The Down Side of Weeding!

Early in summer I spent hours trying to smother the gout weed that was overwhelming my front flower bed. I stopped before I was done - intending to get back to it.

But now I'm glad I did!

I remember thinking - as I covered the gout weed with layers of newspaper: I'm probably smothering other plants as well!

I was! Instead of the big bunches of heliopsis flowers I've had in previous years,- I see only two (in a part I hadn't weeded yet).
















And only one echinacea cone flower is blooming this year - where in past summers I had half a dozen!

(I wonder what other plants I've lost as well...)