Have you seen any of this stuff lately? It’s prime time for the wild cucumber vines and they’re climbing everywhere! Here’s one stretched up on the lilac bushes north of the old house. The other one nearby is headed up the dead tree by the gas barrel.

The flowers do smell good. Wild cucumber has been planted some places as an ornamental, but it is a native forb that’s probably in the seed bank all over the farm. That’s good because it adds to the general biologic diversity. You can buy the seed online for $20 an ounce (seems kinda spendy to me) because it is, after all, a wild flower. However, that depends one where it’s growing. The USDA officially lists it as a weed.

Wild cucumber vines grow so fast that it’s sorta scary stuff. Seems like those extensive, vigorous vines would smother the other plants that they cover. But, I’ve read that it rarely does any damage. Still, we pulled the vines off our favorite asparagus cluster right after we took this picture. We didn’t want to risk losing one of the best suppliers for next spring’s asparagus crop. So, yup, it’s a weed there.