I know what you mean. I keep having to tell myself that a "weed is any plant I don't want. And I don't want this plant *here*, so you out it goes."

So extra butterfly weed that gets into my violets, or vice-versa, gets pulled. If for some reason it were a rare plant, I would transplant it to its proper place.

Don't get the impression that my garden is tidy, though -- there's SO much sprouting of this that and the other that I would called it a "controlled mess."

So pull that sheep sorrel. Put it into pots if it won't behave.

Jeff

Oh I hear you. I check my violets before I pull them. I have decided that all the little holes in plants are from slugs. The best I can say is to use my overall weed strategy. "It will look much better in the spring. So I will go inside now."

-Elisabeth

Except for a few obvious weeds in my garden that I know cats never use, I just let the rest stay. Winter will be here soon enough, and we'll eventually have a freeze that'll kill the tops off most of them. Of course, I live way out int he woods, so hardly anybody ever sees it anyway - good rationalization, huh? :O
Sherry

Wow, I thought I was the only one actually worried about weeding :) Thank you all for making me feel sane.

Thanks, everyone. I will go ahead and start taming my little understory of sheep sorrel. It spreads under all of my larger perennials. And I can now keep the v.lanceolata in check too. I've given a whole area of my lawn to the violets for the frits, so I won't feel so bad, but I would like to see frit cats which is why I keep those violets in a front bed.

Thanks again!

Nobody sees frit cats, LOL! I think they have the ability to become invisible. I think I read that they feed at night. Next I am going to be like Miss Sherry, out at night with a flashlight in my yard!
-Elisabeth