Erica, Thank you! I will try that!

Amy, your plant looks more like a collard than a kale. I agree with Erica that a taste test might tell. I cook them all pretty much the same anyway.

Good Morning and Happy Wednesday!

AND.....Happy Birthday, Jeanne! Hope you have a great day!!

Shirley!

Happy Birthday Jeanne!!!

Jeanne-Happy Happy Birthday! Don't count the candles, just enjoy the cake!

Amy-For our entertainment be sure and videotape your "taste test" for YouTube! Mustardy, Collardy, Cabbagy, Kaley or Weedy taste?! It's definitely an adventure. Heidi

Amy - I was thinking the same thing as Erica - probably mustard and you could tell with a taste. Definitely not kale, chard or cabbage, I haven't grown Collards so not sure how they look.

Happy Birthday Jeanne!

Weeds, I am more informed :-) At the beginning of the month, I could hear our first bees buzzing about and didn't feel I had enough flowers for them (yet, I do try to garden for wildlife - although the dang critters have taken advantage of that) and had the thought to leave the flowering weeds for them. I have a few that are yet unidentified - perhaps I'll go grab some pics in case someone here may know.

It's too cold to play outside so I'm playing on my computer. Heidi

Thanks for the birthday wishes. We went to the farm earlier so I could ride my older horse and work with the younger one. Then they both needed a bath. Spraying water to wash the horses is one of my favorite hot weather activities. It's getting quite hot. 82 degrees out there now and I think it got up to 83 yesterday.

Jeanne

Happy birthday, Jeanne!

It was gorgeous today here, too! I spend nearly the entire day in the garden, and planted lots of milkweed and borage for the butterflies. I had extras, so I'll be taking those to a local plant swap in a couple weeks. I definitely have a deeper appreciation for weeds now. So much knowledge about them has been lost as we've taken to the cities and left nature behind. I really love learning about wild edible plants, and have a "Wild Edible Plant Hike" soon with a friend and expert on the subject. I can't wait!

Lisa

Shirley just wanted to say thanks so much for a wonderful month, I truly enjoyed it =)

Jeanne, Happy Birthday!

Amy... Im guessing collard as well.

Heidi ... love how you do your flower collages like that!

Our temp today was 86 and it is absolutely GORGEOUS outside! I noticed I have some Iris along the side of the house that are about ready to bloom, Ill be sure to post pics when they do. Here is what is blooming in the front of the house... Im guessing they are azaleas ?? ... headed outside now to tidy things up as we have several severe T-storms headed our way tomorrow. Have a beautiful week =)

I found wild violet growing in my garden today! It might be a "weed," but I'm keeping it!

Funny I'm planting violets to keep out the creeping buttercup! At least violets aren't poisonous :D

Erica, wild violets are thuggish, but like I said in an earlier post, I'm keeping mine and trying to contain them! Good butterfly magnet!

Does anyone know any non weeds that grow in waterlogged soil? I know of some native plants but I want flowers too, would violets do okay? I'm trying to beautify the walkway between our two cottages. Currently it's a swamp!

Kaylee, How about Louisiana Iris?

Kaylee, Ive seen cannas grow in ponds or water features =)

Kaylee -- There are a ton. Go to PFAF and in their search feature select "wet or boggy soil" and then "search." You'll be surprised by how many there are. :)

PFAF

Just a couple days left till April. I went ahead and posted next month's swap.

Kaylee, for your soggy area, try planting Lobelia cardinals cardinal flower; Spiranthes odorata Lady's tresses 'Chadds Ford'; Louisiana irises; Spiderworts (Tradescantia ohiensis or virginiana); Obedient plant (Physostegia virginiana); or some of the native pitcher plants.

Good Morning, and Happy Thursday!

Just wanted to touch base to say that this swap will be over as soon as we hear from Heidi and Annie as to whether they have received or not. I may have missed their posts, please let us know!

And I want to thank everyone who participate this month! I appreciate the time you all put into FOTESS!

Prizes for the Simple Swap, Weed Bingo and the Weed Coloring contest will go out, probably on Monday!

And, Erica has the April FOTESS Swap posted, it sounds really good, check it out!

Have a great day, Ladies,

Shirley!

Ok ladies, anyone recognize these? The first blue one is just four petals - so not baby blue eyes (nempohilia), it's a tiny thing - you can see from the oxalis and grass size comparison.

Second one has a similar leaf form, thought I had a better pic of the flower.

