SMARTWEED: BE GRATEFUL IT'S PRETTY
Eco-gardening is at its best in The Monday Garden
October 12, 2003, issue 81
Pink smartweed and white fall asters share the October sun, at the edge of a parking lot, with a yellow butterfly. Native asters make great carefree garden plants for a sunny location where their tall status (3' or more) can be accommodated (See issue 27). Smartweed (polygonum) on the other hand, is horrible.
Smartweed, with the folk name "smartass", has a behavior problem. Taken out of context, the stuff is attractive but then so are house mice and Canadian geese. However, it's hard to be grateful for the inch of guano that the no-longer-endangered Canadian geese leave in their wake. In turn, smartweed's not so charming when you've pulled it up for the fifth time this month.