Questions about the Garden (otherwise known as "I have no clue, let's ask my friends list")

[nekosensei]

It's been years since I've had a house with a garden, and I know very little about gardening. Today, I was out pulling weeds and had the following questions:

1. Are these plants signs that the Black-Eyed Susans have re-seeded themselves? I hope so since they are all over both gardens. I stopped working half-way through the second garden, and I still hadn't removed the old Black-Eyed Susans from this part of the garden. Notice the greenery under the dead stems.

2. What's this? A plant or a weed?

3. And this? If this isn't a weed, I'm kind of worried about them and the Blackeyed-Susans in this garden since the grass is starting to take over. And it's really hard to separate out the grass from the plants in this garden. *grumbles*

4. I think these are probably weeds, but what are they? They're everywhere.

5. Is this mum ever going to come back, or is it toast? Mums are perennials, right? [Note: I think it's a mum since it had these purple flowers in mid to late fall.]

6. What's this? doomsey thought it was crabgrass, but I noticed that, earlier this spring, one of them sprouted a flower. It wasn't this particular plant, but another one that was closer to the tulips. If I remember correctly, it was white with little bits of purple in it? Unfortunately, I don't quite remember and I never really had a chance to take a picture of it.

So...yeah...I clearly have no idea what I'm doing, so I decided to ask my friends list.

And this is for those of you who suffered through this post. Tulips!

Comments

[killerweasel.livejournal.com]

#3 looks like wild violets to me. We get those in my lawn. Very pretty little flowers.

[judygs.livejournal.com]

No, it's #2 that looks like violets. They are pretty, but you have to be careful, because they will take over everything.

#3 looks like tulips.

#4 does look like weeds. But they also are cute. I'd wait and see.

#5 The other owners did live there last fall did they? That makes it unlikely that they planted it it. There are perennial mums.

#6 Don't pull them out. There are bulbs that look like that. (Can't say which one, sorry.)

[judygs.livejournal.com]

#5 I mean the owners didn't live there last fall.

[fuzzyscribble.livejournal.com]

2 Violets. Depending on if you like them...keep them. They're damn hard to get rid of.

3 Looks like Lillies of the Valley

4 looks like creeping charlie. It's a ground cover. It won't hurt and it's green. It may make tiny purple flowers.

5. Cut it down to the bare bottom. See if it comes up in August. Enjoy the foliage...but don't expect flowers. Mums are perennials...but only flower down south because they need an extremely long growing season.

6 Is the remenants of a decorative grass called "silver grass" I think. Harmless...but if you don't want it there...pull it.

[forestdruid.livejournal.com]

1) Black eyed susans (rudbeckia) often reseed themselves and often hybridize with other compositae species. You may get some surprises when they actually bloom! =)

2) These are violets. They are edible and pretty, but otherwise an obnoxious weed. Try the flowers in salads.

3) These are lily of the valley. They are very pretty, but are otherwise an obnoxious weed. Use them to fill in shaded places under bushes or where nothing else will grow. They are very easy to transplant.

4) These are called ground ivy or creeping charlie. This is also edible, but not very tasty. It is an especially obnoxious weed, but very easy to pull out due to the fact that it spreads via runners above ground.

5) Leave your mum until september. If it gets no leaves by then, it is toast.

6) This is likely something called blue-eyed grass. It is very pretty and well worth propagating. It flowers and dies down early enough that it can even be grown in the middle of your lawn (like spring crocus). Without a flower, this one is very hard to identify, as there are a lot of similar-leaved flowers (grape hyacinth, spring crocus, etc.).

Crocus probably....

[forestdruid.livejournal.com]

scratch #6. The more I look at it, the more I think it is actually spring-flowering crocus. The white line down each leaf is giving me pause...