new homeowner questions..

buckeyethor

i am a new home owner. we moved in in december and looked at the house in october. we have no clue really what all is going on landscape-wise with the house but it is fun to see what blooms. the real estate thing said "professionally" landscaped last spring.

so my questions!

should we just wait and see how it goes over the summer to decide what we should pull or leave?

how do i know what dead looking things are "coming back" or need to be pulled?

is clover a weed? and if so, why do i have so much of it?

how do i know what are weeds and what are purposeful?

i am doing my veggies and herbs in containers and square foot so i am not tearing up anything with that so i am good to go and really excited for that part but i wish i could figure out the rest of the yard! thanks so much ladies!

hayleydeee

I'm guessing that a lot of the answers to your questions will be regional. Where I live we get clover/ sour grass that can take over. It's pretty, but is considered a weed. 

If I were you I probably wouldn't pull too much yet. Many of the things in my garden that will come back could still be easily mistaken for dead stuff. I'd at least wait until the end of spring before pulling out big plants. But in the meantime, you can have fun adding new things! 

another KT

I would watch the yard until at least the fall before making any decisions. You don't want to be pulling something that may come up later than the others and that will may give you color into the fall.  This will also give you the opportunity to see how everything grows.  "Weeds" can be characterized as anything you don't like the look of in the spot that it is at.  A weed in a formal, traditional garden bed may look lovely in a wild flower bed.  Also clover may be considered a weed but in my lawn it stays green all summer and grows low so I love it, I don't want to be a slave to my lawn with chemicals and watering.

Dr.Loretta

I would wait to see how it goes. I found all kinds of cool things my first spring/summer in my last house, including daffodils and daylilies.

You can take this opportunity to figure out what you have as the growing season progresses and see what's not coming back.

Some people consider clover a weed, others think it's a great grass alternative.

 

skiergrl

We moved in last July and everything I knew was a weed I pulled (bindweed, thistle, etc).  Anything I wasn't sure of I left and tried to identify online.  I'm so glad we took our time and didn't make any drastic changes there were so many different plants that came up over summer.  Give your gardens sometime for us it was and still is amazing what pops up.

Clover can be a weed, but it also puts a lot of nitrogen back into the soil.  I'm actually going to see if I can find some clover to add to our yard.   Unless it is taking over I would leave it growing.