# Violets Are Weeds (Your spring gardening rant here) **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 19, 2009, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/violets-are-weeds-your-spring-gardening-rant-here/493666 "2009-04-19T23:48:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![zweisamkeit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zweisamkeit/32/4360_2.png) [@zweisamkeit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zweisamkeit)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2009, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/violets-are-weeds-your-spring-gardening-rant-here/493666/61 "2009-04-27T13:31:48Z")
Why are some flowering plants considered “weeds” while others are prized? I think violets and yes, dandelions, are pretty. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2009, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/violets-are-weeds-your-spring-gardening-rant-here/493666/62 "2009-04-27T13:55:27Z")
> [@zweisamkeit](#): > > Why are some flowering plants considered “weeds” while others are prized? > I think violets and yes, dandelions, are pretty. Except for environmentally detrimental invasives (which deserve their appelation of “noxious weed”), the definition of “weed” is as follows: A plant growing where you don’t want it to. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2009, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/violets-are-weeds-your-spring-gardening-rant-here/493666/63 "2009-04-27T14:52:52Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > Bravo! I fucking hate fucking violets. Do we have a picture? Are they the same thing as “Creeping Charlie” the likes of which have taken over my lawn like they own the joint? The wild things have taken over my lawn. We don’t like to put poison down, so we just live with it. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2009, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/violets-are-weeds-your-spring-gardening-rant-here/493666/64 "2009-04-27T16:37:38Z")
If you have forgotten which plants are the weeds, there’s a simple test. Pull up everything. The plants that come back are the weeds. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2009, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/violets-are-weeds-your-spring-gardening-rant-here/493666/65 "2009-04-27T16:58:35Z")
> [@kittenblue](#): > > My entire backyard is wild violets and forget-me-not amidst the softest grass around. I transplanted the violets from the (long-gone) neighboring woods nearly 40 years ago, and they grow everywhere BUT the flower beds they started out in. Every year the person who wants the lawn mowed, and me (the person who mows the lawn) argue about when to start mowing…I hate mowing down my violets. My rather shaded backyard used to be a grass lawn, but is being taken over by a mixture of moss, violets, and wild strawberry. Can’t happen fast enough to suit me - they all hug the ground pretty well, and seem to be choking out the less desirable weeds a lot better than the grass did. I find that if I set the mower near its highest setting, it goes right over most of the violets. This is with your standard gasoline-powered push mower; the settings on riding mowers seem to be designed for putting greens rather than lawns. ---
**Author:** ![crazyjoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f14d63/32.png) [@crazyjoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crazyjoe)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2009, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/violets-are-weeds-your-spring-gardening-rant-here/493666/66 "2009-04-27T17:05:59Z")
> [@zweisamkeit](#): > > Why are some flowering plants considered “weeds” while others are prized? > I think violets and yes, dandelions, are pretty. That’s because you don’t have a yard. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2009, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/violets-are-weeds-your-spring-gardening-rant-here/493666/67 "2009-04-27T17:39:36Z")
> [@crazyjoe](#): > > That’s because you don’t have a yard. I have a yard, and I like dandelions and violets. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2009, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/violets-are-weeds-your-spring-gardening-rant-here/493666/68 "2009-04-27T18:17:40Z")
I love weeds. Especially violets (pretty), wood sorrel (very pretty), and vetch (pretty, kind of a pain in the ass, but totally worth it). I put up with the vetch because it’s basically living fertilizer (pea family, nitrogen fixer). I get the whole “wildflower meadow” thing going until late Spring in the back yard, then mow everything under. My yard, which was a wasteland 2 years ago, is now extremely lush and verdant, with a nicely developing woodland soil. And I don’t rake the back yard either. Leaves are good organic matter. Let 'em turn to dirt. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2009, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/violets-are-weeds-your-spring-gardening-rant-here/493666/69 "2009-04-27T18:23:02Z")
