what's green and has leaves on it?

[the_siobhan]

I am asking for help from my knowledgeable friends list.

See, we have this big backyard. And it's full of green things.

And some of the green things I kinda like, and some of the green things I kinda don't. But I have no idea what any of there are. I'm not kidding, most plants look the same to me. I have trouble telling cabbage from spinach.

So I went out and took some pictures of some of the more aggressive flora in our yard, and I'm posting them so that people can look at me like I'm on crack and say, "That's an "X", you dweeb."


You can't really tell from the pics, but these things are tall. Taller than the_axel, and he's taller than me, and I'm tall.


Same plant. The leaves have a sandpaper texture.


These are pretty. About a foot tall with waxy leaves and tiny blue flowers.

The serrated leaves mixed in with them are mint. I can identify mint because it loudly announces it's presence every time I step on it. There is also a taller plant with lobate leaves on the left.


The aforementioned taller plant. Some of them are five feet tall. When I first spotted them I thought they looked vaguely like tomato plants. No such luck.

The yellow is goldenrod. I can only identify goldenrod while it's flowering.


A ground cover of some kind, it never gets taller than a foot. I think this might be a plant that used to be called "Creeping Charlie" when I was a kid, but I remember the flowers as being dark purple. But what do I know.

It covers the yard, is gradually pushing everything else out, has pretty flowers, grows about 8 inches tall and is tough enough to handle being walked by lots of drunk people without suffering any permanent damage. Unless the thing turns carniverous every few years, we will probably keep it as a ground cover. I hate grass.


This is about 6 inches tall and they don't seem to get any bigger than that.

I tried looking for these online, but it's kind of hard to search for images if you don't know what you're looking for.

Comments

[sarah-mum.livejournal.com]

Them'll be weeds then. Blue one looks pois'nus

There, the full extent of my gardening knowledge.

[redbird]

I'm fairly sure that number 3, with the blue flowers, is dayflower. As far as I know it has no medicinal or food uses, and is basically harmless. If you like the flowers, leave it be; if not, pull it and toss it on your compost heap, or in the trash if you have no compost.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

I think it's pretty so I'll probably keep it. I think it's crept in from our neighbour's yeard.

At some point I have to get out there and pull up all the goldenrod while it still has flowers to give it away.

[missjanette.livejournal.com]

I get a lot of the stuff with the pretty blue flowers in the front yard. It must be pretty hardy bc it's not been choked out by the ivy.
I have no idea what is is, mind you.

the wilderness out back

[metalana.livejournal.com]

You're already observing the important characteristics of plants (smells good, endures drunken stumblers, etc.) You could try "blind gardening" instead of labelling (we're not supposed to do it to people, why do it to plants?). Pull up the green things you don't like (you aren't likely to have any valuable plants in an unmaintained Toronto back yard). Leave the ones you do like. The hardier ones will take over.

Re: the wilderness out back

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

I'm kinda sorta inclined that way anyway, especially with the ground cover one. But there is a possibility some of the ones that aren't outwardly appealling might be useful in other ways.

If I have milkweed frex, I may keep it because I like monarch butterflies. Or citronella because I don't like mosquitos.

[kightp.livejournal.com]

This might be helpful (http://web.aces.uiuc.edu/weedid/)

The second one from the bottom looks like what folks around here call wild geranium (ours have small flowers that are fucshia with purple centers - pretty, really, but very invasive).

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

That's very useful. Thanks!

Looking at pics never helps me because I honestly can't tell them apart. Having specific questions to answer works much more closely with the way my brain operates.

[sola.livejournal.com]

it's possible that that last one is Ground-elder (http://www.dgsgardening.btinternet.co.uk/ground-elder.htm) .. i've never seen it before.

i want to say the one with the blue flowers is yet another sort of spellweed. could be totally wrong. if it is, it's mostly harmless, but will happily strangle vegetables. forewarned is forearmed.


the very tall ones in the first pics: i have no idea, but if you plan to do any planting at all, pull all of it, and pull it early. it'a horrible stuff: grows like gangbusters, shades out everything, invades even strong plants and spreads by runner. On the bright side, it's relatively easy to get rid of (i pulled ours when it was almost as tall as i am) if you get the main root clump and are careful to get up the runners.

[sola.livejournal.com]

in the meantime, this might be helpful:

http://www.rce.rutgers.edu/weeds/thumbnail.asp

http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/crops/facts/ontweeds/weedgal1.htm

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

It's starting to flower, but it still doesn't look like anything familiar.

It's raspy and and unpleasant, so unless it fruits pure cocaine, it's out.

[squid-pants.livejournal.com]

Second one I'd say is good old Belladonna a.k.a. Deadly Nightshade.
Others aren't ringing bells right now, but I just re-woke up.
Weeds are just plants growing somewhere you don't want them too. You want them, they aren't weeds.

[sharkskitten.livejournal.com]

i don't thinks so. I grow Belladonna and the leaves don't look like that. Though, i wish there was a closeup of the flower.

[squid-pants.livejournal.com]

On closer non-sleep deprived inspection that is true, that is not the correct shape of leaf.
Amazing what a good nights slepp will do for me, well spotted.

[mandor1971.livejournal.com]

YMMV. I talked to my aunt, who is a big gardener and she said, given my descriptions:

#4: Probably oak leaf hydrangea.

#5: Very probably lady's mantle.

#6: Very probably coral bells (heucheura)

Hope that helps!

If you're really interested

[mandor1971.livejournal.com]

I can send this link to my mom, who is an award-winning gardener, and have her say what they are. My aunt's repsonses are probably correct for the ones she gave answers to. Mom's better, but she's busy right now. (I care enough about my friends to call relatives about livejournal postings! ;)

I've posted mom's gardens before. Not sure you got to see them. Take care.

