March 28, 2005

Gratuitous Domestic Posting (TM) - Outdoor Division

This weekend, the Llama-ettes and I got out into the garden for the first time this season in order clean things up a bit in anticipation of the spring growth.

Here's a question for all you green-thumb types: There is a particular kind of weed, a low-growing, expansive plant. It has lots of spade-shaped, highly textured leaves of a half-inch or so and produces stalks of about five or six inches with tiny pinkish-purple flowers. Does anyone know what this is?

Whatever its name, I consider this blasted weed to be one of Nature's low blows: The fact that it continues to grow all winter is bad enough. The fact that it flowers in the winter is positively iniquitous. In an equitable world, once the garden goes dormant, one ought to be able to ignore it for the season and not have to plunge one's hands into freezing cold mud in order to keep the place from being overrun with weeds before spring even starts.

UPDATE:

Here's the bastard:
deadnettle.jpg
The Purple Deadnettle. Apparently, they're members of the mint family. That figures. Here are some more pictures. And here is a recommendation on when it's best to zap them (which, apparently, is right about now).

Yips! to Mixolydian Don who put me on the deadnettle track.

Posted by Robert at March 28, 2005 10:54 AM
Comments

It sounds like henbit:

Posted by: Don at March 28, 2005 11:47 AM

Here's the missing link:
http://plants.usda.gov/cgi_bin/topics.cgi?earl=plant_profile.cgi&symbol=LAAM

Posted by: Don at March 28, 2005 11:48 AM

Call me crazy, but I find a lot of the flowering weeds to be lovely.

Posted by: jen at March 28, 2005 02:06 PM

Instead of hurling them over the fence, Jen, I'll be glad to bring mine 'round to your place if you like!

Posted by: Robert the LB at March 28, 2005 02:19 PM

This deadnettle's cultured cousin, Lamium maculatum (spotted deadnettle), is my favorite groundcover...which may explain why my reaction to this photo was "ooh, wouldn't that look nice underplanting my lavender border."

Posted by: Chan S. at March 29, 2005 08:57 AM

Chan - I have every reason to believe that if I ever tried to intentionally plant this stuff somewhere, it simply would curl up its little roots and die out of spite!

Posted by: Robert the LB at March 29, 2005 09:15 AM

So that what the stuff is i,ve seen it all over around here along with a few other wildflowers

Posted by: mad heron at March 29, 2005 03:51 PM
Post a comment









Remember personal info?