Oh it is most ricky-tick nematode infested. When my house was being built, I had 100 truckloads of dirt delivered and spread (WOW). Soon as we moved in I decided to have a garden just like I'd had in Virginia: Pole beans, summer squash, carrots, unyums.
Got out my rototiller and went to work. Five months later, it was plain Something Was Wrong. Nothing grew unless it was wrinkly and stunted. I took some samples my garden and original ground, and paid $25 to the local Univ to have the soil tested.
It was just about
composed of nematodes. I gave my rototiller to my best bud in Georgia.
BTW: I din' quit as easy as that. Just because the whole area (wooded) around me was Nematode City, I built a raised micro-farm, filled it with potting soil and planted my unyums and summer squash.
Every sprout -- and root -- was eaten by the wildies. When I started to electrify my prison garden, Herself stepped in and suggested I plant a mango tree. Mango trees
eat nematodes.
Then, I noticed that my lawn was being replaced by a low-lying sorta mat of purty green leaves, soft to walk on. Unlike the "specimen" photos above, when just periodically mowed, there is no bare ground anywhere. And then it blooms. While still totally replacing grass.
View attachment 345007
All is living green. And note the size of the leaves. Not like the "specimen" photo at all.
Very small leaves, as you can see in the picture of my yard. Better than grass any day.
But, of course... *IF* you are a swanky-rich golfer, where nothing but the finest-bladed grass must grow over ten thousand acres without a flower anywhere, ever... then you get this lovely plant branded with the dreaded ultimate:
"WEED!"
However, the appelation isn't necessarily pejorative.
viz:
39 Common Edible and Medicinal Weeds
- Bitter Cress
- Borage
- Brambles
- Burdock
- Chickweed
- Chicory
- Claytonia
- Cleavers
- Clover
- Creeping Charlie
- Dandelion
- Dead Nettle
- Dock
- Ferns
- Fireweed
- Garlic Mustard
- Goosefoot
- Gorse
- Horsetail
- Knotweed
- Kudzu
- Lady’s Thumb
- Lamb’s-Quarter
- Mallow
- Mullein
- Nightshade
- Pigweed
- Pineapple Weed
- Plantain
- Purslane
- Self-Heal
- Shepherd’s Purse
- Sorrel
- Sumac
- Stinging Nettle
- Thistle
- Valerian
- Violets
- Yarro
Getting old can be fun. You suddenly remember shit from the Olden Days (we DID have oil lamps at the farm for light at night). I just thought of a noxious weed y'all prolly know: Sumac #34
View attachment 345008 What is neat about this is if you take that big bloom and either plunk it whole or bust it up into a big jar full of water and let it sit for 24 hours, you can pour the now-colored water out through a cloth. Add some sugar, and you have really tangy, zesty drink! I lived on sumac soda.