WhatSA国际影视传媒檚 in a name?
ThatSA国际影视传媒檚 a good question because humans like to name things and then stick them into groups or categories. Then they like to argue over the names, categories and whether they have done things right or wrong.
There are plants and plants with flowers and in the spring, you can go to the store and buy all sorts of plants, flowers and seeds if you want to grow your own. Then there are wildflowers which grow naturally in the area which some people call weeds. People seem to like plants they buy, but not plants they consider weeds. Weeds are bad and flowering plants are good.
When I was a kid, my fatherSA国际影视传媒檚 hobby was gardening so one of my first chores was helping him and weeding. I enjoyed gardening because you did it outside, got to see all sorts of wildlife, birds, spiders, insects and things like worms and beetles. My father was the judge of whether a plant was a weed and got pulled or a flower or vegetable which got watered and nurtured. To garden, you have to make these tough decisions because it comes down to taste and preference.
Take dandelions for example - a pretty flowering plant that produces lots of seeds which fly about. The plants are edible, and people can make wine from their flowers. They are a plant which loves urban areas and peopleSA国际影视传媒檚 lawns. You see them all over town, but you seldom see them in the wild. So some people like them, but others hate them and will go to extreme measures to get rid of them. This includes spraying rather dangerous chemicals to kill them.
Now think about wild roses. They grow all over the North in the bush and in town. A nice splash of colour in the spring and one can harvest the rose hips in the fall for jams and jellies. However, be warned - rose hips have a lot of seeds and are sometime called Itchy-bums because if you eat too many of them passing those seeds can cause a little irritation. I have never seen these plants for sale, but I have known people who have transplanted wild ones. Others hate them and try to dig them up whenever they appear.
So do we consider them a weed, a wildflower or a harvestable commodity?
Trying to figure out what category to put them in can be tricky and is often a matter of perspective. The final plant is one of my favourites. It is called horsetail or equisetum arvense. It is an ancient plant that goes back millions of years to the time before plants with leaves. The dinosaurs probably ate them and during the carboniferous epoch, they grew over 50 metres tall. They can give your garden a nice green background, though most people consider them weeds.
To really confuse things, the government has added a category for invasive species which gets a little scary when they throw in the word alien. These are plants, insects, mould and bacteria not native to your area but brought in from another country or continent. They tend to be very aggressive growers and propagators and take over an area driving out the local stuff. All too often, the government itself okays the importation of the species without thinking about what could go wrong.
One time, I was reading a government hand out which said you were supposed to stop at the NWT border and wash your vehicle to get rid of any invasive seeds you might be carrying. I doubt the washing ever happens. Meanwhile, I can go to the local store and buy all sorts of seeds, some of which may or may not be invasive.
So have fun gardening and decide for yourself what you consider weeds, good ground cover or flowers to keep.
