Blowing in the Wind

Last summer I bought a datura plant at a roadside plant stand.  I had never had a datura plant before, but I really liked the bold leaves.  I later found out it is a toxic plant, so you have to exercise caution with children around.  Two of my nieces had been over one day playing on the patio and I mentioned to them not to touch the plant in that pot over there.  Of course the question was why and my answer was that it was poisonous.  The older of the two said incredulously, “Auntie, WHY would you have poison plants??”  Her reaction made me feel guilty and kind of like an evil character in a fairy tale.  But the datura plant really is unique and in a nice, safe place will add beautiful foliage, large white blooms (that seem to glow at nighttime!) and these amazing, very unique seed pods that last a long time.  This year was not my best gardening year, partly because of the distracting news I found out right around kickoff time.  I was pretty preoccupied with my new pregnancy and the physical changes that had kicked in, so the garden wasn’t the priority it usually is.  But one strange thing that kept happening in our vegetable garden was that I kept finding a “weed” I had never seen before.  They were cropping up everywhere and they were larger and more defined than most weeds.  It crossed my mind that it might be an actual plant, but I couldn’t for the life of me figure out where it came from.  Our vegetable garden is fenced and consists of raised beds.  It’s a manageable layout for keeping weeds contained, so I was mystified as to where this weed came from and why there were so many of them cropping up.  I thought at one point that maybe bean plants had reseeded, but that seemed unlikely.  So I just kept pulling them up.  I also found them way over at the other end of our lot by the patio.  And to get to the patio from the vegetable garden, there is house in between.  It crossed my mind that it kind of looked like the datura plant (which I did not have again this year), but I found it hard to believe that it would have seeded that extensively so far away and with the obstacles that are in the way.  Just a few weeks ago, I found another of these mystery weeds on the patio side growing against the brick of the house (a nice warm spot).  I decided to let it go and see what happened.  It quickly grew to mammoth proportions and lo and behold, it was a datura plant!  I am just so amazed that the seeds of that plant last year blew all the way across the yard and over(?) the house to settle so abundantly in my vegetable garden.  Seeds are so amazing.  I just hope I haven’t been eating toxic vegetables all summer!