Wild Wheat Harvested

A lot of Arizonans do not water their lawns during the winter, when the bermuda grass goes dormant, but just for the fun of it, I started watering a few years ago.

At first, just an odd and ugly collection of weeds popped up on that barren land, which I would dutifully cut with my lawnmower, hoping I was at least helping the soil a bit with the mulch. But gradually, over a few winters, the content of the winter lawn began to change.

Wouldn't you know it, my winter lawn went from totally wild to semi-tame! The object of my love was definitely the wild yellow clover, which is so soft and sweet looking. (Let's never mind the nasty sharp seed pods it puts out in April when it dries up, for the moment...) I even harvested the clover seed this year, thinking to maybe use it in the back yard coming up, to help restore the garden soil.

All kinds of grasses, for sure, also come up in the wild front year. But this year, most spectacularly, wild wheat! For some reason, tons of it came up this year. Once I realized what it was, I stopped mowing it, and just let it grow. Next year I am going to plant this wild winter wheat like a real farmer, by gum. The grains are as big and soft as the ones in the seed packet I paid three bucks for, it is the real thing for sure.