Outdoors -- found objects

Some of my favorite things in the yard I didn't even plant.
To start with, the lilies of the valley.
They were growing up through the brick in my back patio.
I transplanted some to loose soil and they increase about one stalk a year.
But the ones I couldn't get out of the brickwork are still there and very happy.

One neighbor (now moved on) had a fern one year.  It was lovely.
A good five years later, I now have a fern growing through the bricks of the patio.
With all the rain this year, it is thriving.
Every once in a while some of the leaves turn brown, but the rest of it comes back.
I can't get it out so I'll just hope it propagates.

I liked the fuzzy blue flowers that grew near the  lilies of the valley and put a few of them in a sunnier spot.
I found out later they were ageratum.
That was after they tried to take over the fence.
I thin them back ruthlessly in spring.
But I don't take them out because butterflies like them.

And then there are the little white September asters that grow out of the bushes.
I think they must be biennials; I had some last year but none this year.

And the things the birds brought, and which I leave because they feed on them.
The pokeweed, and the white mulberry.

Before you totally trash something in your yard that you didn't plant,
take at least a year and try to identify it.
Let it go through at least one life cycle, like the asters.
You might like it so much you leave it in, like euonymus or rose of Sharon.

© Patricia Jo Heil, 2013-2018 All Rights Reserved