My neighbors are getting old and they have no time to tend the garden. Sometimes I go over and water some plants, trim the trees along the fence and pull some weeds. This can be a dangerous thing to do.

In many parts of the country, the farmers hate the weeds more than they hate the locust. Sometimes the university wants to study a weed for alternative use. Such as milkweeds for latex rubber or tumble weeds for firewood. This can cause an ugly political confrontation. Some people spend millions of dollars killing this stuff. Other people are spending money propagating this. Here is your tax dollar at work. A weed is just a plant that is out of place. From an ecological view, growing weeds makes perfect sense. This stuff is well adjusted and does not put a strain on the resources. My friend Margaret Livingston did a PhD thesis on rejuvenating the prairie that has been depleted by over grazing with ranching. All over California, weeds are needed to prevent erosion: highway interchanges, sandy bluffs and cliffs.

My friend Don Moxley loves the desert and everything that is in the desert. A lot of people coming from the eastern part of USA come here and think the desert is ugly. So they pull out all the native plants and put in a lawn. An oasis is a beautiful thing. But an artificially maintained lawn is not the smartest idea for the desert. This prompted Don to start a movement : "Save the Bursage". Here is the stage for a clash of culture and value.

William,

Boy last weekend was fun. We went to a 'Master Gardener Conference' on Saturday. Cost us $55 a head, it was at the 'Wigwam' in Litchfield Park Az. It was put on by the Maricopa branch of the UofA Ag Extension. Great lunch. It was mostly professional types... I went to sessions on bugs, myths, propagation, and mangos. Hey hot tip... there are babes in this business. Anyway, the keynote speaker used to run the greenhouse at Desert Survivors. He is now running his own wholesale business in Pearce. He grows from the heart, not what sells. He takes gallon size potted plants down to the local feed store to sell and they tease him that the plants he grows they have been trying to kill for 20 years. They go, "hey Pete, how is the weed business?". Oh well, that is what the native plant business is all about. His speech was on "Native Plants, A Sense of Place". What a beautiful theme.

My Garden in Del Mar
Joy of gardening

Moxley's bursage homepage

Tucson Plant Information

Jojoba plant description

Desert Whale Jojoba Farm

Native Plant Resources

Arid Lands Consortium

California Native Plants Resources

Wildflowers of Yosemite, California

California plants and habbitatphoto album

California Native Plants

Arizonia Native Plant Society

San Diego Native Plant Garden

Native Plant Map by Andy Wasowski

New Mexico Native Plants

Weed Dreams

Pollution is the Solution

NASA earth science for kids

Earth Day activities