new home owner - Are these weeds?

[mattmoorepercussion]

First-time poster. I just bought a house and am clueless about yard care. It seems that I've got two types of grass - a broad-leaf and a thin-leaf. Is one of these a weed? Are they cool co-existing or should I do something about this other than normal good practice mowing / fertilizing / watering?

Also, I've got a little garden thing wrapping around the perimeter of my back yard. I'm not sure which plants are weeds and need to be removed and which aren't. Help!

[rainbowgardener]

I'm not much of a lawn person, but I can ID the bottom three pictures.

Top one of the three, the vine crawling around is bindweed. It is sort of wild morning glory and has little white trumpet flowers, that are kind of pretty, but basically it is a pernicious weed, that will take things over and smother them. Hard to get rid of. Best would be to wait until after a rain when the ground is soft and dig it out. Follow along the root and dig out as much of the root as you can. Any pieces of root that are left will regenerate.

Middle picture is a mulberry tree, which has been chopped off at some point and regrown, which is why it is so bushy looking. Whether you call it a "weed" or not depends on your definition. It is a native tree in the whole eastern US. It produces edible mulberries which birds, squirrels, woodchucks, etc like. They make good jelly etc, if you can get them before the wildlife does. But they are kind of messy and lead to purple bird droppings all over, so some people don't like them.

Bottom picture is just a bunch of weeds. There's more bindweed. The little blue flowers are called dayflower. There's crepe myrtle aka vinca minor. Again a definitional thing. Some people plant vinca as a quick spreading evergreen ground cover, that gets little blue flowers in the spring. I call it an invasive exotic weed. I call it forest killer, because it grows in shade and will cover a forest smothering all the wildflowers and eventually even killing trees. Here's a sample of how it takes over and smothers things (but will also help you ID which one it is):


https://www.gardenerdirect.com/public/i ... es-400.jpg

This is the kind of thing you get when a yard has been neglected for a long time.

Welcome to the Forum and to the wonderful world of home ownership and gardening! Come back any time and ask more questions.

[imafan26]

I agree with Rainbow. Most of the plants are weeds. The wide bladed grass may be a grassy weed or it might be St. Augustine grass. I usually see that kind of grass where there is a lot of moisture.

When you buy a new older home, it doesn't come with a blank slate, but it does come with a lot of possibilities.

[applestar]

Yep out of all the plants in the bottom three Pics, only one I would keep is the purple shamrock. I'm sorry but I had to chuckle because even when zoomed in, all I could find were weeds....

How much of the narrow leaf grass and broad leaf grass do you have? Typically, narrow, soft grass is considered the keeper -- people want to achieve the golf green look, but the broad leaf grass are sturdier to foot traffic and tumbling about like athletic fields.

So ultimately I imagine it depends on WHERE they are growing, how you will be using the areas, and what kind of look you are going for. If you were to ask me (or rainbowgardener probably ) we would tell you to get rid of the lawn and turn them into more garden beds.

[imafan26]

I agree. I would love to ditch more of the grass but the HOA requires 50% grass in the front yard. Otherwise, I would just have more border plants out there.

My backyard though, has only got wild grass. I have plants everywhere, but unfortunately the weeds have replaced the grass. I am working still on clearing the grass and I am considering just putting down more weed block and mulch on the rest. But first, I gotta pull the weeds out.