Garden Weeding Tools

What in the world is it. A: The flower you have photographed is love-in-a-mist (Nigella damascena), an old garden annual originally from lands surrounding the Mediterranean Sea. Though the leaves resemble dill, it is not in the same plant family, but rather in the buttercup family, the Ranunculaceae. When the pods are left on the plant to mature, they eventually split open to release little black seeds, and some of these will often sow themselves, or "volunteer," though usually not enough to be pestiferous. The plant is about 3 to 4 feet tall, has lacy foliage similar to dill weed, and puts out incredible blue flowers that look a bit like passionflowers, although this is not a vine. The plants are often shorter than the one you photographed, only a foot or two tall, but I see occasional taller ones. The elegant flowers will develop into elegant seedpods, with curled "horns" at the top and often striped with violet. Gardeners also sometimes cut stems with still-green pods on them and hang them to dry for use in arrangements.

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        As I have mentioned before, we have some amazingly long roots on some of our weeds here in Northern Colorado, so I decided to check out a narrow bladed weeding trowel to deal with them. This is one great tool for digging down and getting at those long stubborn roots. On one weed, I almost fell down the hill out back when we finally won the battle and pulled that stubborn sucker out.

Anne Schreck | File Under Garden Tools | Comments