I Don't Have A Garden But....

I so enjoy viewing everyone's garden pics and, although I don't have one yet...this is what I have found growing in and around the yard. Even though some may be considered weeds, I think they're still pretty :cloud9:.

Still practicing using the close-up function of my camera :o.

Can anyone tell me what the second one is?

The second pic is the woods behind our house...I'm going to have to get on a pair of rubber boots (lots of poison ivy I'm told) and wander through there to see what else grows.

LP,for someone with no garden,you have some beautiful flowers,even the Dandilion and you have woods with wild-flowers,what I would not give to have that as my back-yard:thumbs up
No,I don't know what that flower is,pretty though.

The picture you wanted to have ID? Well I think it might be Chickweed. But not sure since can only really see the flower and not the foliage.

Here's a description

Chickweed
Stellaria media L.
Caryophyllaceae

Description: Oval leaves about 1/4 inch across. Week sprawling stems, hairy stem, prostrate, white flower about 1/4 inch across, lance shaped petals, regular shape. Common ground cover.

You might like this guy on YouTube. Every few days he uploads a new video describing a wild edible plant.

http://www.youtube.com/user/EatTheWeeds

Chickweed is on there, and Burdock and Stinging Nettles. If you happen to come across in your woods exploring a Black Elderberry, Wild Gooseberry (these usually have "spines" on the fruit and much smaller than cultivated Gooseberry), Wild Currant, maybe I can convince you to take cuttings for me. :D Looks like also you will have good hunting ground for wild mushrooms this fall. Who knows maybe you will find a nice patch of Chantarelle mushrooms. :D

They are pretty! I go around photographing all the wildflowers around here, too, when I have time. Some of the weeds have the prettiest flowers--I love those petite white ones. I think we get them, too. They grow like crazy and creep out and get entwined in the rest of the garden, so I pull them out when I see them there, but I let them go crazy on the rocks cuz I think they're pretty. :D

Sometimes nature's flowers are prettier than cultivated ones. After all, they all started as weeds at some point. Occasionally you will see a plant we have always known as "weeds" show up at garden centers. Sometimes they sell like crazy; others not so much.
Your yard is gorgeous. So much space for the pups to roam. :cloud9:

So, LP, is this the same as your little white flower?:
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I love them...they're so pretty...awfully invasive, though. :o I try to keep them out of the garden, but they do well in the rock landscaping around the house, too...I leave them there cuz they're so nice to look at, even though hubby hates 'em. :D aw, what does he know :p

Thanks Ceara (cool link :thumbs up!) Chickweed :cloud9:.

That's the same flower Hazel. They're only growing around the bases of the decks and the stairs...a few along the house too. If your dh finds you have to many, tell him to pick them for supper...they're edible!

Speaking of hubbies...dh was going to mow the lawn today and I said ":yell: NO!" I noticed this morning that we have clumps of daisies about to bloom all over the place. I have to get markers up of some kind to make sure he doesn't go over them with the mower :o.

You're welcome!

My new thing this year is studying about wild edible foods.

Tried Dandelion coffee. Didn't like it.

Tried Fireweed shoots, steamed like Asparagus shoots. Fireweed was yummy! Will try tea later this year with Fireweed leaves and also cook something with the blossoms.

Oh forgot to add. If you do happen to run into some Poison Ivy, there's a plant that should be growing wild there called Jewelweed. Crush the Jewelweed and apply plant juices to the affected area. Jewelweed is part of the Impatiens family.

Stinging Nettle, if you can find it, makes an excellent tea. Sort of nutty tasting...I love it. Have you tried dandelion salad? Oh, and noticed a bunch of mushrooms growing in the yard...I offered to cook them up for dh but he politely declined :D.

What a great hobby to try Ceara :thumbs up.

Last year we tried cowslips (marsh marigold) for the first time. Not too bad, but lots of work. Lots of vitamins, I've been told. :D

I love seeing all the neat pictures!

Marsh Marigold is somewhat edible, but not something to eat every day. There's a chemical in there that is not that great for humans. It is a beautiful plant. We have some growing wild in a marshy area on our land, and in the spring, all along the river banks, it's just covered with yellow blooms. I should have walked down there to take pictures but my girls are terrified of walking on the road and I did not want to go alone.

