"100" -- Backyard Weeds

After the septic system was installed, I seeded part of the mound, and the installer seeded the rest of the mound and the other places in the yard that were disturbed. When I put out grass, I seed heavily. Probably too heavily. Probably wasteful. But I get grass coming up in sufficient amounts to prevent massive amounts of weeds taking hold first. Well, the baby grass was finally long enough yesterday that it was time to mow. But that meant all those species of weeds were going to go down with the grass. Quick, quick, take pictures first!

1. This is DANDELION. You may recognize it. It is an alien species which was brought to America as a salad green. But the greens taste awful if you eat them after the flowers bloom. Maggie says they taste a lot like spinach.



2. This is a mint. It is called GROUND IVY or creeping charlie. The ground ivy is the one with the little purple flowers. It's very pretty, but it sure does like to creep and it's hard to eradicate.
3. Also in this picture is HOP CLOVER. It's the tiny yellow flowers. In this picture it's hard to see the three-leaf clusters that indicate clover, but here's an online picture.
4. There's also GRASS in this picture. Hey, laugh if you will. But it's a species we can identify!
5. Notice in the upper right corner of the picture are some 3"-tall MAPLE TREES. We could give you a picture of a grown-up maple tree, but I bet you've seen those. So we're just including the maples here with this snapshot.


6. PLANTAIN is recognizable particularly by the veins veering out of the stem rather than from a middle vein in the leaf. If you know plantain, then you can use it out in the yard or a park when you get a mosquito bite or bee sting or contact poison ivy. Plantain is excellent for skin problems.