Weeds Have Rights Too !

[ScottBakula]

We , the weed collective have decided that its time to stand up for our weedy rights !
In particular at this time of the year all of our brethren are mercilessly up rooted and poisoned for no reason other than someone has decided that we are inferior to the flowers that humans like.

We bring nature back to derelict area's like neglected road side verges , abandoned gardens, cracks in paving stones , gaps in gutters and the brave ones even go up on to rooftops and live in the chimney stacks and gutters.

Nature isn't meant to be regimented with flowers in neat rows and groups so we come along and add a bit of normal back to your garden and what do you do ? You poison or up-root us . Which also can cause problems to your beloved plants.

We understand that you want things to look pretty, but please leave us a bit of space too.

We create just as much oxygen as your expensive roses and lilies , we feed bees , wasps and butterflies along with lots of other bugs.

We are just flowers that humans have decided they don't want , and that makes us sad.
Please help the weed collective by leaving us a little bit of your land and we promise that we will help to look after your environment.

( just incase nobody notices this is a bit tounge in cheek , but I do think that all plants help our environment and bees don't care if its a dandelion or prize rose that they get there pollen from)

"Hello lickle weed", you will understand this if over a certain age and watched the puppets show "Bill and Ben. I had a wildlife area around the little orchard at the bottom of my garden.it took almost 6 years to get going and a staggering amount of money and hard graft! Now it's rugosas . plenty for the pollinators, some weeds are NOT welcome, when they ruin my veg plot. The Bindweed choking my climbing beans. I do grow types of native wild flowers some folk refer to as weeds.

@kinkytoes my sister and I used to gather groundsel for our rabbits and guinea pigs when we were kids. It always makes me a bit nostalgic when I see it which is good cause I have some out the front which I shall take to my zombie cannibal caterpillars. @ScottBakula get worried if I don't respond. The caterpillars may have eschewed groundsel, ragwort, and cannibalism in favour of eating the cats and me 😬

@Nannyfannybanny flobadob little weeeed 😁. That's a lot of time and effort but I bet its worth it.
Like others on this thread we don't think flowers should be ousted just because someone decided its not desirable. ( but some can pack their roots and bugger off ).

@RumNotRun you and your cats need to sleep with one eye open !

ScottBakula, haha, showing your age!

Tbf it's a bit before my time , but my dad really liked them along with muffin the mule. So we got quotes / jokes from him about them from time to time.
I'm more of a flintstones and scooby kinda gal

Well Ive moved locations...Im in the Southern part of the US now and saw some swallowtail butterflies flitting to and fro. Not sure what these caterpillars like like, but they are hanging out on a lantana plant.I javent looked up.the different sex of them.

I went into the garden yesterday to check on the caterpillars and ragwort. All of the ragwort, even the solitary plants that have popped up here and there, are stripped bare. There are also no caterpillars to be seen! I hope that they all got nice and plump and are now beginning their transformation. Fingers crossed that next year I have lots of cinnabar moths!

@IdrisElbow , yes it does a bit , your right bees and wasps adore them .
@Sweetpea1532 That's a amazing butterfly it almost doesn't look real.
Your lucky , getting to travel around the country means you must see a wide variety of plants and bugs .

I have got them growing near work , is it just me or does it look like it's got its hands / fronds / leaves up in surrender? 😀

Yes,it does @ScottBakula or else raising its hands and saying 'pick me, pick me'

Yes, I'll have to scout round the neighbourhood and report back on some Southern weeds.
There is a very invasive one called Kudzu.
Brought from East Asia. It is a vine and grows 12 inches in one day
It can grows over trees, houses, electric power poles, etc. It's unstoppable! It has lovely unusual purple flowers that smell of grapes. Yum! Can be used to make jelly. Attached is a photo from the internet...I'll try to get an actual photo but Im afraid that if i get too close it may reel me in and I'll never be heard from again!
As a wee child, I thought Id help our garden by planting a cutting Id picked from the empty lot down the street. My father almost had a heartattack when he found my little garden of kudzu...fortunately, he discovered it before it established itself...I was only tryng to help beautify the garden..jeez !

Good lord @Sweetpea1532 12 inches a day ! That's incredible, it's trying for world domination 😲.
That would make just a few jars of jelly ( jam ??) 😀.
If you see some irl please don't get to close , I'd miss you .

