Weeds or Wildflowers

Weeds or wildflowers....beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

 Blooming China Berry Tree

Paperwhites bloomed in the flower garden this year. It's the first time I've seen them here at the lake. The Daylilies are starting to bloom and this Purple Verbena is one of my favorite go to summer flowers.

 This little plant came up in the flower garden for the first time, too. My neighbor thinks it might be a raspberry bush. I've decided to leave it be and watch it for a few weeks. If it is a raspberry bush, I'll keep it and if not, up it comes. 

These are definitely weeds coming up in the patio. I wanted to try a recipe for an environmentally safe weed killer that  Mama Pea of A Home Grown Journal gave me. She had not tried it, at the time, but heard good things about it. So, I made the recipe yesterday and experimented on these weeds. The first picture is a before shot, the top right photo is a few hours after I sprayed and the bottom right photo was from that evening. Obviously, these are not the same weeds, but I wanted to give a good representation of what they looked like. From the looks of the one from Saturday evening, I think the recipe works. I'll keep watching to see whether the weed killer just burned the foliage or if it really is killing the weeds. In the meantime, if you are interested, here is Mama Pea's recipe...... 

Environmentally Safe Weed Killer

1 gallon vinegar (I used white)

2 cups Epsom salts 

1/4 cup original blue Dawn dish detergent

Mix all ingredients in a garden sprayer. Spray the mixture on weeds in the morning, after the dew has dried and by the evening the weeds should be gone. 

**Update: I thought the weeds would have shriveled up, but that is not the case. However, from the looks of it, the weeds are dying. I'm not sure if this kills the roots, but I'll continue to experiment. I hope it works completely because I like the idea of using something safer for the environment than those harsh weed killers on the market, today. I'll let you know.

Have a happy day,

Laurie

P.S. Cliff took Lidia and Sawyer camping last night on Goat Island. I can't wait to hear the stories that come out of that.