Noxious Weeds? Pollen? My Yard?

Our yard is naturally xeric, or in other words, mostly native, dry-loving plants. Anyway, that is what I have thought. I've been taking the wait-and-see-what-it-is-going-to-be approach with most of the plants. With the exception of some I remember from growing up in Northwestern New Mexico, such as tumbleweeds (or Russian Thistle), I don't pull up everything. I know better now -- I went on a "Weed Walk", sponsored by the local Horticultural Art Society, on a recent Saturday. My eyes have been opened and my face is red.

Since then, I have been pulling weeds! The top picture is awaiting exact ID, saved for a while (the Horticultural Art Society ladies think it is a native coreopsis). The weed above is not yet named, but is being pulled. It has bad seed pods.



This was a nice, big, green plant, with buds that looked promising, but were being slow opening. I don't have many nice green plants in my yard so I was waiting to see what it would do. And there were lots more like it (not so big and bushy ) on the back slope. Some of you might already be smirking at this picture- I certainly feel pretty silly. Especially since I had family visiting and taking allergy pills everyday. This is a very healthy speciman of RAGWEED! And it is actually blooming -it just takes a magnifying glass to see the blossoms- and putting out huge amounts of pollen.

This is Pigweed (unknown name origin), also pollen producing.
On the walk in Monument Valley Park (downtown CS) there were some pigweed plants 8 ft tall. Mine are less than 5 inches -says something about how fertile my soil is, huh!

The yellow flower is Goldweed, or Cow Pen Weed. This does NOT make you sneeze. In fact, I learned that the plants with flowers you can see depend on bees, etc for pollenation and do not have pollen that people are allergic to, rather it is the plants with insignificant flowers that give us allergies. The plant next to the Goldweed is one of those -Kochia (and also on Colorado's noxious weed list).

This one looks pretty good, right? It is actually in my neighbor's yard, but I was considering saving some of it's seed. This is Bouncing Bet - one of the most wanted on Colorado's Noxious weed list(B list, which means they have hopes to eradicate it)

If it has a flower, I am open to it being a desirable native, but this one, also in my neighbor's yard, is Dalmation Toadflax -and also on the noxious weed list.

Another shot of Kochia (I have LOTS). No blossoms to be seen, but lots of pollen.

This is a native grass -one of the Grama grasses - it is commonly called eyebrow grass, and if you pick two of the seed heads and hold them up to your face, you can have cool eyebrows. Behind is a cat mint -they do well in my poor soil (it is being improved one hole at a time).

This is the back slope -with a bobcat sitting there is the midst of Canadian Thistle, Bull Thistle and lots more ragweed as well as some goldweed and native sunflowers. All of the thistles are also on the noxious list. Since then, the thistles, which had already mostly gone to seed and scattered that seed all over my yard, had the heads cut off and the ragweed has been pulled. The bobcat didn't seem fazed by pollen, and I know that I am not allergic to ragweed, since it put out little puffs of pollen every time I pulled up a plant. And I have now pulled hundreds. And I'm very sorry for my visitors that were clearly allergic to something in my yard!

I'm afraid that I will be dealing with thistles FOREVER. Hydra-like, when you pull one, two will grow in it's place.
I had to give you a shot of the face/head. Doesn't it look just like a house cat? He/she didn't seem to mind that I was out there taking pictures of him/her.

Gardening - always in progress!

One must start somewhere, and I'm starting here. Welcome to my blog.

Here is a view of the yard after a late spring snowstorm. Meanwhile, inside, the garden has been started.

Here are some starts intended for the garden. There were actually at least 4 times as many little pots before they went into the garden. My patient family put up with them on every surface in the dining room along the windows. You can see tomatoes, peppers and watermelon (they are very much hopeful thinking).

Here the watermelon are front and center, tomatoes to the left -I tried Brandywine tomatoes this year, an heirloom with promised wonderful taste. I also started cherry and Roma tomatoes, and then purchased two plants that were early tomatoes -Siberian(from Siberia?) and one from Czech, Stupichce. They were purchased when I realized that we might not have any to eat until August, if I didn't get something that could handle some cooler weather. And as promised, they produced tomatoes in early July.

My mother gave me some of her iris - and many of them bloomed their first year -and a real assortment. I took pictures so I will remember which colors are where.

My other patch of iris -- some from Fallon blooming and some that I bought and are finally blooming after two years. This photo shows one of the protective covers that are necessary to keep the critters from eating plants. But neither deer, nor rabbits nor rock squirrels nor tree squirrels eat iris! Under the cover is a small Kinnikkinnick which will hopefully fill in and be happy in the partial shade under the pines. You can also see my very dry and native grass yard. Still very much in progress.

Jessica is reaching for a tomato -- She and Makenna and Isaac are wonderful garden helpers! And cute too. The tomatoes are in a raised bed, with some concrete reinforcing wire grid and a fine black net over that -which doesn't show up in the picture and isn't apparent in the garden unless you are very close -- also to keep the critters out.

A Tomato! this is a Brandywine and is very tasty, as promised. We have had two so far -- and I'm hoping for a late frost so we can get lots more.