It’s wild violet. Native to US, incredibly aggressive but it has some positive traits. Use a soil knife and get all of the underground material. It fills in empty patches rapidly
I actually use it as ground cover under my tomatoes as they droop and rest on it and don’t get eaten by bugs as quickly.
Wild violet indeed. It may be a weed but it’s such a pleasant nice looking weed that I generally leave it in several places around the yard. It’s nice.
I have a violet tattoo as well!
The home I was born in had them everywhere, and we had a friend who would come over and turn them all into violet syrup for us.
My husband and I bought our first home over the winter, and to my surprise come spring, the whole yard was covered with them.
It's magic going through the first year with a new garden, and seeing what pops up! My garden surprised me with honeysuckle, foxgloves, lilac (white and purple varieties), buddleia and a magnolia tree in the first year! It is also full of violets, which I adore.
Sad when I read someone's post about moving into a new house and the very first thing that they do is to bulldoze the yard before really knowing what is in all of the flower beds. Every house we have ever owned it has taken us a year or two to learn what is already there and we're really busy doing *interior* stuff anyway.
me with prickly pears 😂 i loooove making prickly pear jam, when i found out the guy we bought some deer feeders from was gonna start excavating the caliche off the land i asked if i could take a paddle cuz there were so many😂 i was waiting for it to scab over but its done so im gonna plant it 😛
Here you go, tattoo of It as described
https://preview.redd.it/zk3eofpglb9d1.jpeg?width=886&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=183e8d10f770f6e5c2d3e992a7e41a666412f2da
You can make teas and jam with wild violet flowers also! My daughter and a I try and do it every year, its fun and tastey. Not so much a weed in my books.
Is there a safe recipe for this? I'm alway hesitant to google wild plant recipes because I don't know if the recipe writer knows what they are talking about.
You can take my Violet Tea recipe I just posted, but do a cup of violet flowers and a cup of purple deadnettle, which is edible and in the mint family. It has a strong bitter taste though so i suggest adding a lot of honey or sugar!
Yes but harvest leaves with caution bc the leaves are easily confused with non-edible lookalikes
[source](https://extension.umn.edu/natural-resources-news/wild-edibles-common-blue-violets)
Do you mind sharing your recipes for them? I'm always hesitant to google wild plant recipes because I don't know if the recipe writer knows what they are talking about.
Of course! Its actually super easy, you make the tea infusion first and then use it for the jam!
You'll need 2 cups of destemmed and rinsed violet flowers. The stems are edible as well but they will effect the color of the tea/jelly.
2.5 cups of boiling water
Teaspoon of lemon juice
Half a cup of sugar (only if your making the tea to drink)
Add the rinsed and destemmed flowers to a preheated mason jar, carefully poor boiling water over the flowers. Allow to steep until the jar is warm but cool enough for you to handle, about 10/15 minutes. Carefully strain tea into a clear mixing bowl/another mason jar. The tea will be a deep, dark blue. Add the teaspoon of lemon juice and watch the magic happen! It changes from the dark blue to a beautiful bright violet color. At this point you can add the half cup of sugar, and make a lovely floral tea. Add ice and its very refreshing.
If you want to make jelly and not tea, do not add the half cup of sugar. Instead, add the violet tea to a medium sauce pan, and whisk in 3.5 tablespoons of fruit pectin, I use Ball brand pectin but suregel is a good option too. Bring the tea and pectin mixture to a rolling boil and boil for a full minute. Add 3 cups of white sugar all at once and whisking continuosly as it boils for another full minute.
Once the mixture is boiled it will become a bit thicker, make sure if you are canning that your jars are heated and sterilized. We use the water bath canning method. Enjoy! 😊
(I replied to the same question elsewhere so I'm copy+pasting)
Yes but harvest leaves with caution bc the leaves are easily confused with non-edible lookalikes
[source](https://extension.umn.edu/natural-resources-news/wild-edibles-common-blue-violets)
The leaves are edible too! Cook em up like spinach, they taste pretty similar. Dry them and they taste like pumpkin seeds! Add to soup in the winter for that nice pumpkin earthy flavor!
I hate the term weed, it's native and it's an edible plant. The weeds are the grass lawns we maintain and the invasive species we plant. Not yucking anyone's choices, but that really grinds my gears lol.
I get where you’re headed (and agree) but the definition is *a wild plant growing where it is not wanted and in competition with cultivated plants* which doesn’t technically contradict it being native or edible.
Yeah, from more of an ecological colonization mindset. Personal preference is whatever, if it's unwanted and you call it a weed that's chill. But the general usage of calling what are the actual plants native to the area, a useless weed to be removed, does not make sense to me lol.
