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| Do not laugh - this is a classic. |
I enjoy most weeds. They come and go with the season, and few are truly obnoxious. There is no reason to become herbicidal just because the garden does not look like a magazine cover. Here are some kind and gentle observations about common weeds.
Weeds break up soil and supply nutrients through their root system. They also protect the soil surface from wind erosion.
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| Poke Weed is a salad eaten in the South, provided the leaves are boiled twice. The berries may be a bit toxic - they are rumored to be good for people. I found them insipid, not tempting enough to make me healthy or sick. |
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| The Poke berries grow fast wherever the plant appears, even in sidewalk cracks. |
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| Besides the obvious insects, Poke provides shelter for many more kinds. The branches are good for perching and preening birds. |
Poke Weed
They claim Poke can grow 30 feet tall, but its strength comes from growing anywhere, airborne by its consumption and planting by birds. I have seen it growing and flowering in sidewalk cracks, but flourishing beyond belief in the front and back gardens.
Poke berries are loved by 60 species of birds, so a tree branch or trunk is a natural starting point for their takeover. I cut them off at soil level in the rose garden, so they become mulch. In the backyard garden areas they are free to grow.
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| The roots for beverage, the flowers for wine, the leaves for salad, the seed fluffs for hummingbird nests - and some try to kill them? |
Dandelions
These vilified and herbicided herbs - yes herbs - have not been pulled or sprayed in the rose garden. They do not spread as feared by so many. Their taproots are good for the soil and their blooms serve the hummingbirds for nesting material. They are good for salad greens and dandelion wine, without being garnished by 2-4tx-75DDT toxins. I do not harvest them for food or wine, but I enjoy their cheerful flowers and good manners.
Wild Strawberry -
The Friendly Blanket of Green with Tiny Rubies
I found our yard supporting wild strawberries, blooming and fruiting in the deepest shade of the house. I had the same reaction as the Swedes landing in New York - "If this is New York City, what must Lindsborg, Kansas be like?" I transplanted wild strawberries before realizing that the birds were better at it than I. Add stumps, Creation Gardeners, and the birds will plant their favorites.
I now have masses of them in the back gardens, where I throw seeds for the birds and, and in the rose garden, where they get plenty of rain, watering, and sun. Their growth is dense on top and the roots shallow, like their larger relatives, which I am not allowed or tempted to eat.
The Green Wall
And the Rustic Fence
The distant back yard was largely unusable. Ranger Bob and Mrs. Ichabod conspired to place the tool shed in the middle, halfway back. "Aha," I thought, "We can put a rustic fence up from the dying tree we cut down.
All I did was stretch the logs across the middle of the backyard, with the tool shed in the middle. Ranger Bob had backyard landscaping ideas - and so did I. The birds loved the various levels and quirky branches of the logs. Besides that, logs on the soil foster decaying wood soil life - sowbugs, pillbugs, earthworms, beetles, toads to feed and toads as food.
Later, Bob looked out the backdoor and said, "Your plants are perfect." I said, "Bob, the birds planted the green fence for me."
Today, in mid-May, the green wall they planted is 10 feet tall, graced by the two elderberry bushes I planted on each side of the tool shed.
The far backyard area is a delightful (to wildlife) tangle of weeds, orphaned Butterfly Bushes, berry plants, etc.