Edibility
EDIBLE PARTS: Cooked, early spring greens are edible.

SAFE HANDLING PROCEDURES: Cover the young leaves with 2-3 changes of boiling water until barely tender; cut into bite-sized pieces, salt lightly, and cover with butter and some vinegar. Tightly closed buds can be pickled after covering with boiling water as described for leaves.

SOURCE: Angier, B. 1974. Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants. Stackpole Books, Harrisburg, Pa, 255 pp. Elias, T.S. and P.A. Dykeman. 1982. Field Guide to North American Edible Wild Plants. Outdoor Life Books, New York, 286 pp.

Toxic Principle
Protoanemonin.
Severity
TOXIC ONLY IF LARGE QUANTITIES EATEN.

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/consumer/poison/Calthpa.htm

Mushrooms, gotta be careful. There are LOT of lookalikes. Some things are no brainers, like Shaggy Manes in the fall, or yummy aromatic Chantarelles. The LBM (Little Brown Mushrooms) in lawns can either be edible, "magic" or deadly. I have two large mushroom ID books and found stuff out in the woods that's not in either book! I really want to get into the log cultivation of some gourmet mushrooms like Oyster and Shiitake. You guys might like to do it too!

http://www.fungi.com/plugs/index.html

I've been trying to find Stinging Nettles, and not found any! So disappointed. That stuff is chock full of nutrients. It's said to really help with Arthritis. A couple of weeks ago I had a dr visit and he said according to my xray, I have beginning of osteo-arthritis in my spine. Joy.

According to

http://www.planthardiness.gc.ca/

My area should have Stinging Nettle, but I just can't find it yet. :sad:

I'll send ya stinging nettles :rolleyes: Actually, they're not so bad--once you learn how to grasp them properly, they're pretty easy to handle...but you have to be careful not to casually brush your hand on the one next to the one you're plucking. :D

Yep, cowslips are labor-intensive, but very similar to spinach when you're done.

Oh, and by the bye....not sure if either of these are chickweed now...:confused:

I found another plant that looks similar, except the flowers are only about a quarter inch (as opposed to a half inch) across and it has leaves like crab grass blades instead of the broader leaves...

Picture is a little blurry, but you can see the difference in the size of the flower:

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I'm not gonna taste either of them till I find out what they both are :o :laughing:

My guess is the smaller one, at least, is edible, though--it matches your description of chickweed, CearaQC.

Well according what I can see online, there are no poisonous Chickweed lookalikes. Maybe you just have a different strain?

Never tasted Chickweed. Gotta find it first. lol

I want to try the Lambs Quarters though. Those are in abundance here.

See if you can access this link Hazel. It's long, hope it works. From Google Books, the book is Edible wild plants by Thomas S. Elias, Peter A. Dykeman. It shows two descriptions from similar plants, both listed as edible.

http://books.google.ca/books?id=uo4GlfyjgFwC&pg=PA85&lpg=PA85&dq=chickweed+look+alikes&source=bl&ots=Zr8Rd7P86T&sig=CCxYRr_27giImpQuDZVVDGOPTng&hl=en&ei=Qjo1SsDDB47SNK6ajf8J&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2#PPA85,M1

If you guys live near water, give Cattail pollen a try. Supposed to be high in protein and from a video I watched, the guy collects the pollen from the male stalks and freezes batches and uses them to add to pancakes, waffles, etc.

Then he makes a wild pizza, with cattail pollen in the dough, stinging nettles and all sorts of stuff for the toppings, and makes a giant mess while doing it. lol

http://www.herbvideos.com/

The video is beyond my connection's reach, but I tried the book...wouldn't let me look :shrug: I do have a couple of books on edible plants, though, with instructions and line drawings but no pictures--so I have a wild-flower (including "weeds") identification book that I use to make sure I'm not going to poison myself too badly! :laughing:

If you know how to ship nettles so that they survive a couple of weeks in transit, let me know. I'm more than willing to send you some. :p Customs might have a different idea, though! :o

Seeds shouldn't be a problem though!