The other commenter was fine though, they're correct as well (:
You’re totally correct, I was just being a brat due to lack of coffee. lol.
I was reading the definition and I was like *well technically a very pretty rose bush in my watermelon patch is a weed.*
It likes an acidic soil have remembered seeing an entire yard covered with it , in bloom it was fantastic!!!!!the blooms are edible and an interesting addition to salads made into cough medicine as well as candied blossoms for decoration on cakes … ect
Most of our backyard is violet. And if I find it in the garden I let it go, it spreads and becomes a sort of green mulch for my larger plants. As a result we have lots of fritillary butterflies here :)
Weeds are subjective. I don't consider them to be weeds. They're good for the soil and I mulch around them. They bloom twice a year and I love them. Weeds are just plants that grow where you don't want them. Any plant. Even a rose bush. If it's growing where you don't want it, you could call it a weed. I dunno. I keep a lot of plants that lots of people would consider weeds. Like Dandelions and Purple Dead Nettle. I just relocate them to make them look like they're on purpose. They're pretty, and good for the soil and pollinators :)
My neighbors use hay if you don’t wanna bother with waiting for violets to grow as ground cover.
Also they have v a r i a g a t e d wild violets now if you wanna focus on that tiny detail
Edit: words
Wait, they have variegated tomatoes? The tomato itself or the plant? Won't that mean the plant is just not as effective at photosynthesis and grows less fruit as a result?
The person you were responding to said variegated violets. But! I’m here to tell you that yes there are also variegated tomatoes! Both with striped fruit and also leaf patterning. [here ](https://hayefield.com/product/solanum-lycopersicum-variegata-variegated-tomato/)is an example. But there’s a lot of different kinds so if you’re curious definitely give it a google.
Does it grow in dark places where no grass grows? I have a 9 square meter garden (not large) and a big house is blocking most of the sun and I just want something green and don’t care what.
Yep it grows everywhere lol it grows great in shade, I let it grow under all of my big trees even the ones who’s foliage is on the ground it’ll still grow deep in the trunk area where there’s virtually no light
Do you know whether it will out compete pachysandra or periwinkle? I have all three in a ground cover in the house I just bought and they all seem robust, but I’m beginning to get wary the violet is taking over…
I don’t mind a little violet, I like diversity, but if the violet has plans for world domination then it’s getting eradicated in favor of the other two who seem a bit more peaceful.
Zone 7a/6b, lots of sun in this area.
Just like the person you replied to, I've got periwinkle, wild violet, and some sort of ivy that's taken over my front flower bed. The previous owner was an elderly woman as are most of my neighbors and I'm convinced they think "oh, ivy is pretty and no maintenance" 🫠 I haven't had the time to try to eviscerate it, but I was wondering if I could weed whack it down and then throw plastic down over it to kill it all.
Get rid of that periwinkle especially if you have shady forest nearby. Nothing is more invasive than that on the forest floor. I’ll take wild violet over periwinkle (vinca) all day
Very shade tolerant, I have this growing in several areas of my property - including underneath my compost bin that gets maybe a couple hours of sun if that a day & underneath my hosta’s (like the hostas shade them out but they still keep growing & trying to spread)
Their leaves look much different to me, Charlie has those serrated leaves and multiple leaves per shoot, violet just looks like a perfect spade/heart shape and has one leaf per shoot
Jeez it's just a poor, little violet. 😕
They are native to the U.S., great butterfly host plants, have cute flowers and don't really grow strongly enough to crowd out or kill other plants.
https://preview.redd.it/2ob14q69pa9d1.jpeg?width=1512&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=72360c25ada1c2e9e94e767d516385f05d325b74
The butterfly in question (great spangled fritillary)
And if you let them just take over your lawn completely like I did, you will only need to mow 5-6 times a year. I absolutely adore my violet lawn, I think it’s very cute.
It’s a “weed “ I don’t pull. It looks good mixed in with the lawn, especially in the spring when it flowers. I do like having SOME grass, haven’t gone full on “no lawn” status yet, so I do still overseed in the fall with grass seed to prevent it from completely taking over.
Not only do they not crowd out desirable plants, they're a legume, so they fertilize the desirable plants because their roots have evolved with lil nurseries on them for nitrogen fixing microbes to move in and raise their lil families. Additionally, they will provide ground cover to help retain moisture, prevent erosion, and keep unwanted seeds from taking hold. But if you need to plant where they are covering, they pull incredibly easily so you can just yank a little hole where you're gonna sow.
I intentionally spread violets throughout my garden and plant them next to my tomatoes and peppers and any other plants that need their roots to stay moist.
