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We need more "weeds" - not fewer.
They thrive in drier environments, help add nutrients to the soil and aid in bio-diversity.

You enjoy pulling weeds...my god what is wrong with you.

Lol, just kidding. I'm still suffering from a summer job in high school which was maintaining the landscaping in front of my moms work. By the time they hired me the weeds were long developed and tall and I still think about the hours and hours it took getting that place to look nice.

Those plants at the bottom look like a certain variety of sedum. We have them that get that large and bloom like that where I live.

The bottom one is definitely a variety of sedum, although I'm not sure of it's specific name. I have it growing in my garden and it spreads like crazy in both sun and shade, although it doesn't bloom as much in the shade. I believe the tall stalking ones are milkweed, which is, as its name suggests, a weed, but which attracts monarch butterflies. If you can tolerate it in your yard, it's a nice one to keep (and it can be a hard one to get rid of). If it is milkweed, it will get a purplish flower that smells like lilacs in a few weeks and will then develop a large seed pod that will eventually turn silvery gray and emit white milky seeds in the late summer/early fall. Monarchs prefer milkweed to all other plants and lay their eggs on the underside of the leaves.

Ahem. Milkweed ( Asclepias syriaca) may have "weed" in the name, but I'd rather categorize it as a native plant than a weed. And among a certain set of gardeners (Mayor Daley included), natives are the cutting edge of modern gardening.

Aside from blooming in the summer (and attracting monarchs and other insects), common milkweed has great fall and winter interest (as harriet mentioned). But it can get thuggish as it spreads via seed and underground rhizomes.

A friend of mine grows milkweed to attract monarchs. She hand-raises them in jars to keep them safe from predators. I was surprised that I had monarchs last year, despite having only a handful of plants. Butterflies are so resourceful!

The yellow ones look like Sedum kamtschaticum, aka Russian Stonecrop.

You're right on about the milkweed and Monarch butterflies. In fact, milkweed is the preferred food for monarch caterpillars--it's what my son's class always collects when they "raise" Monarchs. So, keep the weeds and keep an eagle eye out and you may witness some Monarch metamorphases .

I'll never forget pulling a bunch of weeds at the far end of my yard--covered with weird bugs to boot!--only to discover that those bugs were ladybugs in their early stages. I destroyed a ladybug nursery! argh! I was very glad to learn what praying mantis cocoons looked like after they popped up all over my trees, or I might have killed them too.

A weed, as a wise gardener once said is merely a plant that grows where you don't want it to.
Another term is 'volunteer', the progeny of any plant that self seeds and springs up everywhere the next year, think columbine (aqualigia), morning glory, sunflowers, etc is called a volunteer.
I have several of that sedum in my garden but long ago gave up saving tags to remember names. I am good with most, but not all...that one is a keeper.

I have a community garden plot. It was covered with weeds before we turned it over this spring. One of the only things we kept was milkweed (it grows *everywhere*!). We kept two stalks. Ours has already blossomed (we live in PA), given off the lilac scent and we've seen lots of bees on it. Now, it's purplish flowers are dying and it's mostly attracting flies. Since it sprouts up everywhere I may take it out soon to provide more sun for the rest of the garden. But, rest assured it will pop up in a bajillion spaces by next year!

Wow, a post on AT that doesn't use the editorial "we"!

Hooray for you, Heather! Way to claim your first-person singular pronoun!