MLK Quote

MLK Quote

Nature's Inspiration Movie

http://www.flickspire.com/m/HealthierL433/NaturesInspiration -- Nature's Inspiration Movie: The photographs in this short video are from award-winning photographer, Ken Jenkins, and they are breathtaking. However, this video is much more than beautiful photographs! Peggy Anderson has compiled beautiful quotations from the likes of Emerson, Thoreau, and many others that truly capture the beauty of nature and solitude. Absolute must watch for nature lovers.

Saturday, May 4, 2013

Things On Our Lawn....

Spring is in full swing here. The temperature drops to 40 degree Fahrenheit during night; evenings become real cooler. But the sun shines bright. New life is everywhere. Weeds, wild flowers, cultivated flowers, vegetables and fruits, all competing with each other to suck up the renewed life energy and burst forth with all the vigor and beauty.

The lawn is no exception. Grasses are growing wild, soon to reach knee-high, and speckled with all sorts of flowers. I do not know where they have come from, if they are wild or cultivated flowers. Perhaps these are all weeds. But they are beautiful to look at and admire. Bees also love them as they fly low buzzing over them.

If you can recognize any of these flowers, please let me know. I am guessing some of them are wild (native) violets, garlic-mustard and creeping ivy flowers. So, as you see that my lawn is actually not "lawn." It is full of grasses and other creeping, wild plants which others might consider as weed. But I do not mind them. Weeds improve the soil structure infusing it with nutrients. The lawns remain green and wild even during peak summer though I never water them, put any fertilizers or other chemicals on them. The soil underneath is full of worms and other insects and creatures. Whenever I have to dug a portion out to plant any put any plants/trees, I will see them scurrying around, hurriedly trying to hid. My most favorite is the soil spider. Their heads are small but their body is a big fat sphere. A completely different world and eco-system exists beneath our feet that we neither can see and observe nor know much about them. Anyone interested in knowing about these beauties should watch the French movie Microcosm. It's more of a delicate art than a movie.

How is your lawn? Is it full of weeds? Do you like them? Or it is the true golf "lawn"?

These are two unknown greens. They come back every year (perennial). They look so luscious that seems like they are some wild greens that can be easily eaten. Do you know what they are? Is the first one a nettle as it is has tiny needles along the back of the leaves?
Happy Life All :-)

21 comments:

  1. My lawn has so many weeds! In fact, I consider it a "mown pasture" instead of a lawn. ;) (Got that fancy wording from another blogger.) I don't know what your greens are, but as for edible weeds, there are quite a few weeds that are edible, but of course, you have to be very careful. Try the website eattheweeds.com for some great information.

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    1. Holley, thank you for that website :-). Fantastic and I will be checking it out soon :). I like the name mown pasture :-).

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  2. Top middle is garlic mustard! Go out there RIGHT NOW and pull it out before it sets seed. Top left I think is a variety of narcissus. Bottom left and center looks like violas. Some people consider them pernicious weeds, personally I don't mind them growing in the lawn. In flower beds is another story.

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    1. Jason, I took your advice and pulled off many of them. Thank You :-).

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  3. Great to see everything come to life again after the long Winter. Lovely lawn flowers...and to think that some people kill them with poisonous chemicals.

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    1. Bridget, tell me about that :-). I see many of our neighbors spraying chemicals and then putting up sign, pesticides, etc, used here. What an irony. They know they are poisonous but still spraying...

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  4. The only thing I do not like in our yard are the stickers. I hate those pokey things. Our lawn was once a pasture, so we have a little of everything. It is pointless to try to keep weeds out of this much mowing area.

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    1. Erin, what's stickers? I have to find about them. Hopefully with years they will go away and you will start loving your lawn.

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    2. They ate tiny short growing little poking things worse than rose torns that stick to you feet or shows and track inside. Annoying. Sorry for the long response trying to balance school, family, and writing.

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  5. For once I'm not so up on your ids, other that top left is Narcissus Poeticus (Poets Daffodil). My lawn isn't the greatest either - plenty of daisies and dandelions that need attention!!

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    1. You have daisies in your garden? Wow! I love them. I want them here in my lawn. Ah! I wish you could send some but no such chance with strict international laws about live plants.

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  6. They look like violets to me and jonquil or daff, our lawn has weeds, but at least it looks green.

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    1. Karen, jonquil is a new name to me. Thanks for telling it :-) I have to check it out.

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  7. I agree with Jason...get the garlic mustard out as it is invasive...the violets are native and I love them to grow as ground cover in beds and I also love how they creep into the lawn...I don't know about the greens though.

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    1. Donna! I have taken most of them out. I thought of eating them, but didn't dare. What if they taste bad; I will be wasting all my energy, heat and oil cooking them. I love the native violets but get mad at them when they start invading the veggie plots.

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  8. We used to have more weeds, but our HOA frowns on them, so I've got a guy managing the lawn now and I pester him to use as few chemicals as possible. That said, there's still some clover mixed in.

    As others have said, I've heard that garlic mustard can be very invasive - not just in lawns, but also in woods - so might be best to pull that one (top-middle).

    Otherwise, if it's (mostly) green and you can mow it, I say it's a lawn! ;-)

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    1. Aaron Dalton, thank you for saying it a lawn :-). Yes, I agree, if it's green, it's a lawn. Wow! tell HOA that most weeds are beneficial.

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  9. I wish our lawns had some of these inhabitants besides dandelions and crabgrass. Your potpourri of wildflowers looks great. Look forward to seeing further reports.

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    1. Patrick, thank you :-). But they can be annoying when they try to take up all the space in the vegetable garden :-).

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  10. Replies
    1. Thank You, Malay :-), but you have the exotic ones.

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