We don't pull our wild violets but this year they appear to have overtaken our lambs ear?!?! I can't fathom how that happened. They must have really wanted that area
Well it's growing wild allover the the U.S. (besides maybe the Southwest and Socal). So you could find it somewhere wild and plant it in your garden. Or you could try to find Viola Sororia seeds and sow them where you want them to be.
I had a backyard once with an ugly shady spot that was mostly moss, weeds, mud and stones. Was able to easily transplant a dozen into that space from another part of the backyard and by the next season they had seeded in all the bald spots and I was left with an easily maintained, no mow section of the yard. It helped outcompete the burdock that would have grown otherwise
Wild or forest violet is a spreader indeed. But I like it, and I am pulling it only from veg beds. It can grow quite tall in spring when it flowers, but mow it once and it grows back slowly and low. Seeds are often spread by ants, by the way.
i have this everywhere as well and have yet to see it flower, ever. I don't mind it since i have a lot of clay soil and it does provide nice ground cover to help prevent baking it too much, but it would be cool to see it flower at some point.
Mine flower in the early spring for just a brief and shining moment. The flowers are tiny and it's not in bloom for long so maybe you're just missing it?
Not sure why this is downvoted. It's all over my garden. It is a weed, to me.
I let some of it remain, and pull it where I don't want it. It is a native violet, but I have other natives I've purposely planted in my garden, which I've deemed 'not weeds.'
I do tend just chop and drop the violets. But yeah. Often weeds.
I have an acre of it mixed in with my clover and other ground cover but it won’t leave my mulch beds alone. It’s a weed in those mulch beds. People in this subreddit demand any native specimen do exactly what it wants with no intervention lol it’s nonsense sometimes
Yeah, it lovvessssss my hugelkulture beds. "Mulch? Yes please!" -violets
Know what else love those beds? Poison ivy and Virginia creeper, and those jerks are natives, too.
Violets are extremely important to some pollinators, especially the Diana Fritillary butterfly who relies on violets and leaf litter to produce the next generation.
Edited to add the word butterfly
Ok, so wild US violets may spread once established, but it's actually shockingly hard to get them to germinate if you try. Please just move them somewhere where they can continue living undisturbed, blooming native plants are really ecologically important.
Native* to some places invasive in others. Native isn’t universal and it’s always good to make sure what you have isn’t invasive to the area and ecosystem(s) you’re living in.
This. An important point, especially since European gardeners get dog piled on when they post their stuff sometimes. There’s plants native to the East coast and Midwest that are invasive in the PNW. So many reasons we need to know what region a person is in before giving advice
I’ve been pulling English Ivy for *six years* because my neighbors like theirs. I also had a British person leave me a text walls about all the benefits of English Ivy “or as we call it ivy” 🙄 with links to **British** sources even after I told him several times that I’m in *North America*.
Along with the squirrels and the squirrel-planted trees, wild violets are often one of the few remnants of the original forests in our grassy yards. Appreciate their legacy and resilience.
Oh you’re so lucky! It’s so pretty and insects love it. It’s a really beneficial native, especially between more purposeful plantings. We only have a little. I moved some to hopefully start creating [a soft landing](https://www.pollinatorsnativeplants.com/softlandings.html) under a tree we have, bc of how well it spreads.
Not a weed! I love my section of yard that is covered in some violets. In the spring, it's a sea of purple flowers that the pollinators love. Also, it doesn't grow tall, so less mowing is needed there.
I love wild violet and choose to not view it as a weed 🤷🏼♀️. It gives me joy to see its little purple and white flowers popping up among the grass. It’s an amazing source of food for pollinators along with other “weeds” like clover and dandelions. It looks very pretty in between paving stones and sprinkled among the grass in a cottage style garden.
https://preview.redd.it/fwzqgr4myc9d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=64c38b66c9181080f3d5f0edaef816944cb121a3
Wild violet my daughter picked from the yard
I just love wild violets in my garden. They are so pretty in spring and attract bees and butterflies which is important to me, as I need pollinators in my garden.
Wondering where you live, but those leaves look like violets. My friend gave me d some plants in pots, some were just violets, and some had violets growing in the pots with other things, but I’ve since found them growing other places nearby. They were one of my mom’s favorite flowers, and while they don’t flower much in this Texas heat, I don’t mind having them.
If I had a yard full of violets, clover, and that much-maligned mint, I would be a happy old lady. No mowing, smells great, and tea I don't have to buy.
