Gardening excellence - NOT

I am an enthusiastic gardener but, sadly, my thumbs are mostly brown rather than green. I tried growing Norfolk pines in the house for a couple years and killed them each time. It's a mystery as to whether it's too much water, not enough water, too much light, not enough light. It just gives me a headache. We have a few houseplants but only because they're tenacious and have adapted to my unique blend of neglect and over watering.

Outside, we redid our landscaping a few years ago with the help of someone who knew what they were doing. She gave us a new layout, helped us get started with the planting and it has worked. Except now that the landscaping has been in for a few years, some things have died and we've replaced them. In a few cases, I've been feeling my oats and bought things that I wanted to put into the landscaping even though they weren't part of the original plan. Last year, something declined to return and at the bargain time of the year, I bought a butterfly bush and planted it in that area.

This summer, I watched with delight as the plant I thought was a butterfly bush started sprouting and thriving. I have watered the gardens all summer and vigorously pulled or annihilated any invading weeds with RoundUp (though the rubber mulch we put in last year really did do a great job of discouraging most weeds).

Sadly, however, what sprouted in the place of my butterfly bush was NOT a butterfly bush at all but a beautiful stand of .... goldenrod.

Duh.

Immediately after this picture was taken, I went out and cut the goldenrod down. It isn't dead but I'll use RoundUp on the base of it. How embarrassing, huh? All that work to get a weed. Sigh. Better luck next year.