Weeds that You Allow to Grow in Your Garden

[Alicehunter2000]

I have a weed that pops up in my garden....it looks pretty cool....so it is allowed to live. Show me your weeds that you allow in your garden. No palms please.

[_Keith]

I don't lose sleep at all over weeds in the garden, only when they start making things look really messy or start to impact the health of my desired plants do I deal with them.

[Justin]

African Tulip trees (some, I pull most of them)

Alpinias (again, some, but I pull the majority)

Acalypha (the most colorful I let grow, the rest I pull)

Ti Plants (same)

Ground Orchids (so long as they aren't in a pathway)

[BS Man about Palms]

Stop by for a tour anytime...

[turfpro01]

Much less work to not tolerate any weeds. Once they go to seed, You have 10x more work next year.

[_Keith]

Much less work to not tolerate any weeds. Once they go to seed, You have 10x more work next year.

I guess it depends on the garden and environment. I live on 3 acres in a very lush part of the country. If I weeded 24 hours a day everyday I would not control them, thus I have learned to live with them. Close to the house I pay it a bit more attention. But then again, most of my lawn is mowed native grasses and not what others would call a lawn. Although I have to say in the 12 years of mowing regularly here, the St Augustine grass that was here before in bits and pieces has now taken over about 33% of the total grass areas.

[MattyB]

Stop by for a tour anytime...

Lol

[redbeard917]

My entire property is not really a "garden". Some of it is overgrown woods with varying light levels, some is lawn, and there are a few well-maintained garden beds.

In the garden beds (which are small enough to stay on top of things), I let Madagascar periwinkle, zinnias, and ornamental amaranth reseed, but pull the ones that aren't in the right spot. No weeds are tolerated.

In natural areas, I only remove blackberry brambles and a few other highly invasive plants. I let wildflowers (lots of goldenrod and liatris, but a few others too, some are pretty nice), native blueberries, unusual natives I can't ID, wood ferns, scub pawpaws, etc., do whatever they do.

Longleaf pine, red bay, sparkleberry and some kind of hawthorn volunteer on my property, and often get to stay. Laurel oaks seedlings OTOH get a date with a string trimmer, and American persimmon, sumac and sassafras usually get removed too.

[Alicehunter2000]

No pictures?

It doesn't count as a weed if you planted the original plant and it just re-seeded in another part of the garden.

[Silas_Sancona]

Aside from 2 types of Purslane I allow to grow in the yard, everything else that pops up is religiously torn out, grasses and Sedge especially. Cut to the ground, it isn't uncommon for the Sedge to push 2-3" of new growth within 24 hours, even without a soaking downpour. Just glad I have been able to keep the nearby Air Potato away.. that stuff is horrible.

-Nathan-

[Really full garden]

At the beach I have a real problem with nut grass.It is next to impossible to kill. I treat it like lawn turf and just mow it.It takes no water and looks green in all except our driest months.

[redbeard917]

red bay seedling. got a bunch of 'em.

scrub pawpaw in bloom. makes tasty edible fruit too, although it has massive seeds in it.

[redbeard917]

pretty sure this is some kind of hawthorn.

unknown wildflower

[redbeard917]

liatris in bloom. the serenoa was planted, but they are reproducing in the woods out back, another weed that I like. liatris is a nice enough plant that I am transplanting them around the yard. even though they only bloom for a fairly short period, they take up very little space. this picture is about 5 years old. they are pretty abundant in this spot now.

[redbeard917]

One type of goldenrod. Please ignore the old junk...

Some other random wildflower. My property is a natural longleaf pine/wiregrass community, which if I'm not mistaken is the most diverse plant community in north America (outside of the tropics), and can have 300 different groundcover plants in an acre. There are a bunch of different wildflowers, grasses, herbs and such that pop up here. I can't bring myself to remove all of it and put in boring landscape plants like most others do.

[Kim]

David, I have that same weed in Hawaii. It wasn't on my property to begin with, but hitched a ride in with some potted palms and has since spread all over. I used to pull everything, but my last trip I decided to experiment with letting that one grow, in hopes it would prevent other more obnoxious weeds from occupying the same space. I'll let you know how it goes. Most weeds look too untidy or can quickly grow to be trash trees, and vines can rapidly engulf everything, so the general rule for East Hawaii is to remove anything that wasn't planted.

In San Diego the garden is so small it can be micro-managed. So far, I've not been tempted to let any weeds have their way with the garden.

[_Keith]

Unless they mess badly with my allergies, I don't consider any plant that flowers, especially natives, as weeds. Doesn't mean I don't try to control them for aesthetic reasons, but I happily allow them places to grow and I appreciate their beauty.

[The Silent Seed]

Here's what I let stay; these re-seed all over.

Ampelopsis brevipedunculata albovariegata - My big mother plant sows many, many seedlings every year - I'd say about 25% come up variegated - so I leave them be.

Hibiscus syriacus - Minerva, and Blue Bird, and hopefully soon, Sugar Tips.

Purple Morning Glories

Jack in Pulpits

Spiderworts

Gold Hops

Elms

And more....