Weeds

Alternatively, a weed is any plant growing in the wrong place. This much is true, as even those plants we routinely accept as desirable can be weeds if they grow somewhere we don’t want them. Weeds in our gardening world have been severely shortchanged. In many native North American cultures, weeds were looked upon as a valuable source of food, and an ally to crops, providing shelter as a nurse to new seedlings.

Contrary to popular myth, weeds don’t take all the moisture out of the soil; they in fact protect it, allowing the crop to share it.

Various First Nations tribes would grow weeds among their squash and corn to help shelter the growing crop from hot sun and heavy rains, and roots of the crop would follow the weeds roots to seek out lower layers of nutrients and moisture.

In addition, many weeds were used as medicine and nutrition for humans.

While in growth the weeds will provide a nectar corridor for beneficial insects to feed on and in many cases birds will forage on the seed heads for a winter treat.

Weeds are also valued for farm animal forage. During the great depression, weeds were sometimes all that was available for animal feed.

Cows relish silage made from certain weeds, and thrive on it, giving very good quality milk for healthy calves.

Chickens, fed a diet of whatever they can scratch and green stuff will produce rich eggs with deep golden yolks, and when butchered for the table are tender and full of taste, unlike the pale and pallid caged birds we have today. If allowed to free range chickens will eat an incredible variety of weed seeds, sprouted or growing weeds.

Breaking up hard pan and bringing up nutrients from deep down in the soil are two little known reasons to allow weeds to grow. If you have a garden with a plow pan, a hard layer caused by tilling it at the same depth for many seasons, weeds, with their strong taproots, will break through it and bring the soil back into production.

If weeds grow in a very inconvenient place such as on pathways or a vegetable bed, use solarization to eliminate them quickly and easily.

Growing weeds in a patch or mulch bed which can be harvested for use on a compost pile or steeped for compost tea is a technique we should all be using. Some of the best compost I ever made was with thistles that were pulled up from a bed where I had put mushroom manure. The thistles were over my head, and pulling them required some serious muscle, even though the ground was soft, due to the extensive root systems.

The resulting compost was rich and black, and obviously full of nutrients as I grew the best vegetables ever the following year. The thick taproots were responsible for bringing up huge amounts of trace minerals from below where the crops could reach, making them accessible in the compost.

Weeds are highly underrated for their use in gardens, so instead of being at war with them, acknowledge them for their function as a benevolent ally.

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Sustainable Gardening