The hand-colored engraving "Dandelion, Taraxacum Officinale" is a plate from "Flora Londinensis," a book dating to the 1770s.
March 13, 2010
Weeds are amazing. More often than not, they're beautiful. A vacant lot with chest-high barley rippling in the wind is a glorious thing, especially when it's jumping with sparrows feasting on the seeds. Add to beauty weeds' benefit. They do so much cooling, aerating and stabilizing of vacant lots and roadsides that Harvard horticulturist Peter Del Tredici has taken to celebrating weeds as "spontaneous urban vegetation."
But when a mother lode of seed from these fast-breeding, water-hungry plants germinates in a garden, particularly a drought-tolerant garden in Southern California, it's war. It's a water war.
By weeding after winter rains, you can allocate water to the right plants and cut off the thirsty interlopers. You'll snare the seeds of weeds before they can spread. You'll also clear out a sweaty little under-zone of greedy greens that block air and light from the plants that you want to thrive.
But when a mother lode of seed from these fast-breeding, water-hungry plants germinates in a garden, particularly a drought-tolerant garden in Southern California, it's war. It's a water war.
By weeding after winter rains, you can allocate water to the right plants and cut off the thirsty interlopers. You'll snare the seeds of weeds before they can spread. You'll also clear out a sweaty little under-zone of greedy greens that block air and light from the plants that you want to thrive.
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