While wandering around the garden I glanced over at the very first bed that my husband and I put in back when we moved into this house nearly three years ago (the bed that was meant for veggies but was soon filled with herbs). My heart sank as I realized I was looking down at a bed full of Hairy Bittercress (Cardamine hirsuta). I knew with one quick glance what was occupying that garden bed. I know this little weed all too well from my days spent working at a nursery. This little weed would run amuck in the nursery pots if we did not constantly take the time to weed it out.
(In the below picture the smaller plants are the Hairy Bittercress while the larger leaved plants are yet more borage that has decided to germinate. Borage really likes me I am afraid.)
I do not know how this intruder managed to sneak its way into my garden bed so well. Perhaps it was secretly hiding out in and amongst the cosmos during their glory days when all I noticed was their pretty blooms held high up, far from the ground where this weed likes to lurk.
I guess this edible weed has enjoyed the rain we have been enduring and I am sure me yanking up the spent cosmos remains only helped its germination along. Being that it is edible I might make the best of it and allow some of them to grow bigger for our salads. This however is one weed that you DO NOT want to let go to seed. It has explosive seedpods that send seed flying up to 10 feet away. It is quite good at making a nuisance of itself. I plan to be on guard with this weed and hope to prevent it from finding my garden a nice place to take up residency.
I did a couple searches online concerning this weed and found this picture on Wikipedia. It’s a good picture to use for identifying Hairy Bittercress. It can be clicked on to enlarge for better viewing.
I also found this blog post at Lucy’s Kitchen Notebook that has a cute little story to read concerning this weed that I thought I would pass along.
At least when it comes to edible weeds you get an extra dose of enjoyment (or is it revenge?) when you eat them!
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