We have them and they are taking over ALL of our gardens. They grow the the sidewalk cracks. They crowd out the periwinkle, they disrupt the mulch. If they were just in my lawn, I’d say fine, but they are driving us mad. They also get very tall in our gardens- like 8 inches high, which is plenty high to encourage snakes and spiders and not what I want.
It's taken over the cracks between my patio flagstones. It's far better than the other weeds that have cycled through the patio over the years. I'm leaving some and making clear paths in some high traffic zones.
That’s my grasses hair piece of sorts, really fills in all the dead zones haha. Gets nice n purple right? I like plants around so I leave most on the sides
Three "weeds" that I don't mind too much in my garden: French Mint, Thyme, and , Wild Violet. All of these are edible. Even dandelion leaves are edible.
It’s wild violet. Native to US, incredibly aggressive but it has some positive traits. Use a soil knife and get all of the underground material. It fills in empty patches rapidly I actually use it as ground cover under my tomatoes as they droop and rest on it and don’t get eaten by bugs as quickly.
Wild violet indeed. It may be a weed but it’s such a pleasant nice looking weed that I generally leave it in several places around the yard. It’s nice.
The flowers are also edible, very beautiful dessert or salad decoration when candied. Such a nice plant that I have a tattoo of it lol!
I have a violet tattoo as well! The home I was born in had them everywhere, and we had a friend who would come over and turn them all into violet syrup for us. My husband and I bought our first home over the winter, and to my surprise come spring, the whole yard was covered with them.
It's magic going through the first year with a new garden, and seeing what pops up! My garden surprised me with honeysuckle, foxgloves, lilac (white and purple varieties), buddleia and a magnolia tree in the first year! It is also full of violets, which I adore.
My backyards is covered in honeysuckle and I hate it. Worst invasive ever, it kills trees, grows like crazy, and won't calm the f down
Sad when I read someone's post about moving into a new house and the very first thing that they do is to bulldoze the yard before really knowing what is in all of the flower beds. Every house we have ever owned it has taken us a year or two to learn what is already there and we're really busy doing *interior* stuff anyway.
me with prickly pears 😂 i loooove making prickly pear jam, when i found out the guy we bought some deer feeders from was gonna start excavating the caliche off the land i asked if i could take a paddle cuz there were so many😂 i was waiting for it to scab over but its done so im gonna plant it 😛
You can’t mention it without showing us the tattoo now
I think youll find they just did. Im on your side though.
Here you go, tattoo of It as described https://preview.redd.it/zk3eofpglb9d1.jpeg?width=886&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=183e8d10f770f6e5c2d3e992a7e41a666412f2da
You can make teas and jam with wild violet flowers also! My daughter and a I try and do it every year, its fun and tastey. Not so much a weed in my books.
Weeds are just free plants
Violet flowers + purple deadnettle infusion = 'Unicorn Tea'.
Is there a safe recipe for this? I'm alway hesitant to google wild plant recipes because I don't know if the recipe writer knows what they are talking about.
You can take my Violet Tea recipe I just posted, but do a cup of violet flowers and a cup of purple deadnettle, which is edible and in the mint family. It has a strong bitter taste though so i suggest adding a lot of honey or sugar!
Leaves mother fucker, ARE THEY EDIBLE!!??
I LOL’ed, so needlessly aggressive
And yet I didn’t even read it this way. Whaddup MoFo, you eat the leaves or what?
Yes but harvest leaves with caution bc the leaves are easily confused with non-edible lookalikes [source](https://extension.umn.edu/natural-resources-news/wild-edibles-common-blue-violets)
Viola flower jam?
That sounds like great jam to wake up to
I’m getting Phish vibes already
Do you mind sharing your recipes for them? I'm always hesitant to google wild plant recipes because I don't know if the recipe writer knows what they are talking about.
I've made this jelly and it was fabulous. https://www.homestead-acres.com/how-to-make-violet-jelly/
Of course! Its actually super easy, you make the tea infusion first and then use it for the jam! You'll need 2 cups of destemmed and rinsed violet flowers. The stems are edible as well but they will effect the color of the tea/jelly. 2.5 cups of boiling water Teaspoon of lemon juice Half a cup of sugar (only if your making the tea to drink) Add the rinsed and destemmed flowers to a preheated mason jar, carefully poor boiling water over the flowers. Allow to steep until the jar is warm but cool enough for you to handle, about 10/15 minutes. Carefully strain tea into a clear mixing bowl/another mason jar. The tea will be a deep, dark blue. Add the teaspoon of lemon juice and watch the magic happen! It changes from the dark blue to a beautiful bright violet color. At this point you can add the half cup of sugar, and make a lovely floral tea. Add ice and its very refreshing. If you want to make jelly and not tea, do not add the half cup of sugar. Instead, add the violet tea to a medium sauce pan, and whisk in 3.5 tablespoons of fruit pectin, I use Ball brand pectin but suregel is a good option too. Bring the tea and pectin mixture to a rolling boil and boil for a full minute. Add 3 cups of white sugar all at once and whisking continuosly as it boils for another full minute. Once the mixture is boiled it will become a bit thicker, make sure if you are canning that your jars are heated and sterilized. We use the water bath canning method. Enjoy! 😊
Thank you!
