I live in a place that doesn’t usually get a lot of rain in the summer, and has cold, snowy winters. As a result, I primarily plant drought- and cold-tolerant plants, like the Ice Plant and Sedum in this photo.
This year, we’ve had a particularly wet spring. What that means is that a lot of other plants – the kind we usually call “weeds” – have had the opportunity to really get a foothold. You can’t see them well, but bordering the back of this small garden plot, there are a bunch of green plants with purple flowers. I have no idea what they are – I didn’t plant them. They simply took advantage of the abundant water (and the fact that I’m not the sort of gardener to go out and dig up weeds in the rain) to populate, spread, and thrive.
Oddly enough, I sort of like them. So for the moment, I’m going to leave them where they are. Once the flowers start to die-off, I’ll dig them up and replace them with something intentional. With any luck, I’ll have them out before they set seed for next spring’s crop.
But for now, the ice plant is thriving, the sedum is spreading, and I’ve got something purple growing in my garden.