They must be small...I've never seen any seeds. :o

They must also be prolific, though, unless they reproduce by rhizome, cuz they pop up all over the place. :D

Beautiful flowers and a lovely piece of property u have! If u walk in the woods and think u hit poison ivy, they say if u wash by 30 minutes after u walk in it you won't get a rash.



Last year we tried cowslips (marsh marigold) for the first time. Not too bad, but lots of work. Lots of vitamins, I've been told. :D

I didn't know that. I grow them in my pond. Do u eat the flowers or leaves and how do u prepare them?

I have made dandelion jelly that was nice. Lots of work but it was good. *S*

Debbie

A few more recent blooms. Could the first one be strawberries :shrug:?

I've never noticed Daisies growing on the fuzzy type of stems/leaves as in the third pic :o. Dh has heeded my warnings and, with much grumbling, is mowing around most of the patches of blooming flowers/weeds in the yard :D.

LP.I think those fuzzy-stemmed yellow Daisies are a weed and I don't think your first one is Strawberry,they have more compact little flowers.

What do I know :laughing:? The leaves do look a lot like those on a strawberry plant :o.

I think your strawberry might be a blackberry, LP. I just came across this one this week:

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That vetch is beautiful (the purple cascading thingy :D) and I love whatever that is that you posted just after that. :cloud9:

The whitish-lavendar 'daisy' with the tiny and very numerous petals is actually an aster.

So pretty, all of them!

TQ--we eat the leaves, although I think the unopened buds are also edible. You have to boil the leaves (and buds) three times to get the toxins out, discarding the water between boilings. The leaves look a lot like canned spinach when you're done. :D I usually fry up a piece of bacon till it's crisp, then fry up the chopped leaves with the crumbled bacon in some of the bacon grease. :cloud9:

I think your strawberry might be a blackberry, LP.

Cool :thumbs up! There seems to be quite a few of those growing along the edge of the woods.

That vetch is beautiful (the purple cascading thingy :D) and I love whatever that is that you posted just after that. :cloud9:

Whatever it is, there are some that are at least 4' high.

The whitish-lavendar 'daisy' with the tiny and very numerous petals is actually an aster.

So pretty, all of them!

Thank you Hazel. It's nice to put a name to some of them. At least it'll look like I know what I'm talking about when ppl come to visit :D.

Four feet tall on those pretty pink clustery flowers? :eek: Wow!!! I wonder what they are? They sure are cool looking! :D

The strawberry-looking plant is Dewberry, in the raspberry/blackberry family Rubus. Some people use them to make homemade wine. Food for lots of forest critters too.

http://www.planthardiness.gc.ca/ph_spp_intro.pl?lang=en&speciesid=1005057

The strawberry-looking plant is Dewberry, in the raspberry/blackberry family Rubus. Some people use them to make homemade wine. Food for lots of forest critters too.

http://www.planthardiness.gc.ca/ph_spp_intro.pl?lang=en&speciesid=1005057
Cool! Wish I could open the link but the phone lines are too crackly. What do dewberries look like when they're ripe? Black with big segments? I've only ever seen berries once or twice--they get eaten pretty quickly. :D They must be good!

Well, I don't really know to tell you the truth! :o I spotted some last year but was too afraid to pick any, because I did not know what berries were good or if there were any poisonous ones. And I only learned about the Dewberry a couple of weeks ago and recognized it as one of the berries I saw last year.

I copied these pictures from the links on that website I posted earlier. Hope you will be able to see them OK Hazel. It looks very much like what I saw last year in our woods. Whether it changes to a darker color, :shrug:

The website says

The Dwarf Raspberry (aka Dewberry) may be confused with the Woodland Strawberry and Common Strawberry, but the strawberries lack a trailing, woody stem. The berries are edible but are smaller and less succulent than those of the Wild Red Raspberry.

One picture downloaded :thumbs up The berries we get looked very similar, only much darker--almost black. And longer--more oblong than round like the red one in the pic.

I know ours are edible because there was a big patch in a park I used to birdwatch at when we lived in the city--I was young and immortal then--I'd eat wild berries all the time there... :o Now I yell at the dogs when they do the same thing :rolleyes: :laughing:

LP if you ever want to get a positive ID, feel free to contact the folks over at the Montreal Botanical Gardens. I've emailed them back and forth a few times discussing rare wild plants/conservation in Quebec, and they are really nice and helpful. And I'm sure they would be more than happy to help you positively ID any mystery plant.