I do have both weeds and wildflowers in this area - my mini lupine is everywhere this year and will bloom next ( the area has wild geranium as well).

Good Morning FOTESSERS,

I opened a wonderful WEED package from Breanne last night. And it arrived in a PINK bubbler.......so happy and Spring like. Whether you like the color PINK or not, PINK, in my opinion, is a very happy color. Breanne, I have not seen PINK bubblers....where did you get them?

On to the contents found inside the PINK bubbler......

*a very happy card with bird houses and cows and flowers....and a very nice note.

*lots of seeds.....great assortment....Pinata Hot Pepper, Hot Lemon Pepper, Orange Habanero Pepper, Memories of Mona cosmos, Single Sensation Cosmos, Tall Snapdragons, Sweet William, Morning Glory Mixed Colors, McKana's Giant Mixed Columbine. Interesting...Breanne, you mention in your note that Sweet William is used as a weed controlling ground cover. I had no idea! And yes, many do consider Morning Glory a weed.....I love MG!! And I do love Cosmos but the bunnies usually eat them before I can enjoy them.

*A crocheted "bluebell" book marker....LOVE this! Once again, I did not know that the bluebell is often considered a weed. I know you crochet....do you mind sharing the pattern for this?

*And in a cute drawstring burlap bag were lots of gift tags with green ribbon and with flowers on them. You can color these too. These gift tags will be great for when I gift my friends with plants.

Breanne, thank you so much!!!! Wonderful!!

Thanks again Shirley for a great month.....

Happy Thursday!

Annie

On the news today they reported fewer then expected babies born with encephalitis (smaller head) infected with zika virus. Now they are trying to figure out why. Why am I talking about this? How many mosquitoes have we killed in Florida and around the world to protect from Zika--and how does that affect the balance? Just like when we try to eradicate 'weeds' and take out food sources for certain creatures. That has a ripple effect on other plants and animals. Interesting. Glad there are fewer cases, of course. Heidi

Woo Hoo - decided to Google small four petaled blue flower weed and found both. I use Missouri Botanic Garden's site A LOT (I write and print up the plant tags for our MG plant sales and they come up with great descriptions when I'm putting things together). They have an Annual Winter Weed Page with a lot of photos at the bottom of the page (bookmarked, it's handy). The blue one is corn speedwell (Veronica arvensis) and the other is Henbit (a lamium, so why did my pretty lamiums die if the weed is healthy as can be?). Hoping you don't mind my posting here - we haven't heard from Heidi, so this post is still open today, right? Another I'd not put a name to is parsnip chervil - will have to see what it's good for as has a long taproot.

Heidi - many of the mosquitos are non-native "new" invaders (the asian Tiger one bites in daytimes) http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-mosquito-q-a-20160204-story.html The balance was upset by what came in on ships and such.

Maggie, yes, until we hear from Heidi, as to whether she has received or not, the swap is still open. I always enjoy your posts, very informative. Both of the plants/weeds you posted are very familiar to me, I'm sure I've had them, probably still do! Nice to know the names! And thanks for the link, I need to check that out!

Rainy day here today, chilly too,

Shirley!

Thanks Shirley! Although I may have parsnip chervil (edible) turns out 3 of the chaerophyllums - chervils (but cooking chervil is a different genus) are toxic/poisonous (especially rough chervil) so perhaps I'll just skip using that one for now.

Annie,

I am so glad that you liked your package! I got the pink bubblers from ebay, there are TONS of options, I also have poly mailers...I think these will be my next victims http://www.ebay.com/itm/200-Bags-100-10x13-Roses-100-10x13-Cute-Rabbits-Designer-Poly-Mailers-/381927242917?hash=item58eca33ca5

My nieces are my most frequent recipients and so I try to keep things fun. Mail is way more exciting if the package is fun too!

The color your own gift tags/bag came from Michaels Craft store, and the crochet pattern can be found here: http://beacrafter.com/crochet-blue-bellflower/

but you should know that I am notorious for changing things up. I followed the general instructions for petals and sepals and then went my own way entirely. I sewed your sepals into the flower to give it more stability and crocheted the stem through the bell and sepals for the same reason, I added a "sepal" to the stem to create a leaf also. I wish I'd done a tassel or something fun at the end now that I think about it. I used cotton yarn ( a bit heavier weight than the pattern) for the main parts and used a crochet cotton thread (for crocheting lace) to do the stamens. I just followed the general instructions the pattern gives only I did two long (chain 9) and two short (chain 6) and then sewed them to the inside bottom by weaving through the other side before attaching the sepals. I am so glad you like cosmos. I felt silly for that mix up! Also I have found this works decently well if you'd like to try to deter the rabbits without harming them. :) http://premeditatedleftovers.com/gardening/inexpensive-organic-rabbit-repellent/

happy gardening!

