Quick & Dirty: Weed Identification (not THAT kind of weed!)

See that? That would be Mr. Moon taking his blind date to the prom. Apparently. Anyway, when this plant started growing, we thought it was a thistle. It got so tall, growing there in the drainage flow of the compost pile, and we were so excited to see how big the thistle flower would be on a stalk that is 1.5 inches in diameter, and then suddenly--YELLOW!

[Get it? Blind date, because it was an unidentified plant and he's wearing a silly tuxedo shirt? Yeah, I find myself funny, it's ok, you don't have to laugh. As long as Mr. Moon does. It's required for him to laugh at my jokes.]

Our friend growing next to the compost pile was apparently not a thistle, so I took this picture and posted it on my Facebook soliciting advice. My mother-in-law (except not really because she's my sister-in-law's mom but whatevs) piped up right away to tell me it is apparently called Prickly Lettuce, but that it is in fact not edible. Also very invasive, so we needed to get those flowers off it before it went to seed. *GASP!* Mr. Moon took the flower bundle off right away and we got it taken down the next day, sprinkled a goodly dose of baking soda on the stub, and hopefully it won't become an issue.

I love having a community of resources I can ask these kinds of questions. A Facebook post to the first 5 gardener-friends who see it is a lot faster and more reliable than trolling Google for answers that I'm not really sure are correct from people about whom I have no idea of their credentials.

Isn't living in the future great??

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