A Life Inspired by Nature: Weeds or not to Weed

It's Spring in Austin, or so it seems with temps up in the high seventies and lows in the fifties. For me, the warm weather is coming much too soon, but the plants don't agree. New sprouts are popping up everyday, but which volunteer plants will turn into fun garden additions and which will turn into evil monsters? I've learned to recognize several weeds (the hard way) that grow very well in Austin. Here are some pictures of sprouts that are worth pulling out of your garden beds before they takeover, and a few weeds that I actually enjoy finding in my garden.

Here's a good mix of weeds some evil, some good.

A. Giant Ragweed- Definitely Evil- I once allowed it to grow because I didn't know what it was- Mistake! It grew about 12 ft tall! I waited and waited for the flowers, but of course they don't make flowers just green balls of pollen.

B. Native Sunflower- Good and Bad- I love sunflowers! Check out last year's sunflower forest. They completely take over my yard (I am happy about it, and the birds love it), but it makes it hard to walk in the yard (it's a very scratchy plant) and it competes with tomatoes and other things I also like to grow. The birds miss a lot of the seeds so every year there are more and more sprouts.

C. Woodsorrel (what we all thought as a kid was clover)- Good Weed- Who doesn't love lucky clovers? It's nice to find this weed in the yard. It makes nice ground-cover that doesn't choke other plants. I've actually been moving it around so it will grow where I want it.

D. Prickly Lettuce- Evil- This plant starts as a nice fresh green plant (that really looks like lettuce) but it quickly grows tough and scratchy, and makes millions of seeds. It develops a tap root that can be a pain to remove if left to long. Pull it up early!

E. Beggars Tick or Beggars Lice- Evil (anything named after parasites are bound to be bad.) Starts out looking like a carrot top, then makes a pretty white Queen Anne's Lace like flower, but then the seeds come. The seeds are very sticky, tiny, and numerous. A walk through a field of dry beggar's ticks leads to an hour of picking off seeds (speaking from experience.) Double the trouble if you have pets! Don't make a mistake pull this weed even if it looks pretty now!

F. A plant in the Geranium Family- not evil, not good. I don't know the name of this plant, but it's a little boring. I waited and waited for flowers since it appeared to be related to Geraniums, but it was a waste of time. It does have interesting leaves, but they stay pretty small.

G. Bedstraw/Velcro weed- Good This plant can be great ground cover forming thick mats. It is said that pioneers used to pile it up and sleep on it. I love the leaf pattern and bright green color. You will have to remove it from flower beds if you want wintering plants to come up.