OUR WEEDY SECRET

PLANT, OR A WEED? Weed, or a plant? The crown jewel of all things that confound gardeners. Winter is just long enough that many of us forget about half of what we're growing. Along comes spring and a million plants rear their little heads from underground. We're suddenly tasked with trying to sort friend from foe.

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I struggle with recognizing weeds from plants more than I'd like to admit, because I have no memory, a casualty, I think, of the '70s. But I'm also a self-taught horticulturist. The upside of being self-taught is that I learned whatever I wanted to learn by sheer passion, usually going much deeper into favorite subjects than any class would teach. And, hallelujah, I never had to take boring plant ID or turf courses! Of course, the downside is that I sometimes get caught in the open by what should be easy ID or turf questions. When this happens, dammit, I'm exposed for the charlatan I am.