Thank you for the links. I think I need to take some better pictures with this particular plant isolated. The browning patch you referred to (jeanne) is actually an adjacent weed. (this is my "weed garden" where I attempted to grow lots of weeds from around the area). I looked at various photos describing the two plants that you referenced, and the second bares a resemblance to some of the weeds in my garden, but not the one I'm interested in. Thanks again for the post! I'll try to come up with some better photos. :)

Thanks to all of you. I found this on a trail that I probably won't be revisiting for a while, so, for now, I think it may simply be genus Desmodium. Here's that leaf link . . . Here is a link that might be useful:

You can go for two or three different things when you harvest lavender. If you're going for good-looking dried stems, you have to harvest early, ideally when only the first flower or first two flowers in each spike are in bloom. That usually means cutting one stem at a time. I use a pruning knife for this -- less stress than repetitive snipping with scissors or pruners. If you're planning on drying the stems and then removing the flowers for sachets or potpourri, you can be less finicky and cut several stems at a time, say, with a sickle or grass hook, with the flowers in any state between showing color and half-bloomed. That's how I harvest most of our Provence -- the dull color of this variety makes for less saleable dry bunches, it's highly fragrant, with more of an "English" scent than other lavandins and its tendancy to shatter is a minus for bunches, a plus for sachets. Where and how are you going to dry this stuff? Even with harvesting selectively, you could be talking about maybe 2,000 stems per day once the plants are full grown. Figure 20 stems per bunch for quick drying and that's 100 bunches. We can hang about 7 bunches along 2 feet of wire, so you're looking at about 15 linear feet of wire for hanging, and count on drying for at least two days, so the next day you need another 15 feet, and so on. We dry Provence on screens roughly 8 feet long and 3 feet wide. We have about 120 plants and the harvest fills 6-8 of those screens. PS -- if you use a pruning knife or sickle for harvesting, be sure to wear a glove on the other hand.

Hi enchanted, it's Diane again. Previously I had suggested that Lauren's Grape poppy was a wonderful plant of the most gorgeous color. Lauren Ogden, a well known garden writer, seed expert, and book author is the developer of this poppy which she selected for over and over in her own garden, till she got the pure strain for Lauren's Grape seed. It's widely available now, but my favorite seeds are from the company, Renee's Garden, and they call their seeds, Lauren's Dark Grape, and it is a rich and dark color. These are annuals and bloom briefly, but the plant can fit about anywhere. The leaves are a beautiful silvery color, and I love the "pepper shaker" seed pod that develops. Let the plant reseed or gather seeds after the pod is ripe, and scatter in late winter or very early spring. Here are a couple of pics, taken by my talented granddaughter. There was a little too much sun the day these were taken. If you've seen my photos, I should mention that every one of them she photographed. DianeLauren's Dark Grape poppyLauren's Dark Grape Poppy Diane