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Gifts In Your Garden

By Phran Novelli

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Welcome weeds and gifts from the birds; that's how I've started to see some of the happiest accidents in my yard. Like the goldenrod that grows amongst our winterberries, this fall I discovered asters thriving through some of our bayberry shrubs.

The semi-evergreen bayberry has an open enough habit that the asters easily found their way between the branches, up nearly five-feet high to put out pretty bright blue flowers for about a month this autumn. If I were more attentive, I might have weeded them out months ago not knowing what they were, but I really never noticed them until they were about to bloom.

Since these asters turned out to be not only attractive, but also a native plant that attracts butterflies and feeds their babies, I feel particularly lucky that they popped up. Now, I'm letting the flowers go to seed in hopes that more of these beautiful light blue asters will spring up in the summer to add a pretty pop of color among the shrubs next fall.

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