Weeds!

In the Veganic Garden - Weeds!

Have you got weeds in your garden? Daisies and dandelions in your lawn perhaps? Or even clumps of brambles and large patches of nettles in your herbaceous border? I didn't hear many of you shouting 'Yes, I've got weeds' when I asked that question. For owning up to having weeds is a bit like admitting you've got head lice, bed bugs or fleas, isn't it? Not exactly something that most people want to boast about! So perhaps you will think that I'm rather odd when I tell you that I deliberately leave weeds in my garden? There are patches of daisies, clover and dandelions in my lawn and in summer their flowers provide pollen for the bees. The dandelions are even allowed to set seed because I enjoy watching the goldfinches eating the seed heads. I've also got an enormous clump of nettles which I only cut back when I can no longer walk past them without getting stung! I use the nettle trimmings as compost activator, or else they are made into liquid manure. There's even the odd bramble here and there, some lucky four-leafed clover, docks (grown for wildlife value and in case I get stung by the nettles!) a few thistles and loads of ivy which provides ground cover for my frogs, as well as bird nesting sites and nectar for red admiral butterflies in the autumn. I do pull my 'weeds' up occasionally, especially when they are really getting out of control, but they are never wasted. Most go straight into the compost bin, or are made into liquid feeds for use around the garden. I have learnt to love my weeds. Could you learn to love some of yours too? The next time you find a weed in your garden, instead of immediately ripping it out, pause for a minute and ask yourself whether it really needs to be removed at all.

So What is a Weed Anyway?

Some people have lots of weeds in their garden simply because they do not know which plants are weeds! Jo Readman in the book 'Weeds: How to Control and Love Them' defines a weed as being 'a plant which is growing in the wrong place'. (So by this definition a rogue potato growing in the wrong part of your vegetable patch would be a weed.) However, I prefer to think of weeds as being 'plants that no-one wants', because if we change our minds and decide that we do want our weeds, then they are no longer weeds, but plants. This is the easiest way of getting rid of weeds that I know of and by this simple change in thinking, large numbers of weeds can be removed from the garden without doing any weeding at all! Incidentally, if you are unfamiliar with weeds and would like to be able to identify them, then you will find many good colour photographs of common weeds in Jo Readman's book mentioned above. Yarrow, burdock, thistle, teasel, couchgrass, willow herb, ivy, bramble, buttercup, dock, dandelion, bindweed, ground elder, clover, nettle, shepherd's purse, fat hen, groundsel and chickweed are all plants which are generally classified as weeds.

Have you ever noticed when you clear a patch of land, how quickly it is colonised by weeds? This is because the soil contains many dormant weed seeds and when we dig the ground, these seeds are brought to the surface and germinate rapidly as soon as they come in contact with the light. (If you have ever wondered why poppies are used on Remembrance Day, it is because when the trenches were dug in the first world war dormant poppy seeds were disturbed.) Weed seeds can remain dormant in the soil for long periods of time, many for 10-40 years and in the case of poppy seeds, for more than a hundred years.

Weeds quickly take over any ground which is left bare because they are very hardy plants. They grow fast, spread rapidly, are often able to live in hostile conditions and are usually very resistant to disease. Their seeds, which can be produced in vast quantities, can survive long periods at low temperatures, as well as droughts and being trodden on and can sometimes be carried great distances, either by the wind, in water, on animal's feet, or in animal droppings. Weeds are tenacious, aggressive, natural survivors and many are poisonous, or are protected by prickles, stings and spines. 'Leave me alone' they are telling us and perhaps, in some cases, we should do just that? Before pulling up a weed ask yourself whether it is really doing any harm. Obviously if it is choking your vegetables to death, the time has come to remove it! Weeds do need to be removed if they are outcompeting your plants for light or nutrients, as this will reduce the yield of any crops that you are trying to grow. Also some weeds can harbour pests and diseases. For example shepherd's purse can carry clubroot disease which infects brassicas and chickweed can carry cucumber mosaic virus. However, many weeds are very valuable wildlife plants, some weeds can even be eaten and others have important uses in the veganic garden.

