Gardening

Part of gardening is pulling weeds. They seem to grow better than the desirable plants at times. I know about weed blockers, but they get in the way of my style of gardening. We have good dirt, so the weed seeds can take hold quite easily. Besides, if I have weed blocker in my garden, I can’t have nice surprises either.


We (collective we as gardeners) are not surprised by the appearance of weeds, yet we are surprised when a desirable plant grows that we did not plant. If weed seeds can come up willy-nilly where they please, why are we surprised when an unexpected flower pops up? In the mountains and meadows we see wildflowers that no hand has planted. Perhaps I don’t see as many nice surprises in my garden because unknowingly, I pull them up thinking they are weeds. I’m learning to let plants be and see what they turn into to. I can always pull them out later if they are harmful.

Here are two my nice surprises this year. If you know what they are, please leave me a comment.

This first one has flowers about 2 ½ inches in diameter. The leaves are very pretty. The plant is 10 to 12 inches tall.

This one has soft silvery leaves. The plant is about three feet high and has a spray of purple flowers.

I love them both, so they get to stay. I need to let down my own defenses and allow more good surprises into my life.