Last updated on October 23rd, 2023 at 08:34 pm
Hand on heart: Do the weeds get on your nerves? To some extent it does to me, because I’m regularly sorting through them, especially when I’m harvesting my “normal vegetables”. I still leave the weeds, don’t spray them, and don’t do a ritualized dance to make our garden weed-free.
So here you’ll read my reasons why weeds always have a place in my garden.
Let weeds stand, because they bloom beautifully in summer and are a magnet for bees and bumblebees
Of course, you can tell that my garden is home to an eco-witch who thinks nothing of perfect order. But my garden blooms lushly. Sometimes I can not even distinguish what I have sown myself. The fact is that everything is blooming, growing and thriving here right now. My favorite in 2018 is chamomile. I’ve always wanted those big, white, beautiful flowers. Now I have a variety, free and beautiful!
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Leave weeds alone because they taste great and are full of vitamins
I’ve read in many places that weeds have much more iron content, as well as vitamins, than the pretty cultivated lettuces and vegetable plants. I also regularly wonder what is offered at farmers markets as healthy “wild lettuce”. Seriously – I can’t tell the greens from what I leave as weeds.
Leave weeds, because their seeds are great
Have you ever tried the seeds of nettles? They are really delicious, taste nutty in my opinion. Garlic rabe seeds are supposed to be a mustard substitute, I’m excited! You can also grow sprouts from the seeds using a sprout tower. Some people spend a lot of money on a packet of sprout seeds.
Leave weeds because the pests will then spare your plants
So many complain about aphids and slugs that it makes me think we have a plague. One pest that I find really nasty is the spider moth that enveloped our wild cherry last year. I found these “cobwebs” so disgusting that I didn’t want to walk under the tree.
No poisons will help with that; a stream of water will only provide them with liquid. The only thing that helped me was picking off and brushing off aphids, slugs and spinners by hand. Not exactly my favorite activity! In the places, however, where our weeds grow, the aphids were not on my beautiful plants. Instead, they’ve been cavorting on the dock, for example. So take advantage of that when you plant a vegetable patch.
Leaving weeds helps beneficial insects
It is now also known that beneficial insects, such as ladybugs, love tall grass. So they can set up winter quarters in it in the fall. Nettles provide food and shelter for butterflies. The more “scrub” you have, the more diverse insect life will be in your garden. This way, the little animals can keep each other in check.
However, since many people don’t like it when their garden grows wild, companies on the Internet offer a wide variety of beneficial insect packages. So you can buy all kinds of insects for a lot of money.
It is easier – in my opinion – to bring diversity into the garden: I leave bushes growing wild, the weeds are allowed to grow and bloom with me. In the spring, I decide what area I need to grow vegetables. The rest I leave to the will of Mother Nature. She will know what she is doing.
What are your main reasons for leaving weeds?