Remember that time I inadvertently grew something in my garden that made my husband sick? That's what we will say when we look back at the garden of 2014. Let me start by saying, I have never claimed to be a master gardener. I have a passion for gardening and a true love of gardening - but not a whole lot of knowledge. Each year I learn a little more.
Every spring plants poke their heads out of the soil and I don't always know exactly what they are. I can easily recognize most plants, but there seems to be one or two that I'm unable to identify. So, I let them grow - curious to see what they become.
This year a plant emerged in my front yard garden that was unidentified. It had pretty lacy leaves and looked completely harmless, so I gave it a chance to grow a little more. 
Time flew by and the next thing I knew what was once a lovely lacy plant had quickly become an invasive waist-high weed. This unknown invader had taken over a 3 foot square patch of my flower bed. It was time to determine what this plant was.
I consulted Google. I plugged "common Ontario weeds" into the search bar. At that point I was fairly certain I was dealing with a weed. I clicked through to the image search and began my hunt for my invasive friend. Within a few moments I discovered that I was growing a healthy field of ragweed.
Guess who is allergic to ragweed? Yep, my poor, allergy suffering husband. Our newest crop was contributing to his irritated eyes and general itchiness...opps.
Not only was our ragweed impacting my husband, but my entire neighbourhood. I coincidentally came upon a conversation, taking place in our neighbourhood Facebook group, about the "irresponsible homeowners growing ragweed in their gardens". Yikes! My neighbours were ranting about seeing ragweed growing and how they were unable to open their windows. I can only assume they were referring to my garden...right?
Well, I threw on my gloves, started pulling and filled a large garden bag with the vile, much hated weed. They say you learn something new every day...I learn something new every season in the garden.
