Gone to Seed

The first dandelion flowers have already gone to seed. I notice many along the sides of the narrow county roads…and in the plants I photographed earlier on my deck. The plants move from flower to seeds in about a week.

And then the seeds are ready to float away and sprout in any bit of soil that is deep enough for their roots.

These plants that we fight as weeds in our lawns were brought to North America as a desirable garden plant by early colonialists! The leaves and flowers are edible…there is dandelion wine. I try to remember that as I photograph them.

Invasives on the Deck

I left some pots on the uncovered part of our deck from last summer…intending to plant flowers for pollinators in them for the upcoming season…but I have invasives pull the first! One pot has a very health garlic mustard plant (there is more of it at the edge of our forest. I’m pulling all of it that is on our property. I supposed some people might like it in salads….but it is too aggressive in places I want jack-in-the-pulpits and woodland wildflowers for me to like it at all.

The other invasive is dandelions. They don’t seem as bad to me but maybe that is just because they’ve been around my whole life. They too can be eaten and I have gotten leaves from my CSA and grocery store on occasion. There flowers and seed pods are interesting topics for photography. I’ve heard one soil conservation person comment that dandelions might be a good thing for slopes since they have longer tap roots and can hold soil more effectively that shallow rooted plants. So – they do have some redeeming qualities….but they are still weeds and I’ll pull them from my deck pots before I plant the flower seeds in the next week or so.