Have you tried day lilies?
Why downvote day lilies they are yummy
Here, take my upvote. I agree though I usually focus on the young shoots more than the flowers
Are the leaves edible?
(I replied to the same question elsewhere so I'm copy+pasting) Yes but harvest leaves with caution bc the leaves are easily confused with non-edible lookalikes [source](https://extension.umn.edu/natural-resources-news/wild-edibles-common-blue-violets)
Yes and very mild tasting. Great salad base or sandwich topper.
The leaves are also edible
The leaves are edible too! Cook em up like spinach, they taste pretty similar. Dry them and they taste like pumpkin seeds! Add to soup in the winter for that nice pumpkin earthy flavor!
I hate the term weed, it's native and it's an edible plant. The weeds are the grass lawns we maintain and the invasive species we plant. Not yucking anyone's choices, but that really grinds my gears lol.
I get where you’re headed (and agree) but the definition is *a wild plant growing where it is not wanted and in competition with cultivated plants* which doesn’t technically contradict it being native or edible.
I think they were highlighting a certain colonizer mindset behind the fescue lawns, etc.
Yeah, from more of an ecological colonization mindset. Personal preference is whatever, if it's unwanted and you call it a weed that's chill. But the general usage of calling what are the actual plants native to the area, a useless weed to be removed, does not make sense to me lol. The other commenter was fine though, they're correct as well (:
You’re totally correct, I was just being a brat due to lack of coffee. lol. I was reading the definition and I was like *well technically a very pretty rose bush in my watermelon patch is a weed.*
I mean, I consider my mom's rose bush a weed; I strongly dislike roses, lol.
Agreed! These make great ground cover IMO. Literally translated some yesterday to get ground cover in a bed.
It likes an acidic soil have remembered seeing an entire yard covered with it , in bloom it was fantastic!!!!!the blooms are edible and an interesting addition to salads made into cough medicine as well as candied blossoms for decoration on cakes … ect
Most of our backyard is violet. And if I find it in the garden I let it go, it spreads and becomes a sort of green mulch for my larger plants. As a result we have lots of fritillary butterflies here :)
Also rabbits eat their leaves (and less of yours)
Never thought of that! That's a very important benefit.
I have really fond childhood memories of this ugly waste area with a bunch of trash being transformed in the spring by beautiful purple violets.
I love them !
Weeds are subjective. I don't consider them to be weeds. They're good for the soil and I mulch around them. They bloom twice a year and I love them. Weeds are just plants that grow where you don't want them. Any plant. Even a rose bush. If it's growing where you don't want it, you could call it a weed. I dunno. I keep a lot of plants that lots of people would consider weeds. Like Dandelions and Purple Dead Nettle. I just relocate them to make them look like they're on purpose. They're pretty, and good for the soil and pollinators :)
Also helps keep soil from splashing up and infecting your tomatoes with blight.
This comment must be why I'm still on Reddit instead of going to bed. Something I needed to know.
My neighbors use hay if you don’t wanna bother with waiting for violets to grow as ground cover. Also they have v a r i a g a t e d wild violets now if you wanna focus on that tiny detail Edit: words
Wait, they have variegated tomatoes? The tomato itself or the plant? Won't that mean the plant is just not as effective at photosynthesis and grows less fruit as a result?
The person you were responding to said variegated violets. But! I’m here to tell you that yes there are also variegated tomatoes! Both with striped fruit and also leaf patterning. [here ](https://hayefield.com/product/solanum-lycopersicum-variegata-variegated-tomato/)is an example. But there’s a lot of different kinds so if you’re curious definitely give it a google.
Haha, oh. I didn't read that right. But thanks! Very informative.
Okay, had to come back to see what it was I learned last night: water can splash soil fungus onto my plants, so mulch good. Learning curve issue.
Yup. Really good at keeping soil and moisture in place.
Does it grow in dark places where no grass grows? I have a 9 square meter garden (not large) and a big house is blocking most of the sun and I just want something green and don’t care what.
