Some weeds are pretty....

..... don't you think?

 

definatley. weeds are natures way of healing itself from the cut grass and fixing the soil, even though the land doesnt usually get an opprotunity to actually heal... they also tend to be very nutritious, like dandelion leaves for example....and very tasty sometimes, like violets... i dont know how nutritious or toxic those are, but i never died when i ate them...

 

wow, i didn't know they had so many benefits!
when i was in my garden this evening pulling weeds, i didn't pull some because i thought they were pretty.

cute sig pic, btw! i love cats!

 

Dandelion is my favourite weed. Probably one of the most useful plants there is, and it's great, because it's so wide-spread.

 

You can pick all kinds of greens that are good to eat, you just have to know what you're doing so you don't get sick.
A lot of weeds are lovely. When I was a ranger, I loved wandering the prairie, just to look at all the plants. Most people would consider the prairie plants weeds if they were in a garden, but many of them have medicinal properties and are good to eat.

 

Sounds like a splendid time!

God definitely made a lot of the weeds to serve purposes. So why do people hate them so much?

 

A weed is just a flower that nobody wants *shrugs*

 

awww weeds have feelings, too!! poor weeds.... j/k

 

of course they are! Weeds are flowers that have not yet reached their full potential

 

That's deep.

 

haha...my friends always make fun of me for likeing weeds. I think they're beautiful, and see no reason to kill them.

 

exactly! Gosh, I even wear them in my hair..

a weed is another persons wildflower

 

I think some weeds have reached their full potential. Look at a purple coneflower, it's lovely and has many purposes. How about wild sunflowers? Or Bishop's weed? Or blackberries? Blackberries are pretty and edible, what could be better?

 

You're lovely

 

lol, I always have them in my hair. You're totally right, they are my wildflowers.

 

Wild Mint is great brewed in tea!!

 

A weed is defined as a plant out of place. Some garden plants can fit into that category such as hollyhocks which are biennials, they will self sow and end up wherever the seed goes... now that could be considered a weed.

Alot of weeds are medicinal, take Milk thistle for instance. It is a noxious aggressive weed in the West Coast states because the climate is so much similar to the meditteranean climate which it comes from( meditteranean). Milk thistle has been studied extensively in Germany and other countries as being very beneficial for the liver. It has hepatoprotective effects on the liver... so should be used by anyone taking prescription drugs/aspirin/tylenol/ alcohol/who lives in this polluted world..etc. Chances are you could benefit from some milk thistle.

Ok.. back to weeds. Metaphorically speaking the ultimate weed is mankind. The white man could be seen as a weed when they came and took over america, and very few so called ''natives'' still are around. The white people choked them out or outcompeted them.

Rabbits are considered weeds too, especially in Australia.

Plants arnt the only weeds!!!

 

Yep, it's one of my favourite weeds too.
I make syrup from the flowers, which is super tasty. It's very good as a sweetener, for baking, in marinades, or just on a slice of bread with butter.
It's easy to make too. Here is the recipe:

Put two douple hands full of dandelion flowers in a pot with one liter of water, bring to boil. Take off the flame and leave over night. On the next day strain and press out the flowers, add one kg rawsuger and one sliced lemon. Put on low heat and let vaporize until the syrup has a consistency like honey (to test take some out and let cool down).
Enjoy

Another weed I love is chickweed. It tastes great as a salat or prepared like spinach and is a rich source of vitamin C, iron, phosphorus and trace minerals.

 

Biological Diversity is what its all about.


I dont want my yard to be a mono-culture, like a golf course.

 

I have some strong feelings on this. Yes, when I was a child, in an Italian family, we used to cook a mess of Dandelion for vegetable. Aside from that warm, golden child experience, I HATE most weeds, besides Queen's Anne's Lace. (As this plant doesn't get out of hand in our area, and as long as I keep it away from my carrots and my parsnips, it's no problem, and the baby likes to pick them.)

Weed deplete your garden of nutrients.They use up water your plants need to grow the best. Many studies have been done which show that a clean garden gets MUCH better yield than a weedy one. Also, many weeds spread disease. Many weeds are related to our food and flower plants we want, and these spread disease and bugs which can wipe a garden out.

I once, when I was much more naive, I let a Bindweed (Wild Morning Glory) grow up the side of my house "because it was pretty." People told me "You'll be sorry." But the white flowers were pretty. Well, that was 12 years ago, and I am STILL fighting the damn thing. It took hold on my side garden and I pull it's children almost every day. It sends up shoots all the time, thousands a year. It wraps itself around my Mint, my rosemary and my chives and as it is poison, picking mint and the other plants without being very careful to remove the poisonous bindweed could poison the people I feed the mint to (mostly my children.)

Weeds like loosestrife and thisle don't belong in the USA, they are NOXIOUS and invasive and KILL and push good healthy Prarie Plants out of place. Their accidental introdcution was one of the things which killed the thousands of miles of Prarie we once had in the Midwest. In Prarie Restoration, we BEG people to KILL thisle as soon as they see it and not to buy and plant loosestrife, but we hear "They're pretty." Yes, and a death knell to the burgening Prarie Projects all around the Mid West. Wed like the Praries back as much as we can, but with certain weeds, it is IMPOSSIBLE.

Also, when you really rely on your garden to supply you with a good amount of your food, losing your FOOD to weeds isn't very nice. I spend more time pulling and hoeing weeds than I do picking produce, and when we go on vacation, the poor plants have been overun with weeds, which are stealing their nutrients and their water. You actuallly have to water MORE with weedy gardens, as they suck up the stuff, and in times of drought, like we are having now, it is really not helpful at all.

I suppose if your gardening is just a hobby, or really really small, or you really don't intensive garden at all, you have the luxury of "liking" weeds, but I don't have that luxury. I NEED my plants healthy and full of healthy food to feed my family.

Thank you for letting me rant and shout MY point of view.

I HATE WEEDS.