WEEDS WELCOME

A thread for us GC members to celebrate the weeds in our gardens and the huge benefits they bring to our wildlife
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I get a lot of wildlife here in my intentionally weed free garden.......yep, plenty of weeds but regular campaigns to get rid of them Bees, butterflies, birds, frogs, toads,ladybirds, etc., even at least one wonderful hedgehog are here
Bramble? Nettles? Bindweed? Oxalis? Ground Elder? Dandelions? Speedwell......yep, pretty to see small scale but eventually " tattifies" a lawn!
I grow all sorts of plants that successfully attract bees and butterflies so a garden for me and wildlife I think
I respect those who want to cultivate and encourage weeds in their gardens but definitely not for me .

 

Weed:

Interesting to note the increase in packets of "Wild Flower" seeds on sale these days

 

All for the good methinks M and the beauty of these beauties... is NO pesticides required
Now what gardener wouldn't want a garden to enjoy ... that's safe for wildlife and themselves

 

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Just think though Verdun, all these species plants ( eg Salvias, Sanguisorbas etc ) are all weeds or wildflowers in their Country of origin

 

Ha ha, you got me KFF Absolutely true and many salvias here can indeed be weedy.
What is it? A weed is the wrong plant in the wrong place?

The wild bindweed a big no yet I grow (convolvulous) Cneorum and maritima both well behaved. I select varieties of artemisia that are not invasive....Powys Castle for example....ditto for varieties of sanguisorbas.
Won't have dandelions here but love Doronicum

I tend to oversee a 6 acre garden down here......an area of cultivated planting controlling weeds but other areas are allowed to be "wild" . A demarcation is clear

For medium and small gardens a choice needs to be made I think......weeds and our treasured plants do not blend; the former will simply take over. I have yet to see a beautiful front garden of weeds

 

"They say that a weed is only a flower out of place"
In some parts of Australia, agapanthus is classified as an invasive weed.

Are we seeing a new direction in weeds? - The Middle-Sized Garden

 

Keep, Don't Kill: 9 Weeds to Welcome

 

List of beneficial weeds
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_beneficial_weeds

 

Interesting to Borage mentioned because ... I planted some seeds a few weeks ago, used to have it in my previous garden and I know @ARMANDII has it in his

 

Edible Weeds​

 

I hope we never see the day when food becomes a premium luxury in our lifetime in the UK ...it will be then, that those who have damned and crucified these plants with chemical warfare will find that these same plants will be the very ones who will nourish them ....not the fancy hybrids that are manmade genetic offspring of the true plant genus, that these gardeners indulge in and cossett in their gardens - it will be interesting to see how those pampered plants will fare in the future they surely will be of little nutritional value ....as many have been soooo modified and tampered with.... that they are just ornaments - you only have to see the pollinators bypass them to confirm that - i find it very sad to see pollinators visit often the most colourful blooms and fly off hungry - It's IMHO the version of plastic fruit in a bowl to us

 

The definition of a Weed is that it is a plant growing where it is not desired
But never forget desire is a human trait!!

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