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  Business > Agriculture > Floriculture
Lankomumo reitingas Print version Print version
Weeds and Words

Diane Relf, Extension Specialist, Environmental Horticulture

As I've grown older, I have learned that weeds are nothing but a matter of semantics. With an acre and a half of a somewhat cared-for and cultivated landscape, I've spent many years waging a war against chaos. First, it was the glyphosate to take down the Johnsongrass and honeysuckle that dominated the property. Then, it has been mulch, mulch, mulch, and more mulch. Some of the Master Gardeners who have visited here now refer to me as the "woman who mulched a mountain." A little extreme, I must admit, especially since my husband hauled the mulch -- I just provided the motivation.

But I have finally found that there are no more weeds -- just a few unwelcome guests, a couple of unfriendly interlopers, and a lot of wildflowers. After all a weed is, by definition, a plant out of place, so the choice is mine. If I want it there, it is not a weed. I have been rolling out the welcome mat to a number of previously doomed plants, and the pleasure is all mine.

Why spend time and money to grow Ammi majus only to find that it is a weak little sister to the wonderful Queen Anne's lace that I will never need to pull again now that I've accepted its airy addition to the flower border. Milkweed (Asclepias sp.) is in the fields and along the roads in all directions, so it was long ago targeted for eradication. However, this last summer, it added its strong, bold features to my flower border, providing architectural interest while filling a hole I never got around to planting. No other plant in my landscape attracted as much attention from the butterflies or provided as much pleasure to my husband and me. Surely, it will have a place from now on, although it will require containment.

That coarse, common biennial, mullein (Verbascum sp.), established itself in my fall garden, so I left it through the winter as a space filler. What a wise choice that proved to be. In early spring, long before my other flowers required the space, the mullein stretched out its wonderful silver leaves and produced beautiful plants, easily removed as other plants needed the space.

Additional guests that have moved into my now totally unmanicured landscape and made it the better for their presence: goldenrod (Solidago sp.), black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia fulgida), bouncing bet (Saponaria officinalis), blue lobelia (Lobelia siphilitica), and a multitude of native grasses.

Since I've begun to let the neighbors grow freely in my yard, some of my cultivated plants are beginning to roam, too.

Purple coneflower, cleome, sunflower, cosmos, ageratum, celosia, larkspur, gloriosa daisy, violet, and bleeding heart have all taken to coming up in new and strange places that I never intended them to be. Does that them make them all weeds? I think not. I think it only changes my intentions.

            
Lankomumo reitingas

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2. Vegetable Gardening: Faba Bean, Fava Bean, Broad Bean, Horse Bean
3. Summer Flowering Bulbs
4. Berries
5. Crabapple - Spring Beauty
6. Planting on Your Septic Drain Field
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8. Understanding and Using Compost
9. Selecting Alternative Holiday Plants
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