Are weeds beneficial?

As we are fast approaching the height of the summer many of us are busy on their hands and knees, cursing what feels like a no-win situation against plants that are commonly referred to as weeds.

Many ask why do they exist? How do I eradicate them for good? Should I use herbicides? Sadly in a lot of cases it's more a question of "which herbicide should I use" rather than "should I use a herbicide". We have unfortunately moved more and more towards depending on herbicides for weed control rather than learning to be tuned in with nature, learning how to optimize soil health and using mulching methods and other beneficial growing methods to minimize potential plant diseases and excess appearance of misplaced plants (e.g. 'weeds').

Some of you might be interested in knowing that some weeds are actually extremely beneficial and could not only help to improve your health and wellbeing but also cut down on your food bill (especially during the summer months). If you visit a garden owned by a Herbalist you will most likely find that there is a patch in the garden where plants are allowed to grow wild and in many cases the whole garden is allowed to grow more or less wild. Some of the plants that are commonly referred to as 'weeds' include Horsetail (Equisetum arvense), Stinging nettles (Urtica dioica), Dandelions (Taraxacum officinale), Cleavers (Galium aparine), Chickweed (Stellaria media), Docks (Rumex crispus - Yellow dock) and Clover (Trifolium pratense - Red Clover) - just to name a few. All of these 'weeds' and many more are very commonly used by Medical Herbalists for various health complaints and for general wellbeing. These can all be included in cooking and salads (although stinging nettles need to be cooked and/or infused and roots need to be cooked and/or decocted (i.e. boiled in water)).

Correct identification and use of the correct part of the plant is essential and therefore I would advise anyone who is starting out to pick plants with someone who already knows how to identify them and/or to purchase a good book that is easy to look up, easy to take out with you to help identify the plants and has good pictures.

I will talk about individual weeds in more detail in future blogs,

Lara J.