Weeds are plants growing in the wrong place, or at least where we don’t want them to grow. After all weeds don’t exist without humans. We determine when a plant is a weed because we view them negatively rather than see their beauty or positive attributes. Usually wild flowers are called weeds when they grow in our gardens but it is possible for cultivated plants to become a nuisance and therefore a weed too.
I am often asked “Is this a weed?” I answer with the plants name and supply information on their growing habits together with their positive attributes (and any negative ones). For example, Dandelions (Taraxacum officinale) unwanted in immaculate lawns are great for early foraging bees (when there aren’t many other flowers about). Euphorbia characias subsp. wulfenii however is bought from garden centres and then freely self seeds where you don’t want it to. Then there are some Marmite plants like Forget-me-nots (Myosotis arvensis) that split opinion and therefore allowed in some gardens but not others.
Historically, some plants regarded as a nuisance now weren’t always disliked. They once had medical, culinary, cosmetic uses or were used as dyes; uses that now are not commonly known. What have the Romans done for us? Add bringing Ground elder (Aegopodium podagraria) to Britain to the list. Once used by the Romans as a herb and medicine (see Alys Fowler’s Guardian article).
I love wild flowers and am happy to allow space for them in a wildlife garden. One wildflower I leave is Garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata) because it is eaten by Orange tip and Green-veined white caterpillars. Whilst nectar rich flowers are needed in gardens for butterflies, their caterpillars have specific plant requirements without which you won’t get more adults.
So when did our obsession for weeding begin? There is an fascinating extract from ‘The Climate Change Garden’ by Sally Morgan and Kim Stoddart.
‘much of what we consider traditional advice nowadays is based on the comparatively recent practices of Victorian country houses… Prior to this very controlled Victorian approach, in which outside spaces were kept meticulously tidy, the gardens of everyday working folk (aka peasants) exhibited a more free-spirited, practically-minded ethos. Their gardens had a much more ‘higgledy piggledy’ planting of crops, flowers and weeds, many of which were important for both their culinary and medicinal uses in the home.’ p116
So it’s something else the Victorians invented.
I find the subject of ‘weeds’ fascinating. Four wonderful books on the subject that I’ve read recently are,
1. ‘Weeds’ by Nina Edwards
2. ‘Weeds’ by Richard Mabey (For historical and cultural information.)
3. ‘Wild about Weeds; Garden Design with Rebel Plants’ by Jack Wallington (Which shows how to incorporate ‘weeds’ into garden design.)
4. ‘The Climate Change Garden’ mentioned above. It has a chapter entitled ‘Working with Wildlife’ (about wildlife gardening) as well as other chapters on how to adapt garden practices to future proof against long-term changes in climate, from flooding or drought to the importance of trees in combating climate change.
Reading these books will give you a different perspective on ‘weeds’.
-Grey Spotted Amanita
Bee in the Moment 