Babysteps: A Defense of my Wonderful Weeds

I sent the kids out with my camera and instructions to take pictures of all the different types of weeds we had growing as ground cover. Here are most of them.

The strange purple flower heads of these plants look like Henbit, but the leaves and stems are a different shape and much taller. (Aunt B says they're from the mint family. Who am I to disagree?) I think they look like they're wearing Edwardian capes with multiple cloaks, or maybe like tiny green Daleks on sticks. Pollinate! Pollinate!

We have lots of clover, some small like these, and some with much larger heads. It's thick and bushy, and Mim says you can't see your feet when you walk through parts of it. Imagine how nice and un-grass-like that feels on little toes!

Try not to think of this as a weed. Isn't it lovely? I mean, yes, it's a Dandelion, but still, look at that yellow!

Now these next two were planted with intention, but I liked Mim's pictures anyway. The Peonies are just starting up. They will have big, gorgeous pink flowers in May. Bless the green-thumbed, grandma who owned this house before us.

This tulip was from a bag full of bulbs that Grandma Lilibeth gave us last fall. We planted them all around the tree-house before the winter, and are now being rewarded for our bit of effort. This particular tulip has been damaged by either the cold or the teeth of the furry visitors to our yard. We have a few rabbits, many squirrels, the occasional deer, and the fattest, furriest groundhog I've ever seen. Mim named him Dirk.

These are river reeds that grow beside the water of our on again-off again creek. We've had lots of rain this spring, so the creek is certainly "on" right now. There are many other plants around and behind the creek. We didn't even try to catalog all of them.

I have no idea what kind of plant this is, but the leaves are thick and cool. It must be a kind of succulent ground cover. It grows all along one side of the house, up near the wall. It feels fantastic to walk on with bare feet, all crunchy and soft and dry and moist at the same time.

Patchy bits of wild chives grow all over the yard. Mim loves to come running in with a handful saying, "Mom! Smell! Doesn't it smell great?!" Yes, smells exactly like the last time you stuck them in my face, Dear.

She also pulls them out of the ground and adds them to whatever mud/plant stew she's cooking up in one of her many "forts."

These tiny blue flowers are smaller than a ladybug, but found everywhere when you really get down and look. They're like a reward from God for taking the trouble to get down on your hands and knees.

Another plant that I don't know the name of at all- they looks to me like violets, but they're the size of a fingernail. I wouldn't call them shy, exactly, but certainly meek.

This tall fernish plant is threatening to block the light from some of my tulips down near the creek and the tree house, but they looks so spring-like and green and lively that I haven't had the heart to pull them out. I'll just wait until Art mows them over, I suppose. He's a Philistine when it comes to my lovely weeds. (Love you dear, but you know it's true.)

Yet another tiny wildflower that probably has a real name. In my head, I call them daisies. Mini-daisies.

Not all the plants are welcome, of course. This surly monster up by the front drive will have to go. What a prickly fellow! He's all spikes and nasty looking hairs.