Gosh I feel so bad for post hacking. :sorry:

Hazel I checked a botany website on wild plants for your state, and there are listed probably over 40 types of Rubus family berry plants around where you live. :eek: Most all are the three leaf ragged edge types like you photographed and others look more like the Currant/Gooseberry type leaf which kind of reminds me of a maple tree leaf, but more rounded on the edges. This makes it awfully confusing for me to ID certain plants because we have a Highbush Cranberry plant that also has the mapley type leaves that the French call "Pembina" pronounced "pem-in-awe."

http://wisplants.uwsp.edu/scripts/SearchResults.asp?Genus=Rubus

So chances are what you have is indeed Blackberry family and comes out more oblong like the cultivated Blackberry and may be crossed by bees, eaten and deposited by animal poo, and grew into a new cultivar! Rubus genus is part of the Rose group and that's probably why the flowers are so attractive.

I don't think any Rubus family are poisonous, but most have that 3 leaf thing going on which can be confused with Poison Ivy/Oak and sometimes the poisonous Hawthorne, as you probably already know. But if you ever get in contact with the poison plants, you should have another plant nearby that will take away the itch and stop the spread. Actually two plants - one is the Stinging Nettle and the other is Jewelweed, which is in the Impatiens family. Both nettles and Jewelweed can be crushed to let the plant juices flow and apply that to the affected area. Don't worry the sting gets rendered inactive after crushing, but the Jewelweed doesn't stink at all, and is a really pretty flower! When I first saw it I thought it looked like a funky wild orange Orchid or something. :laughing:

Dewberry is more of a ground cover type Rubus and stays low, whereas some of the other Blackberry types are more shrubby and long. Dewberry also doesn't have thorns as far as I know.

The Blackberry/Raspberry type group have the multi-berry, whereas the cranberry, currant, gooseberry are single berries. Raspberries leave behind a "cone" type thing on the plant once the berry is picked and Blackberry usually retains the cone thing when picked. Hope I got that last part right! So much to remember.

The Cherry family is just as confusing. :laughing:

Some more recent blooms of my non garden :D.

Frenchy, what you thought was rhubarb is actually one of those burr bushes :laughing:. I've never seen them bloom, they're soooo pretty :cloud9:.

These tend to overgrow what were once paths through the woods. I don't know what they're called either :loser: :laughing:.

Nor the third flower :rolleyes: but, I have several growing deep in the shade of trees to one side of the side. They get no sun but are blooming so pretty nevertheless.

Btw, Ceara, your posts are so informative...thanks for sharing all your knowledge :thumbs up.

Well shucks. :o

The orange flower is Jewelweed! Very useful plant for skin irritations.

http://www.wildmanstevebrill.com/Plants.Folder/Jewelweed.html

White flower with fern-like foliage is Yarrow. Also medicinal and helpful. Can be used as a dye, was used long ago to flavor gruit beer before anyone learned about hops, and dried root I think is used like cornstarch to thicken sauces. Grows wild in many places and produces runners underground. But commercially they also flower in different colors like yellow, pink and red.

The burr plant I think is called Burdock and the entire plant is edible but different parts are best eaten at certain parts of the plant's life, according to what I have read.

http://www.wildmanstevebrill.com/Plants.Folder/Burdock.html

It's got a giant tap root like a carrot and the root can be peeled and chopped, boiled and eaten like root veg. The root is also considered medicinal and the Japanese eat it but in N America it's sold in capsule form like a supplement.

The jewelweed is also called spotted touch-me-not, because the seed pods pop open explosively when you touch them. :D

I think the blue one is chicory--are the stems almost bare with very few leaves on them? Sure are pretty flowers. :cloud9:

The purple spire one you should probably try to identify through an ag agent or county extension (if you have such a thing in Canada :o) because it looks similar to purple loosestrife, a very invasive garden escapee that is a real problem near wetlands. There are a lot of wildflowers that look similar, though, so don't rip it out till you know for sure. :D