Welcome to the wonderful world of weeds! Yes, weeds can be an awful nuisance. But they are so much more than that. And they can even be useful. Please read on.....
So, why love weeds?
It's not that all weeds at all times are what we want. It's just that we may sometimes want to tolerate or even to encourage weeds and after all, we can love a weed species as whole without becoming emotionally attatched to every member of that species. So we can love weeds for the following reasons:
What is a Weed?
It has often been said that a weed is a "plant growing in the wrong place" and I think this is a pretty good definition of a weed. A rose growing in the potato patch or a spud in the rose bed might very well be considered weeds. One can buy dandelion root or dried nettle leaves in health food shops. I guess wherever these products come from, they may be gathered wild but it is quite possible that they are also grown intentionally as crops. In either case, they are wanted plants growing in the right place and therefore certainly not weeds as far as the producers are concerned.
So one may ask: If we chose to tolerate or encourage a weed, is it still a weed? Perhaps not, although myself, I like to think there are such things as weeds, just that we should not always see them as a bad thing. But it is not my purpose to delve into semantic arguments. The aim of loveyourweeds.org is not to discover the ultimate definition of a weed. The aim is to look at those situations in which people find themselves confronted with a weed problem and to ask: Is one solution simply to leave the weeds, or at least some of them, to grow?
- Weeds are Alive!
- Weeds Can be Food
- Weeds as Herbs
- Non-food uses of Weeds
- Weeds for the Compost Heap
- Weeds as Ground Cover
- Weeds Dig the Soil!
- Weeds and Bees
- Weeds as Teachers
By the way, I garden on an upland area in the west of County Tipperary, Republic of Ireland. The soil is wet, heavy and mostly acidic and so the weeds species I am most familiar with and will mention most often will reflect this.
Weeds are Alive!
We may love weeds for what they are not. Because they are plants - they are not concrete nor are they desert sand. In other words, they are a sign of life. They are a sign that there is at least some fertility in the soil and again, like all other plants they play their role in the ecology of the planet. They provide habitat or food for other living organisms and weeds too, just as any other green plant does, play their part in absorbing carbon-dioxide from the atmosphere and therefore help to counteract global warming.
Weeds Can be Food
Many weeds are useful to us humans as sources of food or as
medicines or may have uses which are neither of these two. When weeds
are used as food they are given a different name such as wild food
and when used as medicines they are called herbs
but it is by no
means always necessary to travel out to some special location to
collect many of these plants. So often they are growing quite literally
under our noses when we are weeding the garden. In my own garden, two
of my least favorite weeds as wild food
. These are briar (blackberry) and the
stinging nettle. Dandelion, marsh woundwort (for the roots), redshank,
fat hen and sorrel are other weed/wild foods that leap easily to mind.
Wild foods in general are likely to be at least as rich in vitamins,
minerals and other micronutrients as are cultivated fruits and
vegetables.
Non-food uses of Weeds
Some weeds have other uses. Nettle stalks were once used for making fabric. In the garden, dock leaves can be picked and left near young, tender plants to attract slugs which can then be disposed of (feeding them to poultry, especially to ducks is ideal, if one has that option).
Weeds for the Compost Heap
One very important use of weeds is in the garden is as a source of compost. Everything that grows needs raw materials from the soil: not only nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium which must be provided in relatively large quantities but also many other elements such as calcium, magnesium and sodium in lesser quantities. And in yet smaller quantities there are the micronutrients: iron, copper, zinc etc.. By absorbing CO2 from the atmosphere, growing plants also absorb large amounts of carbon into their bodies. When we "harvest" our weeds to put them onto our compost heaps these nutrients will be converted by bacteria, worms, slugs and other small creatures into plant food for next years crops. Some of the carbon will be released back into the air but much will remain and help to form the the bulk of the organic matter, the dark humus beloved of good gardeners the world over.
Weeds as Ground Cover
There will be times when gardeners will wish to leave a piece of ground with no crop growing on it. We could choose to keep such a piece weed-free by relentlessly hoeing, pulling or forking out weeds as they appear, or maybe just every once-in -a while. Apart from the work involved, there are reasons to believe this is not a great idea. By leaving the ground bare in hot, dry weather, the soil may turn to dust and blow away, while in wet weather the abscence of plant cover above the surface and the absence of roots to bind the soil together below ground, will make it easier for the rain to wash away our valuable plant foods. In temperate climates this is mainly a problem in winter, as in general, fewer crops are grown at this time of the year. Also, as well as the abscence of ground cover, by leaving earth bare, we are no longer making as much compost as we could. There will be less humus in our soil and that means less carbon in our soil which in turn means more carbon in the air - we'll have a bigger carbon footprint.
