Weeds - Beautiful Nuisance

This past weekend at our mobile home park's community-wide yard sale gave me time to notice some really big weeds. We have desert landscaping on our lots, plus any bushes, flowers, or other ornamentals we want. But we are not allowed to have weeds.  The rocks or gravel on our lots lie upon weed-deterrent plastic, and over the years, it breaks and weeds begin to poke up through the stones.

Sometimes, here in the Las Vegas area, our lots are covered with these wispy weeds I tend to call "sea grass." This type is the worst for a mobile home park. If a fire develops, it rushes across these dry wispy things in an instant. Most of us in here get rid of these right away.

The weeds that I neglected to notice until this weekend were only four in number. However, their majestic size was impressive. All four of them were sprouting from the edge of the home, up from just against the skirting. These weeds were up past my knees. I know I'm only 5 feet tall now (used to be 5'2"), but a weed up to my knees is still pretty tall, weed-wise.

They also had thick, somewhat prickly, thorny stalks coming from the bottom. I had to get my garden gloves and scissors, and cut them off at the bottoms, near the ground. Then I poured white vinegar into their base. In a few days, if the vinegar has not done them in, I'll use something stronger. White vinegar usually takes care of most normal weeds in my neighborhood.

Anyhow, these were, as I said, impressive. If they hadn't also been prickly and thorny, I might have been tempted to transplant them to a more visible and attractive spot and pass them off as "plants." Some weeds are as pretty as wildflowers in a meadow. I guess it all depends on our perspective and on their location.