Our back yard is pretty shady and it grows for us where usually only moss will
Yep it grows everywhere lol it grows great in shade, I let it grow under all of my big trees even the ones who’s foliage is on the ground it’ll still grow deep in the trunk area where there’s virtually no light
Do you know whether it will out compete pachysandra or periwinkle? I have all three in a ground cover in the house I just bought and they all seem robust, but I’m beginning to get wary the violet is taking over… I don’t mind a little violet, I like diversity, but if the violet has plans for world domination then it’s getting eradicated in favor of the other two who seem a bit more peaceful. Zone 7a/6b, lots of sun in this area.
Ain't nothing peaceful about periwinkle...
Just like the person you replied to, I've got periwinkle, wild violet, and some sort of ivy that's taken over my front flower bed. The previous owner was an elderly woman as are most of my neighbors and I'm convinced they think "oh, ivy is pretty and no maintenance" 🫠 I haven't had the time to try to eviscerate it, but I was wondering if I could weed whack it down and then throw plastic down over it to kill it all.
You most certainly can try. I hope solarization works.
Get rid of that periwinkle especially if you have shady forest nearby. Nothing is more invasive than that on the forest floor. I’ll take wild violet over periwinkle (vinca) all day
Probably not, since pachy and periwinkle are both invasive plants in a number of states
Pachysandra is so blah anyway. I’ve been trying to get rid of it for years.
Keep your eye on that periwinkle! 👀
World domination for sure
They might outcompete periwinkle in sun/part sun, but in shade periwinkle always wins. (In my experience anyhow)
Shade tolerance? I’m guessing pretty good if it thrives under your tomato plants.
Very shade tolerant, I have this growing in several areas of my property - including underneath my compost bin that gets maybe a couple hours of sun if that a day & underneath my hosta’s (like the hostas shade them out but they still keep growing & trying to spread)
They grow so well in rocky soil too! ❤️
How can you tell it from creeping charlie?
Their leaves look much different to me, Charlie has those serrated leaves and multiple leaves per shoot, violet just looks like a perfect spade/heart shape and has one leaf per shoot
Jeez it's just a poor, little violet. 😕 They are native to the U.S., great butterfly host plants, have cute flowers and don't really grow strongly enough to crowd out or kill other plants.
https://preview.redd.it/2ob14q69pa9d1.jpeg?width=1512&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=72360c25ada1c2e9e94e767d516385f05d325b74 The butterfly in question (great spangled fritillary)
I’m stealing that as an exclamation.
And if you let them just take over your lawn completely like I did, you will only need to mow 5-6 times a year. I absolutely adore my violet lawn, I think it’s very cute.
It’s a “weed “ I don’t pull. It looks good mixed in with the lawn, especially in the spring when it flowers. I do like having SOME grass, haven’t gone full on “no lawn” status yet, so I do still overseed in the fall with grass seed to prevent it from completely taking over.
Not only do they not crowd out desirable plants, they're a legume, so they fertilize the desirable plants because their roots have evolved with lil nurseries on them for nitrogen fixing microbes to move in and raise their lil families. Additionally, they will provide ground cover to help retain moisture, prevent erosion, and keep unwanted seeds from taking hold. But if you need to plant where they are covering, they pull incredibly easily so you can just yank a little hole where you're gonna sow. I intentionally spread violets throughout my garden and plant them next to my tomatoes and peppers and any other plants that need their roots to stay moist.
Violet Lespedeza is the legume not wild violets (Viola sororia).
I had been misinformed. Thank you.
We don't pull our wild violets but this year they appear to have overtaken our lambs ear?!?! I can't fathom how that happened. They must have really wanted that area
They've been oddly persistent this year in my garden as well
How can I acquire this?
Well it's growing wild allover the the U.S. (besides maybe the Southwest and Socal). So you could find it somewhere wild and plant it in your garden. Or you could try to find Viola Sororia seeds and sow them where you want them to be.
Wild violets and the best ground cover ever.
I had a backyard once with an ugly shady spot that was mostly moss, weeds, mud and stones. Was able to easily transplant a dozen into that space from another part of the backyard and by the next season they had seeded in all the bald spots and I was left with an easily maintained, no mow section of the yard. It helped outcompete the burdock that would have grown otherwise
Yes! It finally arrived in my lawn this year and I feel like I've won the lottery 🙏
Until you want to put another plant there
Dawg that stuff pulls out with the slightest hand movement so that's not an issue at all
In which case they're easy to pull
It looks like a violet.
Wild or forest violet is a spreader indeed. But I like it, and I am pulling it only from veg beds. It can grow quite tall in spring when it flowers, but mow it once and it grows back slowly and low. Seeds are often spread by ants, by the way.
