hoodat
Garden Addicted
We've often heard the old saying,"A weed is only a plant growing where it isn't wanted" It's only our own prejudice that makes the difference between a weed and a garden plant. Many of them, such as lambs quarter and dandelion are just as tasty and nutritious as anything we plant.
When my grandfather was looking over a piece of land for farming one of the first things he looked at was what kind of weeds grew there. Certain weeds, such as iron weed and careless weed indicated the nutrients in the soil had been used up and it was "tired". Other, such as the already mentioned lambs quarter showed that the soil was in good shape if the plants were healthy and almost anything could be planted there.
The old custom of letting land lie fallow for a few years just meant letting random weeds grow there and then turning them under. Each time the weeds made good growth they were turned under again. After a few rounds of that the soil began to wake up and become healthy again. Grandpa used to laugh when he heard people talk about weeds sapping the soil. He told me the weeds were just storing the nutrients so they wouldn't leach out when it rained. Nothing is ever wasted if nature is not interfered with. Everything is used and reused over and over and weeds are part of the process. Composting weeds or letting them dry and then using them as mulch is working with nature instead of fighting it.
When my grandfather was looking over a piece of land for farming one of the first things he looked at was what kind of weeds grew there. Certain weeds, such as iron weed and careless weed indicated the nutrients in the soil had been used up and it was "tired". Other, such as the already mentioned lambs quarter showed that the soil was in good shape if the plants were healthy and almost anything could be planted there.
The old custom of letting land lie fallow for a few years just meant letting random weeds grow there and then turning them under. Each time the weeds made good growth they were turned under again. After a few rounds of that the soil began to wake up and become healthy again. Grandpa used to laugh when he heard people talk about weeds sapping the soil. He told me the weeds were just storing the nutrients so they wouldn't leach out when it rained. Nothing is ever wasted if nature is not interfered with. Everything is used and reused over and over and weeds are part of the process. Composting weeds or letting them dry and then using them as mulch is working with nature instead of fighting it.
