get rid of.
Sylvana 06.03.07 at 12:23 am
As I am weeding my garden I will often find some weed whose form and foliage I find very interesting - so I let it grow to see what it does. Most of the time I am very pleasantly surprise. I have gained for my garden: poppies, geraniums, veronica, feverfew, catchfly, rudbeckia, yarrow, columbine, white viola, goldenrod, phlox, milkweed, hyssop, mullein, hibiscus, buttercups, lilies, and some other wonderful plants that I still have not identified. Weeds can be great!