Weeds are blooming: This is supposed to be my garden, but I haven't been able to till it and the weeds are taking over. Taken with a Nikon D7000 w/ AF-S Nikkor 55-300 MM lens. I really...

DoninIL Loc: East Central Illinois

This is supposed to be my garden, but I haven't been able to till it and the weeds are taking over. Taken with a Nikon D7000 w/ AF-S Nikkor 55-300 MM lens. I really wanted to take the second one from a worms eye view, but my knees won't let me get down there.

PixelStan77 Loc: Vermont/Chicago

Interesting. Tell them to go some other place and stay out of your garden

DoninIL wrote:

This is supposed to be my garden, but I haven't been able to till it and the weeds are taking over. Taken with a Nikon D7000 w/ AF-S Nikkor 55-300 MM lens. I really wanted to take the second one from a worms eye view, but my knees won't let me get down there.

John_F Loc: Minneapolis, MN

Looks like you got a flowering ground cover - lucky you. Why tear out. Just clear patches for to plant annuals or perenials and let plant nature take over. That ground cover will save you from having to spread mulch, will shade the soil and help new plants' roots from baking.

John_F Loc: Minneapolis, MN

Forgot to mention that the dandelions in #1 provide necter and pollen for bees.

DoninIL Loc: East Central Illinois

PixelStan77 wrote:

Interesting. Tell them to go some other place and stay out of your garden

I wish I could, but they don't listen

DoninIL Loc: East Central Illinois

John_F wrote:

Looks like you got a flowering ground cover - lucky you. Why tear out. Just clear patches for to plant annuals or perenials and let plant nature take over. That ground cover will save you from having to spread mulch, will shade the soil and help new plants' roots from baking.

That's supposed to be in corn and broccoli and lettuce and tomatoes, etc. The hen bane is a real pest around here. Farmers are constantly battling it and the violets are almost as bad, they'll completely take over any place they can get started.

DoninIL Loc: East Central Illinois

Thanks all for the comments. I just had to vent some of my frustration about not being able to get my gardening done.

sb Loc: Florida's East Coast

One person's wildflowers are another person's weeds!

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

Weeds weeds... The condo association hired a landscape firm to beautify our surroundings.... they planted the expensive plants in the fine silica soil.. long starved of any life supporting value, nor ability to hold moisture... then added "top soil" on the surface,,, evidently to culture weeds for them to remove later at an additional cost???

PS: wild flowers are only weeds when not in bloom, thanks for sharing these beautiful carpets of blue

jaymatt Loc: Alexandria, Indiana

I can't tell you the name of that purplish-blue plant, but I do know that it's a noxious weed that, if left uncontrolled, will soon spread into your yard and smother out your grass. It takes chemical to get rid of it--mowing or cultivating won't help. I'd suggest you do it soon or you'll have no yard at all, just those weeds.

Speaking from experience, John.

Brian in Whitby Loc: Whitby, Ontario, Canada

A weed is a plant that grows where you don't want it to grow.
Dandelions were brought from europe yo bebusedcas a potherb. They were notva weed when they were deliberately planted in the garden.

Annie-Get-Your-Gun Loc: Byron Center, Mi

DoninIL wrote:

This is supposed to be my garden, but I haven't been able to till it and the weeds are taking over. Taken with a Nikon D7000 w/ AF-S Nikkor 55-300 MM lens. I really wanted to take the second one from a worms eye view, but my knees won't let me get down there.

Your spring violets are beautiful and would not like to be called
weeds, Donin.
:-)

DoninIL Loc: East Central Illinois

jaymatt wrote:

I can't tell you the name of that purplish-blue plant, but I do know that it's a noxious weed that, if left uncontrolled, will soon spread into your yard and smother out your grass. It takes chemical to get rid of it--mowing or cultivating won't help. I'd suggest you do it soon or you'll have no yard at all, just those weeds.

Speaking from experience, John.

John,
I know what the purple flower is - it is henbit (I named if wrong in my earlier post - henbane is a different pest.) It is an annual that germinates in the late fall and then grows and blooms very early in the spring.

What you are talking about is probably ground ivy which a lot of people call creeping charlie. It is a perennial and spreads like mad. I've got that problem in my strawberry patch.

DoninIL Loc: East Central Illinois

Brian in Whitby wrote:

A weed is a plant that grows where you don't want it to grow.
Dandelions were brought from europe yo bebusedcas a potherb. They were notva weed when they were deliberately planted in the garden.

Hi Brian,

I agree with you.I love dandelion greens if I can get them early enough so they are not bitter.

DoninIL Loc: East Central Illinois

Annie-Get-Your-Gun wrote:

Your spring violets are beautiful and would not like to be called
weeds, Donin.
:-)

Annie,

I agree, they are gorgeous, but they can't seem to be kept out of my vegetable gardens, perennial flower beds, or lawn and they want to take over.