I Like Weeds

The first summer we lived in this house, I let all the plants grow uninhibited. I had no idea what would come up, so I just watched and waited. Lots of nice plants came up, and lots of mysterious things as well (is that a weed or was it planted on purpose??).

So, this past spring, knowing fairly well what I was dealing with, I began to move things around in a progressive step toward my dream garden. For example, I moved all the peonies and decorative perennials from the back yard to the front steps.

The back yard, I'm convinced, is for vegetables and edible plants only. We probably get more traffic through our back yard than the average suburban family, so we SHOULD have some decorative plants back there, but then again, ALL of the traffic consists of the 13-15 year old boys from the neighborhood hanging out on our basketball court. So vegetables should be fine.

Chances that the ballers are going to eat our zucchini are slim to none, but chances that the rabbits will have a go are astronomically high. When I go jogging in the morning, I may pass as many as 30 rabbits, lounging near the sidewalk I'm running on. They lazily look at me as I pass, and I can't help but wonder how many cousins are distributed throughout the rest of the yards, and how many of my plants they've all eaten.

I was a bit slow in getting my rabbit fence up this year, and the aforementioned vegetable garden suffered. ALL of the peas, beans, and broccoli were killed, as well as a tomato and pepper plant or two. Now, even though I whined unceasingly about the small dimensions of my plot, there is a big weed-filled rabbit-cleared space. At least I can look forward to my fall plantings of spinach for that spot.

Those crazy rabbits also went after HOSTAS! I've never seen that before. While beautifying the front yard, I divided some of my great hostas and searched for cheap sources for more. While attending a BBQ of one of Doug's colleagues, I got to chatting with the next-door neighbor. She was an older lady well endowed with hostas and happy to chat away about her garden. She helped me identify some of the plants that I have in my yard and also donated a couple of hostas to my efforts.

I divided her generous gifts as aggressively as possible in order to create my "ring of glory!". That is, I have a giant pine tree on the front corner of the property that isn't very exciting and I've always wanted a ring of hostas all around the base of the pine (20 foot diameter) like I've seen some of my neighbors do. So, my ring is made up of spindly single-leaf baby hostas, but I'm sure that in future years they will fill in for a lovely sight.

That is, if the rabbits don't repeat this year's performance. They ate all the leaves off the hostas! I'm just praying that the plants will come back next spring without being much worse for the wear.

Okay, so in addition to the plants I recognize, I've kept my eye on several weeds, since I've learned that sometimes a nice flower blooms from what I thought was a weed. (Don't you think poppies look like weeds before they bloom?). Out along the front steps, I saw some plants that looked suspiciously like squash.

AND THEY ARE! I realize that the pumpkins from last Halloween were left so long on the porch that some seeds found purchase out front. It's not hard to accidentally leave your decorative pumpkin too long...when the first snow falls in early November, I think, "I'll rescue that pumpkin as soon as the snow melts." But then... the snow doesn't melt until some time in April and the pumpkins are germinating.

The other surprise is the wild TOMATO plants springing up down by the curb and lawn. Was someone eating a sandwich down there and dropped a tomato? More likely the very mobile cherry tomatoes from the back yard were traveling via toddler fist and were delivered all over the property. I've also got a bumper crop of wild tomatoes in the back yard, not far from where they were planted last summer...I'm curious to see if they yield.

So, that's why I say I like weeds...they sometimes yield a pumpkin. I also like weeds after reading our organic CSA newsletter explaining that it's not necessary to kill every weed to grow a good crop. Sometimes those weeds provide a home for insects who then don't feel inclined to move into the vegetables.

On that note, I think I plant some clover for the rabbits and be sure to keep it far from the broccoli and hostas.