If it walks like a weed and it talks like a weed

It's still not necessarily a weed.

Been doing a lot of planting the past month as my garden renovation winds down.  And even though this:

will ultimately look like this:

Today it looks remarkably like this:

What makes me think it's easily confused with a weed?  Because I pulled it up once already by mistake, and so has my contractor.  All we need is Nick to take a whack at it, and it'll be a perfect hat trick. 

Next week, before and after photos of my garden transformation.  And yes, I used plenty of purple paint, as promised (or threatened, depending on your point of view) in this post.

Campanula 'Canterbury Bells' photo courtesy of Annie's Annuals

Comments

[Michelle]

That's why I don't let my husband "help" me with the weeding! LOL

I don't know, Michelle, losing a few plants in exchange for someone else doing the weeding is a price I might be willing to pay.

[Rob(ourfrenchgarden)]

Hi Susan

Easily done!

I'm a Campanula fan, but then it's blue so inevitably I like it.

Do you know Campanula takesimana 'Elizabeth'. Not blue but really nice all the same, tough and can take a kicking!!!

I don't really know much about Campanula - I tend to just pick them up on a whim at the nursery, but any plant that includes the description "tough and can take a kicking" is my kind of plant, so I will definitely look it up!

[Catherine/gardenerprogress]

Poor Campanula! Most of mine are eaten by slugs before they get that big.
I can't wait to see your before and after pics, those are my favorite kind!

So far not too much leaf chomping, but only because the snails are busy filling up on the coleus I planted. Campanula, thy turn will come!

[Chicago Garden]

You weedcists who think all weeds look alike could use some sensitivity training.

I'm just saying.

-MrBrownThumb

Oh yes, guilty as charged! I slept right through the class on weeds during master gardener training.

[Helen at Toronto Gardens]

Um, I could be wrong, but the bottom image looks more like a dock (which would make it a weed) than a Canterbury bell. Have a look at this image:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rumex-obtusifolius-foliage.JPG

Notice how the leaves are more spade-shaped? From what I remember of Canterbury bell first-year leaves, I think (and I could be wrong) that they retain that more tapered shape near the petiole.

Helen, this is what I got from your comment:

Blah, blah, blah, Susan can't tell the difference between a weed and a flower. And you are right! See response to Mr. Brown Thumb's comment above.

[Genevieve]

Can't wait to see all the purple!! That's my color, dude.

I am well aware of the differences between weeds and looks-like-a-weed-now plants. I have to point them out to my employees like a bazillion times a week. Much better to anticipate problems and explain too much than have to buy the client a new plant!

Uh oh, if solid weed identification skills are required to work for you, then sounds like I won't be sending you a resume any time soon.

[VW]

Oh, good, lots of purple. Some helpful gardener pulled out the chives I planted last month . . . hmm. I also have a preemptive deadheader in my 18 month old daughter - mommy, why wait until it's done blooming to pull it off when we could just pull off the bud and be done with it?!

Same thing happened to one of my client's daffodils last spring. Her daughter broke them all off so she could bring them inside for her mom to see. If your daughter follows in your footsteps and becomes a gardener, maybe this means she'll become a ruthless one like me - unafraid to send underperforming plants to the compost heap!

[Laura Livengood Schaub (InterLeafer)]

Befores and afters! Befores and afters! Can't wait, glad I recently got to see the before.
I have a selective weed eye myself; often don't see them at all until I start showing someone the garden (OMG that spurge is a foot across! Where did it come from?) I'm a lazy gardener in summer, anyplace I can't see from the porch is fair game!

I am so with you on the out of sight, out of mind approach. It's kind of like making the bed - you're just going to have to do it all over again the next day, so is it really worth the bother?

[Plantanista]

Yep, I think that's a dock, which would make it at least a "plant in the wrong place", since some people actually do cultivate dock for medicinal and culinary purposes. Weirdos. Clever, very subtle way to prove your own point, Susan! ;—)

Biomimicry is a successful survival technique for many weeds. Every year in one of our gardens, we have wild onions masquerading as freesias, right there in the clump.

And on Saturday, I wrongly castigated one of my work colleagues for having wild onion in a pot. I was schooled when they proved to me that it was muscari foliage I was damaging as I thrashed away at it. Weeds laugh at us.

I love learning new things, particularly if they involve important sounding words like biomimicry. And as my cat is currently in my lap mimicing a hot, uncomfortable blanket, I can relate to this idea all the more.

[Maranta]

Around the Seattle area, I often have to remove Campanula from clients' yards because it self-sows so rampantly. Thus, my ability to differentiate between a Campanula and a "weed" serves only to make me feel guilty about pulling the former.

I'm starting to realize I know virtually nothing about Campanula; did not realize it is invasive. Of course, I have so many other invasives fighting for supremacy, it's really every plant for themselves at this point.

[wayne stratz]

don't mention weeds. I have not had the energy, and they seem to have had plenty.

Wayne, this is the funniest (and sad to say, truest) comment I have read in a long time!

[DaffodilPlanter]

And thus ends the last post Susan ever writes about weeds. Dandelion? Check. Blackberry? Check. Otherwise I let them grow a bit to see if I have a pleasant volunteer.

Right now I'm striving for a happy medium in my approach to the weeds. I'm letting one side of my garden remain a free for all - it's already loaded with travelers like impatiens balfourii and ajuga, so I figure they can handle the weeds on their own. But I'm going to stay on top of the weeding on the other side for as long as my energy holds out, in an effort to maintain some decorum.

[tina]

Hi Susan, This purple is SO gorgeous! I can see where it could be mistaken as a weed now.

Hey Tina! And you know what? Two weeks later, I STILL want to pull it out every time I walk by

[lostlandscape]

I can see how this one could be confused for a weed. I'm grateful for the occasional website or other resource that will show you the seedlings as well as the final plant so that seed-grown plants don't end up in the bucket with the spurge. My gardening assistant finally turned over all weeding chores to me after he pulled up a patch of seedlings in March that I'd been nursing since the previous October.

Oh James, I think you've been scammed. Sounds like the weeding version of "If I just mix up the whites and the colors a few times, I'll be declared unfit for laundry duty and be off the hook forever."

Not that I've done that or anything.

[wayne]

Oh to make you laugh and cry with one short comment. Just advertised your talents on Twitter... do I get a piece of the big bucks?

Wayne, are you on twitter?? Give me your name so I can follow you! I'm @susanlmorrison.