Our backyard is an eclectic collection of growing things. There are our natives, the giant Bur Oak, delicate Redbud trees, and various bushes and flowers. And there are our non-native plants like the Crepe Myrtles and the Rose of Sharon bush…both of these are part of my late mother’s legacy. Part of me wants to go totally native in our yard plants, but I don’t want to get rid of the ones I got from my mom.
And my husband enjoys having a yard of grass to mow. Our grass is a combo of native buffalo grass and St. Augustine. We planted the buffalo grass. The St. Augustine has migrated from a neighbor’s yard and now covers much of the yard…except for various weeds.
Weed- “a plant that is not valued where it is growing”-Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary
In late winter the Dandelion and Sow Thistle flowers are often the only thing blooming and are a source of food for bees and numerous other insects. So, I like to let them be.
My husband and I “consult” on what can be mown and what I want to let grow. Something new this year are the little red flags placed around areas I want let alone, mostly the bunches of native purple Spiderworts that are all over now. They are descendants of a couple of plants my mother gave us years ago. I have written here before about how wonderful it is to see them come up each year, a part of her legacy that lessens my lingering grief.
Anyway, beyond the red flag areas, my husband had some other plants to ask me about. One was an old Sow Thistle plant. It is growing just off our back porch in the path of our brick walkway causing us to step around it. Seeing that the flowers were gone, and it having gone to seed, I said “Sure, go ahead and mow it down.”
I was thinking that having lost it’s flowers it had lost it’s usefulness.
We had the mowing conversation while sitting on the porch enjoying a warm February day. The upcoming mowing would be the first of the season.
Suddenly, a little bird landed on the plant in question.
Okay…So, I had forgotten about birds liking the seeds. The plant would stay for awhile longer in our yard as a nice little food source for these critters. And the plus here is that we were only about 6 feet away from this little guy and got to enjoy his beauty.
Here is another weed shot:
Can you imagine never, ever getting to pucker up and blow this bundle of seed heads off into the sky, maybe making a wish as you do?
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All photos by B. McCreary
Sources:
Southwestern and Texas Wildflowers – Peterson Field Guide-Niehaus/Ripper/Savage
Wildflowers of Texas by Geyata Ajilvsgi
Weeds-A Golden Guide by Alexander C. Martin
Natural Musings 