Shirley, thank you for hosting this month. It was a lot of fun and very informative and who doesn't like a reason to color?

Im on my way to check out next months swap. I'll see everyone there. Margo

Heidi - mean to add, I'm with you on some things. Whenever I see that we're bringing in a bug to get another bug, a screaming "No Mr Bill no!" starts in my head. :-)

Realized my little weed veronica isn't hairy and solid blue - may not be corn speedwell, might be Veronica persica (birdeye or Persian speedwell) that is widespread throughout California & shows in my county on Calflora maps (introduced, not a native wildflower). There are quite a few weedy speedwells - Grey Field-speedwell also looks like it but doesn't show on CA maps (plus USDA, I warned folks I'm a nerd, right? Love to look things up).

Shirely - GREAT month!! Thanks for hosting.

Shirley -- Thank you for the great swap this month. It was a ton of fun and super informative!

--After a bad day at work that ended in me crying all the way home I found this in the mailbox! A great way to end the day.

-Tofu Miso (Seaweed) Soup. It's cold and rainy here (and supposed to be for several more days) so that will be perfect. What a great idea for a weedy gift! My daughter and husband keep hiding it from each other to be the first to make it and taste it!

-notepad (love anything with paper)

-LOVE the seeds! Katie sent me Vernonia lettermanil which she described as dainty, yet tough as nails. Sounds like my kind of flower! Also Penstemon Albidus and Penstemon Eriantherus. I had never heard of penstemon until I joined GW and now I love them! Thank you so much! Heidi

Heidi -- So sorry to hear you had a bad day. *hugs* *hugs* *hugs* Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

Some hugs from me too, Heidi! Tomorrow will be better, honest!

Great package, Katie! That soup sounds great!

And that ends the National Weed Day swap! Thanks again to all who participated.

Erica has the April swap all set up and ready to go, be sure to check it out, should be fun! See ya all over there!

Shirley!

This was a very creative and fun month! Thanks for being a great hostess, Shirley! We always have fun with your ideas.

Jeanne

Heidi, so glad that my package arrived in time to brighten up your bad day. Looking forward to see what you think of the soup. It's a common dish at sushi restaurants and it is delicious (don't worry, there's no raw fish in it). Can't wait to see some photos of those flowers in your garden in a few years.

Shirley, thanks so much for hosting another great swap. This one was really creative and nice to learn so many things about weeds.

BTW, the dog adoption adventures are complete and we have welcomed a new member to the family. Jack is a 3 yr old terrier mix adopted from a shelter in MS. He was abused by his former owner, so we are working on him learning to trust people again. It's going well, and after 3 days with us, he now greets us with a wagging tail. I love happy endings.

Katie, was that a pun?

Shirley, Thank you for a great month of fun!

Katie, Sweet doggie!

Have a great weekend everyone! Amy

Katie -- Grats on the new family member!

This just came in on my Facebook feed and I had to share it here. photo

Maggie, that's just great, hilarious! thanks for sharing!

Shirley!

I planted Lamb's Quarter today!

Maggie -- That was super cute!

Shirley, Thank you so much for the cute little envelopes. They are beautiful! Take care, Amy

Shirley, your little handmade packages are adorable. Thank you so much. These would make great gift packaging for jewelry, don't you think. So creative and so thoughtful. Thank you Margo

Shirley -- I received your adorable, handmade packs and bag. Thank you so much. It will be an honor to use them.

Shirley, I also received the beautiful packages and bag today. You are so talented and I love them. Thank you so much.

Thank you, Shirley, for the gorgeous packages and seed bags. I'll be sure to use them soon. Hope you have a wonderful day!

A very late comment here but... I'm back at my yard/garden and I have more weeds than I can possibly appreciate. Anyone feel a need for some? I'll surely share.

The only one on the list that I can't find so far is purselane. I'm sure there is some here. I just have not started working in the right area yet.

Beth, I'm seeing lots of different weeds out there, can't do much about it right now, rainy and cold and I'm battling a slight go round with pneumonia. Hopefully, all will be better this week and I can get out there and start working! Can't wait!