Here's the skinny on the beautiful purple-flowered pant that made up 75% of the garden...
"Purple Loose-strife
(Lythrum salicaria )
No flowering plant in the Northeast has caused as much concern as the European, marsh-loving Purple-Loose-strife. Crowding out other wetland species with its tenacious root system, Purple Loose-strife is changing the face of many of our freshwater marshes, by turning them into biologically unproductive monocultures. The sometimes vast magenta flowerbeds attract bees and butterflies to their blossoms, but offer no sustenance to higher life-forms. Efforts to control the species by pulling it up have been fruitless. Introducing European beetles that feed exclusively on this plant may prove the best defense.."
Since the garden is in a wetlands area, this invasive plant went wild.
What does this say about appearances?
