| I adhere to the definition that a weed is any plant that grows in a place unwanted. I do not consider our multitude of wild flowers to be weeds; they add intrinsic beauty to our natural setting no matter where they decide to grow. We do not have a lawn to be mowed or weeded but have meadows filled with mountain grasses and flowers.
I gardened for many years without any weeds sprouting in my vegetable garden. After years of building the garden soil, I finally had a weed or two sprout which showed me that the soil was finally holding moisture. I rarely have to take a hoe to my garden beds or paths to remove weeds. This, of course, greatly lessens the effort involved in growing a garden.
We do have three plants that I consider weeds no matter where they grow.
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Dandelions appear unnatural here in the mountains
and I therefore remove them.
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The Canadian thistle is an introduced pest
to the Colorado high country. I have pulled the few Canadian thistles growing on our property for 12 years and they still come back from the roots. They are tough.
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Mullein is a biennial that has nice fuzzy leaves the first year but flowers the second year with a tall stalk. This stalk persists over the winter and, to me, is very unattractive so I have removed every mullein that I can find from our property.
That's it for weeds. Not many.... |
