Of course, whether or not you like yard work or have a green thumb, pretty much everyone can grow weeds. Even me. As a matter of fact, this year I never even mustered up enough energy to pull and/or spray the weeds that grow every year around my "flower beds" and my flagstone walkway. Oh well. At least they're green. From the street they even look they belong there.
Well, the result of this laissez-faire attitude is that this year I become a Master Weed Gardener. A few weeks ago, Geoff and I noticed a rather large weed growing between our hydrangea bushes. By "rather large" I mean it was about 4 feet tall when we noticed it. (I told you I hadn't done any weeding this year). It also had several clusters of what looked like flower buds on the top. I was already to pull that monster (even I have standards. Four foot tall weeds exceed even my weed tolerance levels), but Geoff suggested we let it bloom and see what the "flowers" looked like. Avoid yard work? Ummm....OK!
The wonder weed continue to grow, but the buds never did flower. Until yesterday. When I noticed that the buds did not contain an exotic hothouse flower but white fluffy spores - a la dandelions (which I'm disappointed are not considered flowers). You know what white fluffy spores mean, don't you? I'm going to have a veritable forest of 5 foot tall weeds in my front yard next year! (That's the last time I let Geoff talk me into shirking essential yard work duties!).
Needless to say I quickly tied a plastic bag around the top of the lovely budding mutant weed and pulled that sucker right out of my "garden". Maybe I am a Master Gardener after all.
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19 comments:
Well... I never would have thought to cover the seeds with a plastic bag to contain the spread... Very clever.
I wrote a blog about dandelions and wether or not they should be considered weeds...
http://luckywifeandmomto2girls.blogspot.com/2009/04/who-decided-they-were-weeds.html
Holy Cow...that's one heck of a weed. I am with you on the gardening though...a green thumb I do not have (nor do I want to have)...don't get me wrong I really love the look of a beautiful garden but I just don't have the time or ambition to have one of my own. I wish I did but whatever free time I have I would rather spend it reading or doing something else. Every year I think that I should really put some effort into beautifying the "garden". Well there's always next year to start that project.
And I am with you, you know how I feel about cooking and gardening is right there, actually I think if I had to choose one I would prefer cooking. Now that would really be something.
Colleen
That is a massive weed you've got there!
And I can only imagine the hits you'll receive from google with that post title!!
LOL. That is quite an amazing weed! Which reminds me, I should probably take a look at the garden to see if I have it's cousin here...
Visiting you from SITS--have a great day!
I thought a million different things upon seeing this title in my google reader...LOL!
I am not a garden girl, we have plants, and flowers and grass, but they better be the hearty resilient kind or they will die under my care. I kill most things and weeds.............oh well aren't they mostly green?
Smart idea bagging that baby!
ha ha ha...so glad to hear we're not the only ones! We live in a neighborhood where almost everyone has professional landscapers...except us! Our yard is quite jungle-like at times, and we have also been surprised by 4-foot tall weeds!!
I finally felt a little better yesterday after 2 weeks of feeling awful and spent half my day weeding (and so felt crummy again today!) But it is nice to get some of the flower bed cleared out. We always joke that our yard is the only one that stays green during summer droughts because our "lawn" is mostly weeds!
We were surprised by some mystery plants last summer, and they turned out to be gorgeous flowers! We have no idea where they came from, but they come up every year now and they're so pretty!
Sue
I also do not like to garden -- I don't really know if I have a green thumb or not since I never really tried to grow anything outside! To me it is just work and I do enough of that inside. Right now we have no yard or garden at all (because of the remodel last year) but when we do it will all be Boris' job again!
Gail
Colleen - I agree. Whatever free time I have I'd rather be reading or blogging! And every year I say, "next year I'll tackle those flower beds". Next year never seems to come.
Gail - Good point! There is enough work to do inside, why take on more work outside. As long as the grass is cut, I'm happy!
LOL!!! Once I brought two plants home...hubby asked what they were for. My reply? "I felt like killing something". Does that tell you anything? LOL Stopping by from SITS.
sweetjeanette.blogspot.com
Love that last picture. The Farmer in the Dell.
now THAT is a dandy weed. If it was a fish, it be a wall mounter! :)
that is one heck of a weed! i would love to have one of those yards with blooming flowerbeds and carefully manicured shrubs, alas, i have no skills and i am married to a landscaper - clearly he has no time to work on his OWN yard
visiting from SITS
Good heavens! Too bad there isn't a market for giant weeds. You could have sold that thing for a fortune!
Pam - thanks for the great book group suggestions! Two of those I've been meaning to read, and suggesting them to my book group would be a great way to move them up my list!
Thanks -
Sue
LOL...I just LOVE the pic with the plastic bag on top of the weed. I'm going to have to try that, hee hee!
First off, I must agree with the above commenters who said that bagging it was genius...
A couple summers ago, I let ALL the weeds in one corner of my yard just - come. It was an eyesore in the neighborhood, but it brought us the most beautiful birds and butterflies...
Oh I hear you! Sometimes I can't decide if a growth is a weed or a flower (especially since I inherited a garden with the house we bought). So I wait and see.
Visiting from SITs!
I love your attitude for gardening! But I must inject my definition of 'weed' here...it's anything that's not where I want it to be.
Hence, I have some lovely blooms (not the dandelion type) that I like even though they are not on everyone's top ten flower list! For example, they might be called lawn daisies (as a weed), but, heck, they are still daisies!!
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