Weeds as a Resource!

Using Weeds as a Resource...
Hope for the Backyard Gardener

There’s a war going on against weeds. They are considered a huge problem in agriculture. Billions of dollars are spent annually studying them and developing chemicals to get rid of them. The USDA has a “hit list”of the most hated and despised weeds they would most like to see go away. Most of us hate weeds, “battle” them, and think negative thoughts toward them. However, I’m against war, either abroad or in the garden; there are better ways to resolve our differences.

A permaculture principle encourages folks to view “problems” as resources. I was pondering this idea as I was weeding the garden and realized I was already doing this to some extent by using the weeds in the compost pile and sometimes as mulch. I started to change my attitude toward them as I learned more about their habits, what they have to offer, and how they can be used to benefit the garden and the gardener. During a few seasons in the weed patch, I have further refined this approach and herewith present my discoveries.

The first step

in this kind of weed management is to get acquainted with your weeds. Who are they? What are their names? What family do they belong to? Are they annuals or perennials or biennials? How big do they get? How does the character of the plant change as it grows from a seedling to a mature plant? What does it smell like? Are the leaves smooth or rough or prickly? What do the flowers & seeds look like? When does it flower and go to seed? When does the plant appear in the garden, ie, is it a winter or summer weed? Are there any insects hanging around it and if so, who are they and are they beneficial or not?

Identifying a weed and its habits is key to learning how to use it as a resource instead of an enemy. It makes it possible to do further research to learn if it’s edible, medicinal, or poisonous. Is it good forage for goats? Pigs like to eat bindweed and Johnson grass roots. I learned that the acids in spurge function in breaking down soils and rocks. English knotgrass just started appearing in my garden last year; after I identified it, I saw in a book that it’s used medicinally in Greece to control bleeding. Now I probably will not use it for this and it doesn’t change the fact it’s an aggressive, spreading, hard-to-get-rid-of plant, but it does help to know it has some use besides being a nuisance to me. Purslane’s sprawling habit make it a useful groundcover between plants; it shades the ground and keeps other weeds from coming up. Let’s face it, the soil surface wants to be covered. You can either choose what the cover will be or Nature will do it herself and you might not like the results. In addition, Purslane is very edible and probably more nutritious than the plants you are trying to grow instead. It is high in cancer-fighting anti-oxidants, loaded with Vitamins C & E, beta-carotene, and omega - fatty acids that have been linked with reducing cholesterol. Other edibles include plantain, tumbleweed, lambsquarters, pigweed, evening primrose seeds, chicory, sow thistle, dandelions, burdock root, mallow leaves and immature fruit, sunflower seeds, mustard greens. The seeds of all grasses are edible and chickens love them. The dreaded goatsheads or puncture vine (Tribulus terrestris) can also be used to lower cholesterol (and without the side-effects of pharmaceutical drugs). 

Other medicinal weeds are: orange globe mallow, Mexican arnica, Canadian fleabane, horehound, Syrian rue, cocklebur, mullein, thistles, plantain, yellow dock, shepherd’s purse, nettles.

Other uses for weeds: provide habitat for beneficial insects. In my garden wild lettuce houses lady bugs Weeds can also serve as “trap plants” for not-so-beneficial insects, ie aphids. Allow them to congregate and then remove the plant to the burn barrel or trash or chicken yard. Weeds that are legumes are usually nitrogen-fixing and improve the soil. The deep roots of weeds can reach down further than many domesticated plants where they absorb minerals other plants can’t reach. When these weeds are pulled and used as mulch or composted and then added to the garden, the minerals become incorporated into the topsoil.

Another key

to this process of weeding is mastering the principles of “selective weeding”. Allow the plant to grow big enough to be useful but pull before the roots get too deep, do not allow it to go to seed, pull it after rains when the soil is still soft. What good is this? It makes fantastic mulch. Some of the most common garden weeds are my favorites for mulch, including pigweed, lambsquarters, kochia, mustard, horehound, wild lettuce, sunflowers when small, and tumbleweed. When they are 4-8 inches tall is ideal. Just pull them and put them right around your garden plants to cover the ground. Leave the roots on top where they’ll be dried by the sun by the day’s end. Make the layers thick enough so you don’t have to weed there again for a while. Weed seeds won’t be able to germinate. If you weed and mulch, you’ll only have to do it once. A few weeds might sneak up but they’ll be easy to pull and add to the mulch layer.

Mulching is one of the best things you can do for your soil. It adds organic matter and feeds the worms and soil microbes, an essential consideration since low biological activity is inherent in every weed problem, according to several weed experts I have consulted. The mulch also reduces water need by keeping the moisture in and stabilizes soil temperatures. Sheet mulching can be used to cover large areas and walkways. Simply wet the ground, lay down a layer of cardboard and cover it with weeds. If it’s windy, add rocks to keep the cardboard from blowing. Eventually, the cardboard rots, keeps feeding the worms and microbes, and you can add additional layers. I am so enthusiastic about mulching, I sometimes run out of weeds. I find myself looking enviously over the fence into my neighbor’s garden and wondering what his plans are for his weeds.

There is a lot of information out there on how to improve your garden soil. Forget about eradicating every weed, work on the soil and the weed war will be over. In the meantime, keep mulching.

Here is a list

of common/botanical names of weeds in the order mentioned & references.

Common name

Botanical Name

A Recommended Weed Book

My idea of a good read is a book by Charles Walters, Weeds: Control Without Poisons, in which he explains that the weeds didn’t just show up to bother you, they have a message to deliver about the condition of your soil’s fertility, nutrients, pH, organic matter, drainage, and microorganisms. Of bind weed, he says it is both a terror and an educational text. It dominates when there is a short circuit in the energy release of fouled decay systems. Correct this with pH management; microorganisms in well digested compost help attack the shallow creeping rhizomes that make bindweed such a nuisance. He even has good things to say about tumbleweed!

More Recommended Weed Books

Cocannouer, J; Weeds: Guardians of the Soil; the Devin-Adair Co Publ., Old Greenwich, 1950.

Monica Rude is owner of Desert Woman Botanicals in Gila, NM
and a mighty grower of organic herbs and, uh, weeds.