Rather than pretty flowers, I have been enjoying the weeds growing in my prayer garden this spring and summer. I first noticed my weeds around April when my husband commented about my weed garden. I’m sure he was assuming that I had every intention of pulling them up. The weeds had filled up the various terracotta planters that had once held my hopes of creating a prayer garden in my back yard. I intended to fill them with the leftover annuals from the front yard, but I never had time to plant last spring. So, there the pots sat, empty and waiting to be filled. There was a very cute Garden Angel, given to me by my sister, flying over the gathering of empty pots, and a cross that sticks out of the once flowering pots, but nothing else but dirt until the weeds showed up.

When I first noticed the weeds, I did intend to pull them up. But the longer I waited, the larger this one particular weed grew. I had never seen a weed like it and thought it had an uncanny resemblance to marijuana. I was fascinated by it, but didn’t want to let it grow if it was an illegal drug. After an internet search I was certain it was legal and left it to grow. When friends visited we invited them to view our weed garden. No one was really impressed, I can assure you. By May the weed was over six feet tall. I didn’t know what to think. By July, it was as tall as our house. We were busy packing and planning for our summer vacation, but I quickly made Ben pose for a picture with the weed before we went out of town. I was sure that it would die like all my favorite flowers do when we leave in July.