Weeds

The cucumber seeds are up and growing.  I know the warm soil really makes a difference but its crazy how fast they are growing.  Beans are just starting to pop up too.

I guess I should talk about weeds.  Recently having a conversation with my mother about her alyssum and moss roses that have re-seeded themselves everywhere I flashed back to my Biology and Botany roots.  A weed really is just a plant that is not growing where you want one to grow.  Be it a bindweed or pigweed or cucumber or watermelon, if it is not growing in a place that you have specifically planted it....it is a weed.

I think the best way to rid yourself of this weed is to pull it.  If you get it early enough it won't have any seeds that it will spread from.  Unfortunately the "weeds" we fight have seeds that will disperse when they are very young. The portulaca you pull probably won't have any seeds it will spread all over the place, the creeping spurge you pull out however will.  If it has even a few leaves it seems that it will have seeds ready to jump off the parent plant and land wherever you have pulled it.  Even the portulaca you want ( moss rose) and the weed sometimes called a water weed or purslane seems to have different ideas of when to spread the seeds.

Purslane is a "weed" that is a very edible plant but we spend a lot of time pulling it and trying to kill it in our gardens.  It also tends to have viable seeds very early and when we do pull it we just spread it around. It even goes as far as growing from cuttings. You can drop a chunk of this purslane and it will sprout and grow.  It is very hardy.  I really wish a lot of my garden plants were that resilient.