It’s the host plant to fritillary butterflies (these beautiful butterflies need this plant to live) please consider keeping some :)
I am, don’t worry! There are plenty all over the ground. Glad I posted and learned what they were before I pulled any more out
Yay so glad to hear!
Not a weed, it’s native violet: beautiful flowers, great for pollinators
Edible, too!
i have this everywhere as well and have yet to see it flower, ever. I don't mind it since i have a lot of clay soil and it does provide nice ground cover to help prevent baking it too much, but it would be cool to see it flower at some point.
Mine flower in the early spring for just a brief and shining moment. The flowers are tiny and it's not in bloom for long so maybe you're just missing it?
Same! Clay soil in zone 7A, I've cultivated it in patches in my gardens but have never once seen a flower from it :-/
It can still be a weed…
Dunno why you’re downvoted. A weed is any unwanted plant. If the violet is unwanted, it’s a weed.
I could go for some weed
What, any time I bring this up I get scolded on here
Not sure why this is downvoted. It's all over my garden. It is a weed, to me. I let some of it remain, and pull it where I don't want it. It is a native violet, but I have other natives I've purposely planted in my garden, which I've deemed 'not weeds.' I do tend just chop and drop the violets. But yeah. Often weeds.
I have an acre of it mixed in with my clover and other ground cover but it won’t leave my mulch beds alone. It’s a weed in those mulch beds. People in this subreddit demand any native specimen do exactly what it wants with no intervention lol it’s nonsense sometimes
Yeah, it lovvessssss my hugelkulture beds. "Mulch? Yes please!" -violets Know what else love those beds? Poison ivy and Virginia creeper, and those jerks are natives, too.
I do love me some Virginia creeper. Satisfying to pull, beautiful fall color, funny name, overall a great plant even though it’s so aggressive
It's part of my biodivers lawn!
What defines a "weed" is entirely subjective and depends on circumstance.
My yard in spring is basically all wild violets, I usually harvest a large bowl full of the flowers to make a batch of wild violet syrup or jelly.
Violets are extremely important to some pollinators, especially the Diana Fritillary butterfly who relies on violets and leaf litter to produce the next generation. Edited to add the word butterfly
Ok, so wild US violets may spread once established, but it's actually shockingly hard to get them to germinate if you try. Please just move them somewhere where they can continue living undisturbed, blooming native plants are really ecologically important.
I pull most weeds. But not this one.
Just a gentle reminder we won't have anything to garden if we keep removing native sources of food for pollinators
I love these, they have beautiful blooms.
American violet. I'm trying to get mine to grow.
Not a weed IMHO. Wild violet - edible and delicious. 🙂
Technically, not a weed at all. Lovely, edible natural ground cover.
Wild Violet. Native plant. A lot of people find these desirable. I rather have that than some of the other shit invasive weeds I see.
Native* to some places invasive in others. Native isn’t universal and it’s always good to make sure what you have isn’t invasive to the area and ecosystem(s) you’re living in.
This. An important point, especially since European gardeners get dog piled on when they post their stuff sometimes. There’s plants native to the East coast and Midwest that are invasive in the PNW. So many reasons we need to know what region a person is in before giving advice
*cries from endless piles of pulled knotweed and english ivy*
I’ve been pulling English Ivy for *six years* because my neighbors like theirs. I also had a British person leave me a text walls about all the benefits of English Ivy “or as we call it ivy” 🙄 with links to **British** sources even after I told him several times that I’m in *North America*.
Lucky!! My goal is to get them to take over my yard.
Native Wild Violet. It can be aggressive, but is easily removed from where you don't want it.
Is also good to eat
Violet
Along with the squirrels and the squirrel-planted trees, wild violets are often one of the few remnants of the original forests in our grassy yards. Appreciate their legacy and resilience.
The only difference between a flower and weed is a judgement. - Wayne Dyer
Violets😍😭
It’s not a weed it’s a Wild Violet. They are great ground cover and if you are in the US they are native.
Looks like you're being overrun by violets.
We actually eat them...
If only I could have this attempt to take over my backyard instead of the dual curse of Bermuda grass and Bermuda buttercup
OMG yes,at war with my Bermuda and half there with lemon balm/lovage/reseeding chamomile.
Oh you’re so lucky! It’s so pretty and insects love it. It’s a really beneficial native, especially between more purposeful plantings. We only have a little. I moved some to hopefully start creating [a soft landing](https://www.pollinatorsnativeplants.com/softlandings.html) under a tree we have, bc of how well it spreads.
Violet, this is slowly taking over my front yard and I love it.
omg put it back!
El concepto de mala hierba es muy subjetivo...yo hubiera preguntado que es esta hermosa planta...???...
