You know how sometimes, when you’re young, you think it would be fun to invite that one guy who’s always the life of the party?

Then, he drinks a little too much, takes over the stereo, sings like Liza, comes on to your sister in the kitchen, comes on to her husband on the smoking deck, and really really needs a cab home but honestly, if you can just get him out the front door, you wouldn’t care if he crashed under the jelly palm and got eaten up by ants?

You know him, right? Forgive him, ok? He is like Kudzu. Or many plants, in fact.

We invited Kudzu, it saved us from our own mismanagement of the soil, it kept us from having giant gullys and it fixed nitrogen and cows loved to eat it. Now, we want to call it a cab.

These are some of my cherished memories (actually, I’ve edited a bit for your sake) and some of my cherished plants. Hear me out!

Messy Plants to Love

I love to garden by editing this time of year. That means letting rowdy plants take over the party/garden. I just wade into the four o’clocks and pull. I cut and drop arms full of plants, in place, to the ground, let them become mulch and become hidden by their other rowdy friends.

Here’s a list of great plants that seed in, take over and add lots of fun and color to the garden in the dog days.

Four O’clocks

See the picture. That little bouquet is from Moore Farms and is a selection Ive been growing for years – sweet pastels.

Jewels of Ophar Kingswood Gold

Beautiful golden foliage, never wilts, even when it seeds itself into the cracks of sidewalks.

Zinnia. Any of them.

Contrary to popular belief and lots of bad information, this is a great time to sow zinnia. In zone 8 at least, youll have sweet flowers through Thanksgiving.

Mexican Sun Flower

10 feet tall and full of brilliant orange flowers.

Gomphena

I love Fireworks even if it has become overused!

Cardinal Vine

For the texture alone – the little red star flowers are ok, probably better for you non-color impaired people.

Perilla

Purple Basil. Purple frilly leaves. Great added to salad. If you dont have this, you can buy stems of it in any Asian grocery and root it in water.

Summer Poinsettia

Euphorbia cyathophora. Looks like a tiny poinsettia. An old pass along. There are different varieties and forms, be sure to get one with big red splotches.

Snow on the Mountain

Euphorba marginata. I visited this amazing garden in the Virginia foothills last week. My friend is horticulturist for the quaint little town of Farmville – really this isnt a Facebook game – and complained about his rowdy guest. Funny, I cant make this plant grow for anything!