Them little thistle type plants have now gone to seed and are fluffy little beasties.

Those thistles will be great food for goldfinches @ScottBakula

I spotted a new weed in my “lawn” today. Think it may be lesser trefoil? Whatever it is, it’s popular with the tiniest blue butterflies I’ve ever seen. I’ve consulted my butterfly field guide and still can’t work out what it is. It’d really help if butterflies sat still occasionally!

This is lovely thread and very informative. I have evening primrose which just invited itself into my front garden to join the other volunteer plants which may be known as weeds by other less tolerant types. I also have some lilac colour daily things and lots of Japanese anemones which I did not actually plant. Also the usual dandelions. Brambles, however, do need to sod off really.

@RaininSummer , volunteer plants , I like that name a lot 😆.
How's everybody's weeds , caterpillars and butterflies doing ?
Most plants have gone to seed near me now , there is going to be a huge abundance of rose hips near one of the places that I work.
I'd love to make rose hip jelly again but they are right next to a very busy road so I will have to look elsewhere.

Hi weed lovers! I have just been out evicting some dandelions and I discovered I am now growing oregano in my garden! Plus I have a few ragwort plants beginning to appear, ready for my caterpillars. Most excitingly I have seen two cinnabar moths which I definitely identified as having come from last year's caterpillars.

I’ve been trying to grow some Milkweed to help the monarch butterfly endangerment. Can barely get them to grow. It’s supposed to be extremely easy for them to flourish since they are weeds, but mine aren’t doing so well… and the mama monarchs just keep on laying their eggs on the little twigs. A bit ago I collected a handful of monarch caterpillars and took them over to my neighbor whose milkweed is 4 feet tall with lots of leaves and flowers. I don’t know him… never talked with him before, but I was desperate to ‘save the monarchs’ . When he came to his front door, he answered it to a crazy lady standing there with a handful of caterpillars… fortunately he took the little orphans and put them on his milkweed and actually thanked me. That’s my bit for nature for the week.🦋🦋🦋
@ScottBakula what weeds have you been saving recently?

@Sweetpea1532that is so lovely! Last year after my caterpillars ate all the ragwort, I was on the lookout locally for any I could take home to them. It looks like cinnabars did well round here cause all the local ragwort was stripped bare!

This thread has been revived at just the right time.

Earlier today I was staring at a patch of mystery plants in my garden, confused about what I was looking at. It's the offspring of the wasp-magnet I posted about last year, coming back with a vengeance! It's not quite in the spirit of this thread, but I'm afraid they've got to go. Promise I'll leave all the other weeds alone.

I am a rubbish gardener so end up wandering around, phone in hand, scanning them all on the Picture This app so I know what is growing.

@RumNotRun I can’t wait to try ‘picture this’. Thanks for mentioning it

It loads a subscription screen but there's a tiny cross in the top right corner to close it and you can use the app for free. Sorry if that seems obvious but I was using it once at my dad's and I couldn't see the cross at first and thought I had to pay/had used my free trial.

Thanks for that tip @RumNotRun I just got a new phone and can use all the tips I can get

@RumNotRun
Picture This is amazingly! I snapped a photo of my gardenia through my bedroom window and it was able to I D it from 15 ft away and said it looks healthy.
Im not sure if I found the little cross to shut off the subscription so I signed up for the 7 day free trial. Would you be so kind as to look at my screenshot and guide me from there? I know that’s a huge ‘ask’, so if you’re too busy, please don’t bother. It looks like it may just be worth it to prescribe because I have so many cool weeds around here I’d like to preserve for the bees and butterflies. Thank you,again

@Sweetpea1532 I think you'd need to cancel the free trial or end the subscription, and then once the free bit runs out, you get this page and the cross is in the top right.

From your screenshot, if you haven't already completed the subscription information, I'd press cancel and you should be able to still use the free bit I think.

some weeds are NOT welcome, when they ruin my veg plot. The Bindweed choking my climbing beans. I do grow types of native wild flowers

Yes, well ahem, cough cough, obviously I wasn’t suggesting that ALL weeds should be prioritised over every other plant,… hang on was it even me on this thread?? (Also having problems with bindweed, lovely as it is in the hedge)…😊

I may also hate slugs