The first summer we moved into this house, four years ago, we had a big pile of dirt and weeds in the corner next to the porch.  I personally don't have a problem with dirt and weeds.  As long as they are not growing in my fruit or vegetable gardens and they are not morning glory, I respect weeds.  They are the toughest and the scrappiest of the plants because they can grow anywhere and they'll adapt to anything.  However, because we lived next to the advertisement for Tru-Green, we felt an extra pressure to cultivate our yard.  Our basic philosophy as far as landscaping goes, is that we don't have to be the best, but we can't be the worst.  (When our old neighbors finally moved, we were able to cut our yard work in half.)

So that first summer, Dan took care of the giant triangular weed patch in the back, and I made the dirt pile my special project.  When I finally finished weeding and shaping the dirt, we had to decide how to decorate it.  The nursery we went to was so confusing and huge.  I felt completely inadequate.  Too afraid to even ask a question because I don't know how to pronounce any flower that has more than two syllables.  (I've always judged flowers harshly because they are so inefficient.  Most take just as much work as food plants, but what are you left with at the end of the year?  That's right, dead flowers.)  Finally, Dan and I stumbled upon a harmless looking plant called Daylily.  This Daylily was just a small green plant, but the picture on the card promised it would make beautiful red-orange flowers.  The main selling point, however, was that I only needed to plant it once, and it would stick around forever.  Excellent.  We bought six plants.

Four years later, and these things are out of control.  They keep coming back bigger and brighter every year.  They are very low maintenance, only requiring the occasional weeding once every few weeks.  Most weeds don't even dare try to grow around them.  I've dubbed the daylily a super weed.  I would cut them back except I want them to remember me as a friendly when they eventually outgrow me.  The only complaint I have is that the actual blooming period is so short (hence the name daylily).  This week we decided to celebrate our friend the Daylily by getting out and tearing off some of his blossoms to play with.