Re: If you're really interested

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

Sure! That would be very cool.

Re: If you're really interested

[mandor1971.livejournal.com]

Here's what mom said. Hope it helps some. Some of it matches what my aunt said. Have fun!

"I looked at the pics and it would be much easier if they were in flower.
The first 2 look like either Rudbeckia (black-eyed susan) or Echinacea (cone
flower). They could also be weeds.... you'll be able to tell when they
flower.

Number 3 is a wild flower but I don't know the name. It is very prolific
and I pull it out where I don't want it and just throw the plants where I
want to fill in a spot. They will start new there. I don't even plant
them....just throw them. They do look very nice growing around other plants
when in bloom though.

The 4th is a weed.

The 5th is either perennial geranium or ground ivy. If it is an actual
plant (Main stem, etc) and has very small flowers in spring it is geranium.
It the leaves grow on runners which hug the ground, it is ground ivy and I
am very sorry for you. It is an AWFUL weed which is practically impossible
to eradicate. I got a small bit of it from a plant from (someone) years ago
and fought it in the front yard at Nebo for 14 years. It also grows all
over here and I continue the battle.

The last plant looks familiar, but I don't know what it is.

The best way to identify plants from my experience is to let them flower and
if they aren't pretty or what I want, then I pull them out. I had a plant
grow up in the iris bed here this spring and I wasn't sure what it was, so I
let it go (ready to pull it out if necessary) and it turned out to be a very
pretty perennial (don't know what) with lots of small violet flowers."

[kest]

There's a family story from before I was born that my parents once had a large plant pulled from the backyard, that was taking over. 'Do you know what that was?' said the guy as they were hauling it away. 'No,' say my parents. 'That was a marijuana plant,' says the guy. That's what kind of family I come from.

Anyway, nothing there that looks like pot, or much like poison oak or poison ivy either, although in the very back of the last one there there's something that looks like it could be stinging nettle, so that could be something to watch out for, but I could be wrong.

I second lady's mantle on the next to last one, and the one with the blue flowers has leaves that look like four o'clock's to me, but not if that's as big as the flowers get. (It's so much easier to tell things when they're flowering.) No idea about the others. Probably on the wrong side of the country to be helpful.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

When I was a kid, we had a neighbour who grew pot out of a toilet bowl on the roof.

We knew exactly what it was.

We do have stinging nettles in the yard, so that's probably correct.

[eciklb.livejournal.com]

The thing on the left in #3 and in #4 looks like what we called lambs quarters when I was a kid. Edible leaves, but not all that pleasant. Don't take my word for it and poison yourself. :)

[beaq.livejournal.com]

You're right. :-) *I* like them, but they are kinda acrid like raw spinach.

[lil-m-moses.livejournal.com]

#5 looks like common mallow (http://www.ppws.vt.edu/scott/weed_id/malne.htm) - I let it grow in some empty beds at one of our CA homes because it was at least green. Between that and yellow oxalis (a bushy clover-looking weed with little yellow flowers), I had green and color. They got along fine when I planted a pumpkin there, too. It can be a bitch to pull once it gets big, though. The taproots go pretty deep.

In general, a good resource to poke through is the plantsdatabase (http://www.plantsdatabase.com), though when last I was using it a lot, they were cranky about letting non-registered users do much searching; I just Google on "plantsdatabase" plus whatever plant name I'm looking for. They have an assortment of pics and helpful information on most things.

You might also look into picking up a copy of The Sunset Northeastern Garden Book (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0376035242). I had the western version in CA, and it was like a plants bible, so I got myself the Southern Living version when I moved down here.

[beaq.livejournal.com]

Yay! Resources!

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

Cool, I just might do that.

[beaq.livejournal.com]

Them first (pics 1 and 2) and last are some kinda weeds.

The fourth (plant) is Malva neglecta, common mallow (or, like Pat said, common geranium, but it's a mallow whatever they call it - Malvaceae rather than Geraniaceae). The third is Lamb's Quarters and I can't be bothered to get the Latin for it, but you can eat it if you really want to. The one ID'd as deadly nightshade (at least what we call nightshade stateside, commonly, though not universally) isn't, nor is it belladonna, which is the european nightshade. I know the first is a tomoato relative, though I don't know what the second is. Anyway, I dunno what that plant is, but I know what it ain't. What it *is* is some kind of monocot. But I doubt that helps you at all. A closeup might add some info.

Very helpful. :-)

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

I'll try and get another pic of it before we leave.

I'm pretty sure nothing back there is poisonous, we've had too many people tromping around back there.

[2ndaryairplane.livejournal.com]

dude, kill 'em all.

and start from scratch. no point in taking chances.

go simple and functional. potatoes.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

You sure you're not Irish?

[liz-lowlife.livejournal.com]

I'd say dig the lot up...they all look suspiciously weed-like.
Plant some potatoes.

#4 = weed

[mathbabe.livejournal.com]

The stuff in picture four, if it's the same as the left-hand side of pic 3, is very definitely a weed. It's the only weed I can reliably identify, except dandelions (they're the yellow ones, right?). When I bought my house I had to have my Mom come down and tell me what to leave alone and what to pull up. Apparently I had lots of cool stuff like rhododendrons, lilies, and irises, but I managed to kill most of it off. For what it's worth, here are my general weeding rules... although they only help in the spring... if it's in more than two places in the garden, it's probably a weed, and although I might leave one just in case I pull up the others. And even if there's only one or two, I give a decent tug on it... if it comes out, I figure it's an annual and therefore a weed. I sure don't have time to plant annuals, so the only legitimate plants in my backyard are perennials the previous owner planted.