> [@Ogre](#): > > I love weeds. Especially violets (pretty), wood sorrel (very pretty), and vetch (pretty, kind of a pain in the ass, but totally worth it). > > I put up with the vetch because it’s basically living fertilizer (pea family, nitrogen fixer). I get the whole “wildflower meadow” thing going until late Spring in the back yard, then mow everything under. My yard, which was a wasteland 2 years ago, is now extremely lush and verdant, with a nicely developing woodland soil. > > And I don’t rake the back yard either. Leaves are good organic matter. Let 'em turn to dirt. Word. My son’s GF came by and just felt like raking (she’s a city dweller). So we chatted and raked, raked and chatted. Pretty soon I had two huge piles of leaves. Then the snow came. Now I have two massive dead spots where the leaves sat. I’m much happier letting them just sit where they fall. Then I mow 'em up come springtime. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2009, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/violets-are-weeds-your-spring-gardening-rant-here/493666/70 "2009-04-27T18:35:50Z")
Oh, and I don’t understand the obsessive need to mow your grass every week, regardless of what the weather is like. We had the worst drought in state history two year ago. I responded by simply not mowing my lawn. No big deal. It grew maybe 1/4 of an inch in about 5 months. It remained relatively healthy (all things considered). My neighbor mowed his lawn throughout the entire drought every week, while giving me the stinkeye for not mowing mine. Guess whose yard still has giant dead patches in it even two years later. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2009, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/violets-are-weeds-your-spring-gardening-rant-here/493666/71 "2009-04-27T20:33:14Z")
One of my favorites is _[Viola labradorica](http://z.about.com/d/gardening/1/0/z/K/ViolaLabradorica1.jpg)_, with its dark-green-to-almost-black-sometimes leaves. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2009, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/violets-are-weeds-your-spring-gardening-rant-here/493666/72 "2009-04-27T22:14:04Z")
> [@Anne Neville](#): > > I have a yard, and I like dandelions and violets. I have no problem at all with violets or dandelions smiling sweetly throughout the lawn. But any wildflower attempting to stick its little rootsies into the vegetable garden, which seems to be an overpowering obsession with them, had better be prepared to face the Wrath of **Kimstu**. Death to the invaders!!! ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2009, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/violets-are-weeds-your-spring-gardening-rant-here/493666/73 "2009-04-28T00:00:44Z")
> [@lissener](#): > > In fact \<\<[googles](http://www.usna.usda.gov/Hardzone/ushzmap.html)\>\>, while Maine and Wisconsin are similar in climate, they’re both much colder even than Eastern Washington, and several zones colder than Western Washington, which has more in common climactically with the Carolinas. With the additional difference of a great deal more annual rainfall. Yep. I learned to hunt mushrooms in Washington State, and came back home to find many of my favorite varieties grow here. Or at least the toy versions of them do. Washington chanterelles can be the size of a baseball; if you find one here that’s the size of a brussel sprout, you get excited. > [@kittenblue](#): > > I gave each of my seven girlfriends a pot of it for high school graduation Damn, you were a player! > [@Jophiel](#): > > I actually don’t mind the dandelions & clover. Gives the rabbits something to nibble so they stay out of the garden. In my experience, their appetites go Native Plants \> Non-Native Gardening Stuff \> Turf Grass. Give 'em a patch of clover and they’ll ignore the veggies. I agree. In lush years, we’ll regularly see rabbits sitting alongside our garden, happily nibbling on the clover, while beautiful lettuces grow just a foot or so away. The only time I saw a rabbit attack the garden was when a baby bunny rolled a green carrot off the ground, picked it up with both paws, and thoughtfully munched on it as though it were an apple. It was freakin adorable. In drought years like last year, though, the rabbits and groundhogs decimate the garden, since it’s the only area in the yard that gets water. So I’m fine with dandelions and violets everywhere except in the garden. Within that hallowed space, though, I’m pretty determined to dig them out by the roots. They just ain’t allowed. **Lynn** , if I called my bakery and offered to supply their candied violet needs, it’s not that I think they’d laugh at me. It’s that I think they’d ask me to hold, put me on speakerphone, and get me to repeat the offer so that everyone in the bakery could laugh at me. I could easily go outside and collect a couple hundred violets in ten minutes, and our yard is unremarkable in this regard. They grow everywhere here. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2009, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/violets-are-weeds-your-spring-gardening-rant-here/493666/74 "2009-04-28T12:41:57Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > I have no problem at all with violets or dandelions smiling sweetly throughout the lawn. But any wildflower attempting to stick its little rootsies into the vegetable garden, which seems to be an overpowering obsession with them, had better be prepared to face the Wrath of **Kimstu**. Death to the invaders!!! I’m the same way about my herb garden. Also about the weeds that grow through the cracks between the stones in our patio. This time of year, I’m always cursing the previous owners, for putting down those stones without putting something down under them to inhibit weeds. ---