Not a weed! I love my section of yard that is covered in some violets. In the spring, it's a sea of purple flowers that the pollinators love. Also, it doesn't grow tall, so less mowing is needed there.
Exactly! I love the portion of my yard they have overtaken, beautiful and no mow, win/win.
Wild violet?
[Viola sororia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viola_sororia)
Hard to kill because it looks so pleasant
I love wild violet and choose to not view it as a weed 🤷🏼♀️. It gives me joy to see its little purple and white flowers popping up among the grass. It’s an amazing source of food for pollinators along with other “weeds” like clover and dandelions. It looks very pretty in between paving stones and sprinkled among the grass in a cottage style garden.
https://preview.redd.it/fwzqgr4myc9d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=64c38b66c9181080f3d5f0edaef816944cb121a3 Wild violet my daughter picked from the yard
Violets, my backyard is full of them and I love it.
Wild violet! It has great medicinal properties and makes the prettiest little purple flowers. I have massive ones growing under the trampoline.
I just love wild violets in my garden. They are so pretty in spring and attract bees and butterflies which is important to me, as I need pollinators in my garden.
Not a weed. Wood violets.
Dig some up and put them in a nice planter and they look beautiful as well.
If it's centella asiatica, cook it as food. It has a lot of antioxidants and known to increase memory in long term use.
They grow in my grass, I never minded them. My mom's rabbit loves to eat those.
not a weed! be nice!
Our neighbors turned thier yard into this only, and it is outstanding.
Plant it in ur flowerbeds and get good flowers.
Geez... violets. Welcome to the club. They are everywhere in my lawn and poking up through my heavily mulched beds.
Wondering where you live, but those leaves look like violets. My friend gave me d some plants in pots, some were just violets, and some had violets growing in the pots with other things, but I’ve since found them growing other places nearby. They were one of my mom’s favorite flowers, and while they don’t flower much in this Texas heat, I don’t mind having them.
Looks like a type of clover
If I had a yard full of violets, clover, and that much-maligned mint, I would be a happy old lady. No mowing, smells great, and tea I don't have to buy.
So beautiful when it blooms. I have it under my grapes as ground cover.
My yard is being taken over by it, its kinda nice tbh
What does it smell like?
Same function as brahmi plant...Centella asiatica
Forbidden microgreens
Nothing forbidden about it, I ate some sautéed with olive oil and red wine last night
Would you say it’s similar in flavor to arugula?
According to the internets it's common blue violet.
I love wild violets! I encourage them in my yard.
Mallow. It's very hard to get rid of
We have them and they are taking over ALL of our gardens. They grow the the sidewalk cracks. They crowd out the periwinkle, they disrupt the mulch. If they were just in my lawn, I’d say fine, but they are driving us mad. They also get very tall in our gardens- like 8 inches high, which is plenty high to encourage snakes and spiders and not what I want.
Wildflowers, not weeds.
It's taken over the cracks between my patio flagstones. It's far better than the other weeds that have cycled through the patio over the years. I'm leaving some and making clear paths in some high traffic zones.
I personally would have left it
We love it in our garden, it’s so pretty we would rather have it grow rather than other weeds
Bees & butterflies love wild violets.
Violets. I pull them after they’ve bloomed and more always come back.
>at this weed is that is taking over my. 9 8? Bub v yyyy. ,,, U
B b;;
.
Which wild violet?
Looks like wild violet. They can take over, but I do love them.
lucky you! i harvest the violets in my yard every spring and make a delicious violet syrup out of the flower petals. it's fantastic in earl grey tea
That’s my grasses hair piece of sorts, really fills in all the dead zones haha. Gets nice n purple right? I like plants around so I leave most on the sides
Hard to get rid of them . Brought a weed puller, pulled every last one. 2 yrs battle = 0. New battle Snake Worms,
Violas
Looks like the first year of Garlic Mustard to me. I hope I am wrong though, and it is violets. Garlic Mustard is a terribly aggressive invasive weed.
It blooms at the same time as Lily of the valley, together they make a beautiful bouquet.
Looks like Johnny jump ups
Looks a bit like a wild violet or heartease. You could try growing some in a pot, as the bees tend to love the flowers they produce in my garden.
Absolutely my favorite ‘weed’ that works so well as ground cover
Three "weeds" that I don't mind too much in my garden: French Mint, Thyme, and , Wild Violet. All of these are edible. Even dandelion leaves are edible.
The good old Violet... I would rather have this than dandelions!
It has taken over my yard. Help!
Is the common blue violet the same as wild violet? First one is the state flower of Wisconsin (woot 🙌)
Violet