One solution is to plant "green manure" or "cover" crops such as rye grass or vetch. But is not essential to go out and aquire specific seeds to achieve ground cover. One could just leave all weeds to grow and this also is a solution but may require more work in the spring because we have let weeds grow which are difficult to manage. But we don't have to let all weeds grow willy-nilly. We can be selective. Some weeds in particular are very easy to remove when the time comes to sow our crops and these can be left to grow. We can also limit the number of a particular weed. Creeping buttercup for example can be a real nuiscance when left to itself, forming a tight mat of small plants. But by leaving relatively few well-spaced specimens, these will have more space and resources available and one can thus achieve excellent ground-cover composed of large plants and in the case of the example of creeping buttercup and others like sorrel, these will have short roots which will be easily removed in the spring. Also, let us note, weeds left in the ground will act as competiion for other weeds.
In our own garden here in County Tipperary, we do not in general allow weeds to go to seed. However there are exceptions even to this. Those weeds that are really easy to manage, do not require particular vigilance in this respect. Weeds like dandelion that are so beneficial to the bees, clover also for the bees but as well because of its ability to fix nitrogen, we like to encourage and remove only with reluctance regardless of whether or not they are about to set seed.
A drawback of selective weeding though is that we may sometimes be in two minds as to whether to remove a weed or not. I suppose traditional weeding has the advantage here, in that it is very straightforward and very few decisions have to be made. Such "mindless" work can be very pleasant. Once one starts to appreciate weeds life can become quite complicated but there are ways to keep things relatively simple. A good starting point is to accept that perfection is not an option. By sacrificing one plant, be it weed or crop, we are making room for another.
Weeds Dig the Soil!
Plant roots grow down into the soil to access nutrients and moisture. In dry weather in particular, it is plants with deep tap roots that survive better because they get down to where the drying effects of wind and sun do not penetrate and to where other plants are unable to compete for moisture. As they grow, they create channels which loosen the soil and which allow air into the soil. This air is needed by the roots of other plants such as our crops and this loosened soil also helps worms to penetrate further and to do in turn, their own work of making the soil more porous. Plants with these deep tap roots draw moisture up to their own leaves but some of this moisture will be lost into the air and some of this moisture may be made available to surrounding plants such as our crops.
Of the weeds that grow in Britain and Ireland, the dock is one plant that is both very common and recognisable for its large tap root. I've always had a soft spot for it and often felt these deep, long roots are reaching down and getting at good stuff other plants can only dream of. Pat, the previous owner of our piece of land, once said to me: "where there's a good dock, there's a good spud". Another thing I like about docks is that because they grow big, they also swamp out other weeds. Even if docks do have deep tap roots, once you don't bother too much about getting every last bit of the root out, cleaning a piece of land with just a few large docks and consequently very little else on it, can be quick work. For sure, you don't want them coming up among your seedlings, nor among your smaller plants, but as long as you don't let them get too big, a good sharp hoe, used frequently will keep them in check. Alternatively, when the soil is wet and the hoeing becomes a sticky job, smaller specimens will pull easily enough.
It is as well to point out at this stage that dock, both broadleaved
Rumex obtusifolius) and curled leaved (Rumex crispus)
are classified as noxious
,under UK and Irish legislation. We are
all legally obliged to control these weeds on our own land. I am sure the
relevant authorities are well aware that elimination of these species is not
feasible and that erradication would not be cost-effective. On the other hand,
one should use common sense and do one's best, in particular, to ensure that
seed does not spread to neighbouring land.
The usefullness of soil-digging weeds was highlighted in 1950 by the publication of Weeds Guardians of the Soil by Joseph A. Cocannouer. In this short book Cocannouer describes how he was sent out by a Kansas farmer, Sol Benson, to rid the cornfields of the weed, purslane. The farmer, noticing that the best corn seemed to grow where there was the most purslane and investigating further, concluded that it was the purslanes' ability to pentrate deep, thus making it easier for the corn roots also to penetrate deeper, which was responsible for this symbiosis.
For Sol Benson, it was a realisation akin to that of discovering that the world is not flat. An unthinking hatred of all weeds was equally misguided - a mere superstition. Myself, I think a hatred of weeds is a little more than a superstition; allowing all weeds to grow at all times is equally misguided. As it is for all farmers and gardeners, the situation for Sol Benson was particular to his region and to his crop. It just turned out that what was considered a major weed-foe turned out to be a major weed-friend. But this realisation that weeds can sometimes be our friends is an advance in our understanding. It gives us a more complete picture and it tells us to be on the look-out for new alliances with weeds.
