On a gardening blog that I follow, l the author posed the question: "What is a weed and what is a wildflower" because she had a friend who was being driven crazy trying to eliminate "weeds" from her life.If you want to look at her story on weeds vs. flowers, her blog is at:
I am not sure of the name of the yellow flower above - it is definitely a "volunteer" and can be intrusive, but is very pretty along the side of the trails.
This one I have always called "vetch"
We have both purple and white clover. Clover is a nitrogen fixer, so I even let it grow in the garden sometimes. I end up tilling it, but I am always happy it has been there.
Fox glove growing in the rhododendron garden at the beginning of our driveway.
Johnny Jump Ups growing on the hillside.
Bleeding hearts. Nearly done blooming for this year, but there were still a few blooms.
White daisies - definitely "volunteers" but they may not be totally wild?? I do see these in gardens that are much more well tended than mine.
Scotch Broom - beautiful but intrusive. My Mom says that when she was a child she and her sister made trails and camps in a big patch of scotch broom.
More of our trail through the woods.
Oregon grape. It has a nice evergreen foliage and pretty purple berries in late summer.
Many varieties of ferns. Not completely competent to identify different ones - I do know these are Fiddleheads.
Pretty sure these are bracken.
More ferns along the trails.
Elderberry - the only berry in our woods that isn't very edible. I think people do make wine from them, but the berries while maybe not poison, are very awful tasting.
The kids all love the red huckleberries.
The Himalaya blackberry is very intrusive, but we have banks and banks of them where I pick berries for jam every summer.
Thimble berries - a favorite of birds and kids.
Likewise, salmon berries.
I tend to be a "live and let live" kind of gardener. In my actual garden area, I try to keep the intrusive weeds (like buttercups seen above) out. But I let them form a boundary around the garden.
I am not sure of the name of the yellow flower above - it is definitely a "volunteer" and can be intrusive, but is very pretty along the side of the trails.This is another unknown for me - delicate pink flowers - leaves look like bleeding heart leaves.
This one I have always called "vetch"
We have both purple and white clover. Clover is a nitrogen fixer, so I even let it grow in the garden sometimes. I end up tilling it, but I am always happy it has been there.
We have a trail system throughout the property, with areas that are old growth forest, and others that are meadows and still others that are channels in the "weeds" that Ron mows. I have no doubt that if he didn't mow them for one year, we would never be able to find them again.
I think a nature walk might be fun for local 4th or 5th grade classes as a field trip to learn plants. However, I am not confident enough in my plant identification skills to propose such a thing.
Fox glove growing in the rhododendron garden at the beginning of our driveway.
Johnny Jump Ups growing on the hillside.
Bleeding hearts. Nearly done blooming for this year, but there were still a few blooms.
White daisies - definitely "volunteers" but they may not be totally wild?? I do see these in gardens that are much more well tended than mine.
Scotch Broom - beautiful but intrusive. My Mom says that when she was a child she and her sister made trails and camps in a big patch of scotch broom.
More of our trail through the woods.
Oregon grape. It has a nice evergreen foliage and pretty purple berries in late summer.
Many varieties of ferns. Not completely competent to identify different ones - I do know these are Fiddleheads.
Pretty sure these are bracken.
More ferns along the trails.
Elderberry - the only berry in our woods that isn't very edible. I think people do make wine from them, but the berries while maybe not poison, are very awful tasting.
The kids all love the red huckleberries.
The Himalaya blackberry is very intrusive, but we have banks and banks of them where I pick berries for jam every summer.We also have the low growing blackberries that are nearly seedless so good for pies, and the Evergreen blackberries that are also good for jam.
Thimble berries - a favorite of birds and kids.
Likewise, salmon berries.
What beautiful "weeds" you have. The trails look so inviting. I'm just still amazed at the beautiful scenery you have there.
ReplyDeleteFor what it's worth - Many years ago I was doing some typing for a lady in Charleston, SC who was writing a cook book and she had some homemade eldeberry wine and it was actually some of the best wine I've ever tasted. Not sure where the elderberries came from.
The second, little pink flowering weed is a type of wild geranium. It can be very invasive if you let it go to seed. I actually planted some because I thought it was so pretty. I was sorry.
ReplyDeleteThe one you call Johnny jump up is actually a very special vine called Twin Flower. It's scientific name is Linnaea borealis, named by the famous Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus. It was his favorite flower and the only one he gave his name to.
Thanks, Linda for the real names of these plants. The wild geranium are growing along the road, so it is okay for them to spread there.
ReplyDeleteInteresting about the elderberry wine too, Bobbie. I always wondered if the wine was a figment of someone's imagination. :) There is a tree someone told me was elderberry on Lot 4 down there, but it is completely different. I am going to do a "weed" tour in GA when we get back down there. We use a lot of those weeds in our collage art. I will need your help in identifying them.