Weeds

Weeds are unfortunately, whether we like or not, a reality in the garden. Our best hope as gardeners is to minimize them, as much as is possible enjoy the opportunity to pluck them out by their roots, and otherwise, live and let live.

The ultimate of course, at least in my mind, is the Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale). I have to admit, I'm torn on the issue of spraying my lawn to get rid of this nasty weed, or just to leave them be. There's just something about them in a lawn (or in my garden) that drives me nuts!















I guess we could consider it's ornamental qualities: brilliant, golden-yellow flowers that contrast nicely with the dark foliage; interesting seed-heads are guaranteed to be a major attraction in any "children's garden"; drought tolerant and long-lived.















Of course, this plant of European origin has many herbal benefits. A very cool and useful site in this regard is Botanical.

One of the biggest pains with this weed is when it establishes itself within a clump of a perennial in your garden, as shown below in a Salvia. I have in the past, rather painstakingly, put on two pairs of gloves to battle this type of situation: one rubber pair, and then on top of that, an absorbant pair. I then dip one gloved hand in a pail of Round-Up and then ever so gently stroke the weed's leaves with my poison-laced fingers. This method is effective but time-consuming.















My weed identification is certainly lacking, but here's a few others from my garden this week. This Thistle below can be a pain to remove with a deep, crawling root system (it's as prickly as it looks as well).















The one here below is almost ornamental for it's broad leaves and the reddish strip down the middle. It too has a virtually indestructible tap root, and I've found it somewhat resistant to Round-Up as well.












My father said a weed was simply "a plant in the wrong place", and I've found that definition to be useful over the years. Consider Lily-of-the-Valley for instance, which in the right condition but wrong place, is indeed an aggressive weed. But otherwise, it can be a useful groundcover.

Finally, to a certain degree, gardening is an on-going battle against nature, as James Dyson, Chairman of Dyson said, in answering the question, "What is a garden for?", as printed in the October 2006 issue of The Garden: "In some senses it is the battle of gardening, or rather the playful fight, that I enjoy. Gardens are, after all, disobedient. They're in perpetual adolescence, ignoring your pleas for relative conformity, sulking in the shade, wrecking things while you're away for the weekend, or sprouting randomly."

Here's to that battle.

MPD