Volunteers

The desert is blooming and magnificent, but the backyard is doing well too. Of course, winter rain makes all the plants happy, including the weeds. I once read that a weed is just a plant out of place, and that is probably true. But there are weeds, and there are WEEDS. There are some plants that I cannot abide having around. Russian thistle for one, and spurge for another.

But this year some plants are showing up that I have to look up before I get the weed killer out. To my delight I found 2 Mexican gold poppy plants, and some lovely primroses are trying to gain foothold. My rule is, if you are nice to look at and well-behaved, you may stay. But if you insist on taking over the property, you've gotta go.


And then there are the plants that I put in that have decided to seed out and show up in elsewhere. The desert zinnia is one, and very pretty at that, as is the damianita. I usually do not tolerate plants in the gravel paths, but some of these are left in hopes that they will selfseed somewhere else, and then I can take out the plant in the path. Even the soaptree yucca shows up here and there in our previously razed building site.


Another plant that is nice, but needs a strong hand, is perovskia. It is lovely, with pretty blue flower spikes and a nice fragrance, but after you have planted it once, it shows up everywhere. Our site still needing more greenery, I leave it in some spots, and declined to tackle this seedling which decided that sharing space with a pencil cholla might give it a good chance to survival. It was right.