Purple, thank you!! It DID help, a lot. I've added the url to my bookmarks bar, it's an excellent resource! I gave Paige all this information, and she decided to pull the weed. My grandson messes around in the garden when they're out watering or playing with the dogs, and she'd rather not run the risk of him getting any irritation from the plant...he already has eczema issues. Really appreciate you linking me to all this.
Glad to try to help! Without garden forums, I'd still be stuck in 60's/70's house plant books myself.
If I read your profile right, you're in Alabama? I lived in Huntsville for a few years....and I think that's my most favorite place of all the places I've lived in my lifetime....well, except for possibly New Zealand. But on this continent? Yeah, definitely Huntsville.
Yes, I moved to AL from OH in early '07 and absolutely love it! Being a little hotter in the summer but a lot warmer in winter, and no such thing as traffic are good trades IMO. I've seen snow once here, for a few hours. We're quite a bit south of Huntsville, about 15 miles from the FL border in Opp. No idea how that compares to Huntsville except that I know it's a LOT smaller, and definitely no space craft here. New Zealand - wow!
Lots of weeds are eatable/edible, such as dandelions, violets [I never consider violets a "weed" though], lamb's quarters, etc. However, some weeds are very poisonous such as poison hemlock. It resembles Queen Anne's Lace. My mother loves dandelion leaves as a salad green, but I wont eat it because I do not like the taste of it. Dandelion has many medicinal properties, including being good for liver ailments, so I use it for that--in PILL form. Lots of "weeds" have excellent medicinal properties, including peppermint/spearment too. Here is a starting point on medicinal herbs: http://www.altnature.com/jewelweed.htm http://www.anniesremedy.com/ There are many such sites, and lots of information out there.
Good point. My fav source on such things is eattheweeds.com Most "weeds" (besides sprouts of trees, flowering plants invited into the garden,) are either native plants not presentable or obedient enough for a tended garden, or edible/medicinal/once-thought-ornamental exotics.
My girlfriend comes over to take a walkabout and she bends down and picks my weeds, I want to say, "Thank you", and then she puts it in her mouth and eats it. She "yums" her way through my gardens. It is so funny. She knows her weeds. LOL.
A friend back when I lived in New Mexico would go out collecting weeds/herbs/etc. She would say, "I'm going up to the mountains to go grazing." She certainly knew her plants, especially their medicinal uses.
I'd like to know more about weeds and their uses. I thinks it's a very useful skill. Purslane grows a lot in my yard. I haven't taken the dive to mixing it into one of my salads yet lol.
