Is the hatred of pulling weeds universal, or am I the only lazy person around? A weed that Bogie has identified from my photos as probably being speedwell is trying taking over the world at our house. The speedwell is pretty, while abloom, but not so much at the later stage. The rain that we've had the past couple of nights make it "easier" work for me - perfect for me to go out early of a morning, before sun and heat get too intense, to put in whatever time I can stand pulling those little suckers. Yesterday, I put in three spells of weed-pulling - 60, 40, and 20 minutes, respectively - and put in only 40 minutes this morning.
The first photo shows a portion of the foundation planting area in front of the house, with speedwell rife. The second photo shows a nearby area that I cleared, yesterday - with the sparse amount of sedum that survived the onslaught. (It's easier to throw out sedum plants with the speedwell than to be too picky, at times.) One can see that the speedwell is past the blooming stage. Its blooms are tiny and blue. The yellow blossoms in the photos are those of sedum. FWIW: The area in each photo is about as much as I can clear in 40-60 minutes.)
Congrats, that's true dedication and perseverance.
Posted by: Joared | April 30, 2022 at 11:13 PM
To be fair, speedwell makes an excellent groundcover. It covers the ground, is persistent, and controls erosion (and probably other weeds). However, in the right conditions, it will try to take over the world - in which case it becomes a noxious weed.
I too hate pulling weeds, although I hate pulling some more than others. Things like chickweed, creeping charlie, plantain, sheep sorral, and purslane are a pain because they are very low growing, spread by roots, grow in compacted soil (not easy to pull most times) and even the tiniest bit left will regenerate a generation (within days). All of these are unattractive except during bloom time.
Jewel weed is easier since it grows tall, has shallow roots, lives in wetter areas (thus easier to pull) and are easy to see. It is easy to see progress after only a couple of minutes of pulling this stuff up. They take a while to reestablish themselves and it doesn't hurt that it is not unattractive - even when not in bloom.
Posted by: bogie | May 01, 2022 at 05:06 AM
Joared--We do what we gotta do.
Bogie--Each plant is just doing what I do: try to survive.
Posted by: Cop Car | May 01, 2022 at 02:50 PM
I do love the end result of weeding though.
Posted by: Liz Hinds | May 07, 2022 at 02:23 PM
There is a certain sense of accomplishment to it, Liz.
Posted by: Cop Car | May 13, 2022 at 10:12 PM