**Author:** ![crazyjoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f14d63/32.png) [@crazyjoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crazyjoe)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2009, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/violets-are-weeds-your-spring-gardening-rant-here/493666/75 "2009-04-28T13:44:07Z")
> [@Anne\_Neville](#): > > I have a yard, and I like dandelions and violets. Then you don’t have a garden. The damned violets spread FAST, like kudzu fast, and will rapidly take over te flower garden AND the vegetable garden, unless you plant something even MORE invasive or taller (like mint, or snow-on-the-mountain). So, it must be killed. I have been fighting a war against it for 7 years. I am slowly reclaiming areas of the yard and preventing it from taking over then neighborhood. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2009, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/violets-are-weeds-your-spring-gardening-rant-here/493666/76 "2009-04-28T13:54:52Z")
> [@crazyjoe](#): > > Then you don’t have a garden. Fortunately, my herb garden isn’t contiguous with the lawn. It’s in an area that used to be a goldfish pond, and is surrounded by patio stones. I’m battling some of the stuff that the previous owners planted around their fish pond in the herb garden (and I’m reluctant to use Roundup or other herbicides there, because I plan to eat those herbs), but violets aren’t one of those things. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2009, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/violets-are-weeds-your-spring-gardening-rant-here/493666/77 "2009-04-28T14:54:36Z")
Well, as of this weekend, I too can add wild violet to my list of volunteer landscaping. ---
**Author:** ![crazyjoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f14d63/32.png) [@crazyjoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crazyjoe)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2009, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/violets-are-weeds-your-spring-gardening-rant-here/493666/78 "2009-04-28T15:35:42Z")
> [@Anne\_Neville](#): > > Fortunately, my herb garden isn’t contiguous with the lawn. It’s in an area that used to be a goldfish pond, and is surrounded by patio stones. I’m battling some of the stuff that the previous owners planted around their fish pond in the herb garden (and I’m reluctant to use Roundup or other herbicides there, because I plan to eat those herbs), but violets aren’t one of those things. It’s not really very practical for me to try to raise or surround an 800 square foot vegetable garden, and even if I did, the violets have to be dead first, with no way of coming back in. and those suckers have rhizones that can grow 9 feet long or more. RoundUp for them! ---
**Author:** ![Hamlet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hamlet/32/2818_2.png) [@Hamlet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamlet)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2009, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/violets-are-weeds-your-spring-gardening-rant-here/493666/79 "2009-04-28T16:02:23Z")
Monkey Grass. Hate it. I’ve spent 2 hours pulling up that crap by the root and have another 2 hours to go. I’ve got to get a flamethrower. ---
**Author:** ![Savannah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b3f665/32.png) [@Savannah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Savannah)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2009, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/violets-are-weeds-your-spring-gardening-rant-here/493666/80 "2009-04-29T01:51:18Z")
I was going to rant about some herbivore or another–deer? Bunny? At any rate, someone came along and visited my back patio last night, and munched a whole pot of cheerful, vivid blue and purple pansies. Then they laid waste to the potted geraniums. However, I just stood there and ended up chuckling. I think the flowers will come back, and somebunny got a good dinner last night. I think we have wild violets here, too–I’m going to take some pictures and post them to get expert opinions. Whatever they are, they pop up everywhere, and I too, thought “how pretty” a few years ago… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/violets-are-weeds-your-spring-gardening-rant-here/493666.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/violets-are-weeds-your-spring-gardening-rant-here/493666.md?page=5)