Bur buttercup in my yard
As I walked around my front yard in northwest New Mexico on February 3, I saw weeds popping up through the gravel. Lots of them. Weeds in the middle of winter? Usually, the ground is frozen this time of year, and weeds aren’t on my mind at all. Not so this winter. The ground hasn’t even frozen. The temperatures hover between 40 and 60 degrees Fahrenheit. Where has the cold weather gone? What happened to winter?
I grabbed my hoe and started digging up all kinds of weeds. One looked different. I couldn’t ever remember seeing it before. It nestled among purple berries scattered on the ground under my tall juniper tree. I pulled out my phone and scrolled to my Picture This app that identifies trees, flowers and even weeds. I love this app and use it often.
I snapped a picture of the weed and waited for the app to tell me what it was. Up came the words bur buttercup. The app told me it’s not considered a weed but an herb. Really? As I hoed weeds all over my front yard, I found bur buttercups everywhere. When plants aren’t where I want them to be, I call them weeds. I didn’t want bur buttercups anywhere in my yard even though they were kind of cute. Even though they are considered an herb.
My app told me that bur buttercups are hardy and handle cold weather well. They are drought tolerant. They adapt well to poor soil. They thrive in full sunlight, and they are resistant to most soil diseases.
As wonderful as they sounded, I didn’t want them growing and spreading all over my yard, so I hoed up every one of them I could find. And there were a lot of them! What made them grow this year when I haven’t encountered them in my yard before? Perhaps it has something to do with the warmer than usual weather.
Normally, I don’t have to start battling weeds until late March or early April. I am already getting more exercise by hoeing up weeds in the middle of winter. And maybe that’s a good thing. Especially since I just baked brownies and have some calories to work off!