I don't need to plant them, they grow naturally. I leave a big patch unmowed, it's one of my best insect viewing areas.
I get monarchs and viceroys among the hoard of six-leggers.

The_Piper wrote:I don't need to plant them, they grow naturally. I leave a big patch unmowed, it's one of my best insect viewing areas.
I get monarchs and viceroys among the hoard of six-leggers.

I don't even understand why people consider them a weed. Beautiful flowers in the summer, fascinating pods in the fall, plus they're usually crawling with milkweed beetles and lovely caterpillars and they attract some of the most striking North American butterfly species. I can't see why they couldn't be worked into a formal landscape with some ornamental onions and some nice foliage plants.

But, no, we need our yards to be lawns. Because reasons. Probably chiefest among those reasons being a spectacular failure of the imagination.

Weed seems to mean 'something I didn't plant and which also doesn't offer produce'.

ScholasticSpastic wrote:

The_Piper wrote:I don't need to plant them, they grow naturally. I leave a big patch unmowed, it's one of my best insect viewing areas.
I get monarchs and viceroys among the hoard of six-leggers.

I don't even understand why people consider them a weed. Beautiful flowers in the summer, fascinating pods in the fall, plus they're usually crawling with milkweed beetles and lovely caterpillars and they attract some of the most striking North American butterfly species. I can't see why they couldn't be worked into a formal landscape with some ornamental onions and some nice foliage plants.

But, no, we need our yards to be lawns. Because reasons. Probably chiefest among those reasons being a spectacular failure of the imagination.

Yeah a pure grass lawn is boring. One with trees and bushes and flowers, etc, even if unkempt, is just way more interesting. I like to let more trees and bushes grow where it was lawn when I moved in. I've transplanted lots of native trees too. ( I have 4 acres, about 1.5-2 were lawn when I bought it)
That milkweed definitely attracts lots of really neat beetles. Which in turn those insects probably attract the little birds which are also fun to look at in the yard. I agree, it's not ugly, it's quite cool, with those pods and fat leaves.
Adjacent to the milkweed I let a large front yard grow all summer into a mass of wild flowers and "weeds". I mow a narrow trail through it if it hasn't grown in too much, which I call the butterfly trail.

Spearthrower wrote:Weed seems to mean 'something I didn't plant and which also doesn't offer produce'.

Depends who you talk to. In my lexicon, it means that which you don't have to know what it means to know what it means.

Spearthrower wrote:Weed seems to mean 'something I didn't plant and which also doesn't offer produce'.

I don't even think in terms of "weeds" any more. There are plants which I want where they are, plants which I want somewhere else, and plants which must be eradicated at all costs. The latter category contains only the Caltrop Family, and is really limited to Tribulus terrestris.

hackenslash wrote:

Spearthrower wrote:Weed seems to mean 'something I didn't plant and which also doesn't offer produce'.

Depends who you talk to. In my lexicon, it means that which you don't have to know what it means to know what it means.

I wasn't talking about Jah Holy Hokum, mun!

ScholasticSpastic wrote:

Spearthrower wrote:Weed seems to mean 'something I didn't plant and which also doesn't offer produce'.

I don't even think in terms of "weeds" any more. There are plants which I want where they are, plants which I want somewhere else, and plants which must be eradicated at all costs. The latter category contains only the Caltrop Family, and is really limited to Tribulus terrestris.

I miss plants.

You can have all my Morning Glory aka choke weed.

Morning glory.

Is that what you call it?

Does she mean morning wood?

Kill all the burdock and stinging nettle types. I hate those.
Woodchucks are immune to stinging nettle.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=morning+glory

To awaken with a boner so hard a cat couldn't scratch it , otherwise known as to sleep in a tent, or to have a dawn horn.

The address wasn't understood

Firefox doesn't know how to open this address, because one of the following protocols (ttp) isn't associated with any program or is not allowed in this context.

You might need to install other software to open this address.

You are Fallible alright.
(you missed the h in http)

The_Piper wrote:Kill all the burdock and stinging nettle types. I hate those.
Woodchucks are immune to stinging nettle.

I used to know an old guy who swore that rubbing his hands with stinging nettle helped his arthritis. (Of course he's dead now, though. )

Hah! never heard that expression here. Morning Glory (The plant) is a beautiful but invasive climbing vine that will strangle anything it climbs on. It grows underground and sends runners up, and the smallest piece of root left un-composted will regrow an entire plant. Just about impossible to get rid of.

Onyx8 wrote:

The_Piper wrote:Kill all the burdock and stinging nettle types. I hate those.
Woodchucks are immune to stinging nettle.

I used to know an old guy who swore that rubbing his hands with stinging nettle helped his arthritis. (Of course he's dead now, though. )

It must have hurt his skin? Maybe he's part woodchuck.

Yeah, we have the plant here too. Completely out of character, I was being juvenile.