DIY Network

Take a Walk and Gather Invasive Plants

Master gardener Maureen Gilmer, host of Weekend Gardening, gives tips on gathering a harvest of nature's beauty.

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	Dry pods of teasel, thornapple and other weeds make beautiful indoor accents. (All photos courtesy of Maureen Gilmer)
	When cutting green flowers of wayside weeds, bundle and hang upside down in a cool dry place to dry for future use.
	Once you begin to notice unique weeds, you'll find beautiful stems, flowers and seeds everywhere you look.
	It's amazing how dry weeds collected from the roadside can dress up your home for free.
	Grasses flower in the summer to produce really attractive textured flower heads.

How to Gather Invasive Plants

By Maureen Gilmer

Aug. 27, 2007 — Long ago my possessions amounted to little more than one beat-up Volkswagen Beetle and a sleeping bag. Since I had no money, the stores offered only eye candy. So I took fresh stock of what grew in the free lands along roadsides, in ditches, abandoned parking lots, between cracks in the pavement, and in vacant lots. I found all these places were chock full of beautiful summer weeds in the process of going to seed. I gathered many of them to add natural beauty to my transient life. Today I see stores selling bundles of these sticks and dry weeds for many dollars each, and wonder if anybody still gathers what's free any more.

The thistles, the Queen Anne's lace, buckwheat, wild oats, mullein and teasel are mostly introductions from Europe that date back to Colonial times. They have invaded America, marching across the entire continent from New England to California. All of them are largely unwanted and the bane of botanists who see them displacing native plant communities.

If these species were to disappear tomorrow, you wouldn't hear any complaints. Provided you don't pick the natives, it would indeed help control invasive plants if we thinned out the invaders to decorate our homes.

Take these tall decadent weeds out of their wayside environment and they become something else entirely. Cut them as you would fresh flowers, and the dried stems take on a new look indoors. In fact, what you may gather in waste places today can turn a winter home or apartment into a gardenesque art gallery. What I learned in those early lean years was that nature provides us with beauty overflowing, if you know where and how to look for it.

Gathering in the late summer is a wonderful way to turn a walk in the country or a stroll through vacant urban land into a rewarding activity. It's great therapy for we Type-A's who have trouble just being there without some sort of goal or destination. As the plants go to seed, they dry out and become more rigid. Pick these and you won't find them limp by the time you get home like freshly cut green flowers.

To become a harvest gatherer, it is wise to bring along a few tools. Clippers cut through the hardened fibrous stems. Lightweight gloves protect against the rather prickly fellows. Bring a pillowcase or an open canvas bag that won't crush the brittle dry cuttings.

To preserve your wild gatherings for fall or winter decor, be sure they are fully dried. To encourage the last bit of moisture to vacate its tissues, bundle the plants together by the stems with a rubber band or twine, and hang upside down in a sheltered location out of the rain. Don't be surprised if you're rewarded with a shower of seeds dropping out of flowers or pods.

Rounded seed heads such as teasel make cool-looking mounds in baskets or wood bowls. You need just the heads, so dry them using an old window screen. Arrange the heads so they don't touch each other, then store in a dry location out of the wind, such as the garage.

It's an old custom in European farming communities to save sheaves of wild grass and grains to feed winter birds. The seed-filled grass heads are bound to a fence post or tree branch to encourage birds to come and feed. Small animals may also find the seeds a welcome addition to their scant winter fare. You can create similar arrangements to hang on your porch or as an autumn front door swag.

If you don't have a garden, or if you just aren't a gardener, the harvest is still out there waiting for you. Buy a field guide to learn what's an exotic weed and what's native to know what to pick.

(Maureen Gilmer is a horticulturist and host of Weekend Gardening. E-mail her at mo@moplants.com. For more information, visit: www.moplants.com. Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service.)

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