Never again

Pulling weeds in the garden is one of those maintenance therapies with which I have a love-hate relationship.  As long as they haven't grown out of hand, I enjoy going out early in the morning with a bucket and pulling the random weeds that attempt to join my landscape design.  The finished project gives me a great sense of satisfaction for a "job well done."

However, what I do not enjoy is pulling weeds that have invaded my backyard at my own invitation. 

It's been at least three years since I deliberately planted blue morning glories on a chain link fence between my front and backyards.   I had no idea that morning glories are prolific reseeders.  It wouldn't be so bad if they produced the same glorious blue bloom that I originally planted but morning glories revert back to their original stock after their first season and the flowers of the second (and third and fourth and fifth) generation are tiny orange blooms that no one notices.  They produce even more morning glory seeds that seem to take root in every square foot of my garden.

If this was only a spring time event, it would be manageable, but millions of morning glory seedlings keep popping up all summer long.  If one lone vine survives the weeding process to produce flowers (and approximately one million seeds per blossom) my morning glory nightmare multiplies once again.

Mordecai, our baby sulcata tortoise, tries to help me by eating as many morning glory seedlings as his little tummy can hold.  He seems to think they are delicious, which might be their only virtue.

I will NEVER plant morning glories in my garden again.