weeds weeds in my yard

When my family moved to the current residence, there're a lot of things i don't know around our lot, weeds were one of them. i was and am still quite fascinated with these persistent and proud plants. There's a time when i tried to get rid of them. But i was lazy and not as persistent as the the little fellas, i failed. During which time, i read through variety of books about grasses, backyard plants, and some horticultural books. I came across a book by Sara B. Stein called: Noah's Garden. It was a book about author's experience in transforming her backyard into something that could make more ecological sense. To put into another words, she wanted to plant more native plants and make her garden more appealing to the native animals. Wow, it seems like i lack the ability to summarize her book in one simple sentence... Anyway, i was thrilled by this book. because in a way, the arthur made the term Ecology closer to me than ever. Every suburban family has the ability to have a touch on the nature. Most of them could create a sustainable habitat for wildlife. The backyard could not only be the habitat for squirrels and chipmonks. There could also be frogs, mouse, bugs, all kinds of birds and many other living creatures. Of course, it seemed at the time that i could do less work on the yard was a huge plus as well! Upon reading it, i really wanted to dig in. There're loads and loads of things to learn! But it's not that easy at all! I needed to first learn to identify plants on my lot. I've already fascinated by them already. So i thought to myself, it should be easy enough. However, years passed, i did very little. It's a shame, the only thing i did was doing as little as possible on my yard and let those little fellas boom. No matter what I tried to do, I always slowed down after the initial effort.

Through a coicidence, I met my sister's friend's sister. With her help and my mom's lead, I started to grow some flowers, scallions, and chimes this year. Most of them are growing well. It is quite an experience. Because i haven't been this persistent for a while now. During this year, i've also identified some wild plants that growing in my backyard. So here is the list of them along with some pictures i found online.

This is Red Sorrel. Some also called it Sheep Sorrel. The leaves tasted quite sour but not too bad. I read some even eats it as salads. However, it could only be used sparingly. It is also very bad for people who have Kidney problems, like Kidney stone...
On the right is Red Sorrel's flower. But sometimes it's not this red though...

This is Buckhorn Plantain. This plant is all over my lawn. It has incredible lawn mawing resistence. it does not look beautiful at all. However, the bumble bees really like it.

This is Clover. It was common in EuroAsia.

This is GoldenRod. There's only one in my backyard. This plant can grow taller than me. Its golden flower can attract many bugs and bees. I read that in the old time, people always assume Goldenrod as the culprit for Autumn allergy. But the truth is, it's not. The real culprit is Ragweed. Goldenrod got the blame because its yellow flower bloomed as the same season as Ragweed.

And voila, Here is the Ragweed. It was named for its leaves. I think there's only one of this in my backyard. However, i might misidentified it since there're quite a few other species i got confused with, eg., pigweed, giant ragweed...etc.

This is Horseweed. This plant is amazing. Because i saw him everywhere! I saw him in New England, and i saw him in San Diego, CA, the last time i visited there. The only difference between the two is that leaves of the plant is usually fully opened up at NE, but many of it was not fully opened up in San Diengo, CA. My guess is they need to get as much sun as possible in NE. But they don't need to do that in California, there's just too much sun.

This is milkweed. It is an interesting plant. Because there're some bugs that use this plant as their sole food source. Oh, and its flower is very pretty. But the ones in my backyard somehow don't flower at all. I don't understand the reason either... need...to...find...out...why....

This is Pokeweed. It bears many fruits. I had one grow into pretty large size in my backyard at one time. I saw many birds resting in the plant and eating the fruits from it once. I ate a few before, but it did not taste good. I read that the fruits are actually slightly poisonous.

This is Rabbit Foot Clover. It prbably got its name from flower, which is furry.







This is Yellow Woody Sorrel. I am not sure if it's related to the red sorrel. I might one day looked it up. :p i got quite a few of this on my backyard. I remember it tasted sour as well, but i am not 100% sure.