Weeds and Bees
Bees love weeds! Or at least they love certain weeds. Dandelion, blackberry, willow. The goat willow or sally (salix caprea is a wonderful early source of pollen which the bees need urgently in early spring to feed their grubs when there are rapidly dwindling numbers of mature worker bees able to go out and forage. Our own bees have willow growing very close to the hives which makes for short journeys to and from the food source.
Another weed we have in abundance is lonicera nitida which translates into english as glossy honeysuckle
but which, as far as I am aware, has no commonly used english name
which is not at the same time misleading. In this part of rural Ireland
it is often called boxhedge
but box it certainly is not. We ourselves used to and from force of habit still often do, call it privet
- equally mistaken. We once quite dispised this plant. We saw it as
something impatient people grew in order to get an evergreen hedge
quickly, without regard for its invasive nature. There were even
individuals who seemed to delight in giving it quite unneeded
assistance by wandering the neighbourhood and inserting cuttings into
the ground. I still would not wish to condone such activity but my
inclination is to assume that every plant will turn out to have at
least some useful property and so it was with the glossy honeysuckle.
Once our bee population had grown, one warm day in March or April I was
working in the vicinity of a large boxhedge
planted by the
previous owner of our smallholding. There was a good healthy buzz going
on. Perhaps because it had never occured to me as a possiblility, it
took me a while to figure out where the buzz was coming from.
Eventually I noticed that the hedge had tiny little yellow flowers
which were attracting not only hundreds of our own honeybees but also
hoverflies and other insects in similar amounts. We still need to keep
our lonicera nitida in check but do I still despise it? Not any more!
Weeds as Teachers
We can learn alot from weeds. Weeds are no less a part of the plant
kingdom than are their more respectable cousins: our garden flowers and
vegetables, wild-flowers
, or exotic species perhaps seen on
holiday or in botanical gardens. They can help us learn about taxonomy
- the classification of plants, for example. As much as any other types
of plants, weeds can give us examples of plant genuses, families and
orders. Some of these relationships may take one by surprise. Here are
two of my favourite examples:
The common weed cleavers or goose grass (galium aparine) belongs to the same family (Rubiaceae) as coffea from which the commercial coffee plant coffea arabica is derived. Although it is true that the two plants belong to different sub-families, knowledge of this kind helps to make mental connections between areas of life which on the face of it seem very unrelated and in so doing povide examples of the interconnectedness of all life on earth. Incidentally, one can aparently make a kind of coffee from those sticky velcro-like fruits of galium aparine. Never tried it.
Another of my favourite examples is that the stinging nettle (urtica dioica) belongs to the plant order, rosales, to which of course the rose (rosa)
belongs. Ok, in taxonomic terms, this relationship is more distant than
is the relationship between the coffee plant and cleavers, but all the
same, it means that the stinging nettle is more closely related to the
rose than the are some other examples of nice, pretty and respectable flowers
such as the buttercup, daisy, or geranium.
Because weeds are by definition dispensible, we can get to know them much better than those plants that we do not wish to disturb. We are frequently pulling weeds up or digging them out of the ground so we become familiar with the appearance, the feel and the odour of their roots. If we are careful to check that a plant is not poisonous, we can even get to know the roots by taste. This more intimate aquaintance with our weeds cannot fail to make us better gardeners. Well ok, that's my opinion anyway.
An area in which knowledge of weeds would appear to have great
potential benefits is by using them to give us clues as to soil
conditions. There are several websites giving tables of weeds and their
preferred soil conditions. The little book Weeds and What they Tell by Ehrenfried E. Pfeiffer gives an account of what we can learn from weeds using the biodynamic
perspective founded by Rudolf Steiner.
Though I hope I am learning, I'm far from an expert in judging soil
conditions from weed populations. There are tables listing various weed
species as soil indicatiors at the following links:
oregonbd
and at:
organic-guru
Referring to the table presented by organic-guru there is a lot of
agreement between this table and our soil conditions here in upland
rural Ireland. For example, we have six out of seven of the plants
listed as liking heavy soil growing in abundance on our own heavy soil.
The one exception (coltsfoot) does grow quite close-by, but I do not
recall ever seeing it in the garden. I'm also slightly puzzled that
stinging nettles are listed as liking light soil. We have no shortage
of these but on the other hand it is true that they grow in clusters
rather than being very numerous everywhere. I guess one would need just
to get to know the idiosyncracies of weeds that much better. Definitely
a hot topic this!