Weeds For Wildlife

Weeds which are particularly useful as wildlife plants include:

Dandelions - seed heads are popular with goldfinches, flowers provide pollen for bees and hoverflies.
Teasel, thistles, shepherd's purse and chickweed supply food for birds.
Ivy and thistles are valuable sources of nectar for butterflies.
Clover is a very valuable bee plant.
Docks, groundsel, nettles, greater burdock and sorrel provide food for caterpillars.
Ivy provides autumn nectar for bees and butterflies and offers excellent shelter for birds and hibernating butterflies. I often get wrens searching my ivy for grubs and insects.
Groundsel is a food source for the cinnabar moth caterpillar and its seeds are eaten by linnets and goldfinches.
Brambles attract emperor moths, gatekeeper and ringlet butterflies, wasps and spiders.

Other Uses for Weeds

If you do pull any weeds up, then don't waste them! Many weeds contain important nutrients which they have brought up from the subsoil. Dandelions are rich in iron, potash and phosphate; comfrey in nitrogen, potassium and potash; nettles supply iron and nitrogen and yarrow contains iron, potash, phosphate and nitrogen. Put these useful weeds on your compost heap and recycle the nutrients. Both nettles and comfrey make good compost activators and can be used to make excellent liquid feeds, either together or separately. Comfrey can also be used as a mulch, or in home-made potting compost. Clover is sometimes grown as a green manure crop and because it can fix nitrogen can increase the fertility of the soil when it is composted or is used as a mulch.

Many weeds can also be eaten. Dandelions can be made into wine and their leaves, which are rich in calcium, can be eaten in salads. Dandelion roots can be roasted and used as a substitute for coffee. Ground elder can be eaten like spinach, nettles made into soup or beer, field poppy seeds used to decorate bread, the fruit of brambles made into jam and fat hen used to be eaten as a vegetable.

Organic Weed Control

How much control you wish to exert over your weeds is really a matter of personal preference. If I haven't managed to convince you that weeds can be 'loveable' and your aim is to completely banish them from your garden, then you may find Raymond Poincelot's book 'Organic, No-dig, No-weed Gardening' useful, although to me his approach seems rather severe, involves quite a lot of weeding in the first year and relies on the use of black plastic for mulching. What ever you do, don't use weed killers, as they can be toxic to wildlife and are completely unnecessary.

The following non-toxic methods can all be used to keep weeds under control in the veganic garden:

Remove any weeds that you definately don't want in your garden, as quickly as possible and certainly before they flower and set seed.
Use a raised bed, no dig system. Digging the ground brings buried weeds seeds to the surface of the soil and the seeds will germinate as soon as they come in contact with the light.
Mulch the surface of your beds (using about 2-4" of an organic mulch). The mulch will exclude light from the soil. And no light, no weeds! Mulching also helps to retain moisture, protect against soil erosion, encourage earthworm activity, adds extra nutrients to the soil (if an organic mulch is used) and can keep crops clean and free of disease. (e.g. by putting straw underneath strawberries.) Unfortunately, mulching can sometimes attract slugs. Mulches which are suitable for use in the veganic garden include: straw, woodchips, leafmould, seaweed, old carpet (not foam-backed), black plastic, cardboard, newspaper (several layers thick, black and white only), compost, well-rotted lawn mowings, sawdust, wilted comfrey leaves, forest bark, shredded prunings and gravel. It is also possible to purchase a special paper mulch from the Organic Gardening Catalogue (address in mail order section) for Ł9.50/roll. Entirely biodegradable, this paper mulch gradually breaks down and is incorporated into the soil. Incidentally, they also sell a cocoa shell mulch which can deter slugs and many cats (Ł10.25/bag) and bags of composted bark for Ł7.95/bag.
Never leave the soil bare! This just encourages weeds. Plant green manure crops on any spare land. Most green manure plants compete well with weeds, except bitter lupin which is a poor weed suppressor. (For more information see Green Manure article.)
Use ground cover plants to suppress weeds. For example, clover can be grown underneath tall crops such as sweetcorn or Brussels sprouts, or plant courgettes and pumpkins underneath sweetcorn. Many herbs also make good ground cover plants. Grass can be used as ground cover underneath trees and shrubs.
Use crop rotation. This will supress weeds, as well as keeping disease under control. Alternate weed susceptible crops e.g. onions and root crops with weed suppressing crops, such as green manures, potatoes, pumkins, courgettes.
If you do have to remove weeds, then only use environmentally-friendly methods, such as hand weeding, hoeing (or use scrapper) and if necessary flame gunning.

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