Don't Kill the Weeds in your Garden --- USE THEM!

Warning.... 

This is not another blog about the medicinal properties of dandelions and plantains. If you're reading this you likely know all that stuff already. 

This is completely new and different. 

Introduction:

Weeds! 

Gardeners hate them. 

They pull them, 

dig them, 

poison them, 

chop them, 

they want them OUT of their garden. 

But more than once I've observed something that makes me wonder if these corporations that sell weed killing chemicals and gadgets are telling us how terrible weeds are in order to sell you their  weed killing chemicals and gadgets. 

Maybe, just maybe, weeds are actually our friends? 

Read on..... 

The Discovery:

So we're out in our field, checking out the plants that we'd planted the season before, only to find  - or NOT find - a lot of our plants.

No, they didn't get eaten. They didn't die. They didn't grow legs and run away. They were buried in weeds. Tall weeds! Weeds taller than us!

We live (rent) an hour from Soulstice Homestead, so we don't currently get to work out there more than the occasional Sunday we have free. So when we're there, we focus first on planting long-term perennials like fruit trees, nut trees and berry bushes and pollinator attractors. But it's tough to keep on top of the progress of our plantings when there can sometimes be a few weeks between visits.

So, like I said, we're out in our field, checking out the plants we'd planted the season before, and Andrea's like "Hey. I think we're missing some blueberry plants". We looked through the weeds where we thought they were planted, but yeah, it looked like we were short a couple. We assumed maybe they'd gotten eaten by deer or something.

So a couple weeks later we went back to that blueberry patch to add some coffee grounds we'd snagged from a local Starbucks and while clearing out more weeds, we saw another blueberry plant. Only this one was greener, brighter, bigger and healthier than the ones we'd uncovered the previous visit. Then as we uncovered another, we saw that it was healthier looking too!

Another weekend we dug through some 7ft high Johnson grass and thistle where we had planted some roses and, thinking they were probably overrun, found that they, too, were really surprisingly healthy!

This sparked a theory... 

• Maybe, the weeds actually created an environment that both protected and fed the blueberry and rose plants.
• Maybe, uncovering the other blueberry plants exposed them to pests and the elements - like too much sun and too much wind, telling the deer "Hey, look at us! We look all different from everything else why don't you come over here and eat us!"
• Maybe, being covered in weeds might still let in enough sunlight to allow for photosynthesis.
• Maybe, the canopy of weeds created a little ecosystem that kept the plants from overheating, despite the 90°+, and held in moisture.
• Maybe the roots of the weeds perpetuated the microbial activity that were already established there, and maybe that microbial activity welcomed the new blueberries and roses into their ecosystem.
• Ever notice when you stick your face in the weeds how nice it smells? All rich and "green" and planty like? Maybe the air given off by the other plants feeds the plants around it. 

The weeds weren't special -- Johnson grass, goldenrod, wild blackberry, wild grape, honeysuckle, thistle. These have been there since we bought the place and I'm sure they were there for years before that. The soil is horrible... hard, dry clay, hardly any critters living in it and barely half an inch of humus. But these weeds seem to thrive just fine in it. 

Weeds and grasses are like bandaids for damaged land. They get their roots in as best they can and start to create some rudimentary bio system as a base on which to build more lush plant life. And the more plants cover a land, the richer it becomes, each year dropping more leaves and biological material that break down, feed bugs and worms, and feed the next year's growth.

When we observe how something works in our environment, we want to try to understand why it works, then apply those principles to our overall design. 

This is how permaculture works.

The Test:

We live (rent) an hour away from our land, on a lot which is completely shaded by the neighbor's giant pine trees. So we found another way to garden this year. We were loaned a small space at a good friend's house close to where we rent. They plowed and tossed in a little composted horse manure for us, and that's what we had to work with. The soil itself wasn't very rich or dark, but the manure gave it potential.

I'd recently seen Geoff Lawton's Instant Garden Video this spring (thank you for that, Geoff!) and we borrowed his concept to do the following...

1. Planted some tomatoes, peppers, tomatillos, melons and some brussel sprouts
2. Laid down some old, wet, kinda rotten cardboard around the plants
3. Tossed on a thick layer of straw from the goats' stall - so it had goat pellets and pee in it but had had time to compost a bit.
4. Watered the heck out of them.
5. A couple weeks later we planted basil between the tomatoes and peppers.

A little backwards from the way Geoff did it, but we were in a hurry and the plants actually went in a few days before the cardboard.

Adding the straw

Despite the cardboard and straw barrier, a lot of weeds still worked their way out, but not before the garden had time to grow first. So the weeds took a while before they began to outgrow the plants. 

By the time the weeds started to catch up to the plants, I could go through and pick out the strangly viney stuff (bindweed) that was trying to cling to the tomatoes, and clip down some fast growing grasses to create more soil coverage and worm food. 

As the weeds started to appear to take over the garden, I Peered between them to locate my plantings, and selectively I would observe how each plant was being affected by its surrounding weeds. 

And it was really interesting! 

I observed that some really tall weeds with sturdy stalks were holding up the tomato plants and the sugar baby watermelons. 

I saw that there were Japanese beetles that were eating... not our tomatoes and peppers and basil... but the adjacent weeds, ignoring our plants like they were nasty tasting or something.  

Japanese beetle in the center.
Pepper plant on the bottom

I noticed deep down that, despite the heat and lack of rain the past few days, the ground, and the air inside the weeds was still moist and rich and fragrant. 

And our plants were doing just fine! 

Once the weeds got taller than the plants, I trimmed down the weeds that blocked the sun from individual plants, just those  on the south side of each plant, and only maybe halfway down, so the sun shown through onto our plants. The lower half of the weeds still supported the mini atmosphere they were creating near the ground.

I'd trim away the bindweed that tried to wrap itself around our plants, but I'd leave them alone if they were entwined around the weeds because they formed a reinforcing weave that made the surrounding weeds more sturdy, so they would better support our plants. 

And support they needed! Our tomatoes produced so much they were toppling their cages and I couldn't keep them upright. I had to slip rocks and pavers under the tomatoes whose branches were interwoven at ground level so they wouldn't rot. I propped other tomato plants up against the more rigid weeds and wound them around them for extra support. 

Our plants produced a LOT of food... As much if not more than the laborious traditional method of gardening.

Hunting for the food among the weeds was like a treasure hunt

Conclusion:

This experiment worked better than I had hoped, and I learned a lot from it. My goal was to mimic the lush environment of a thick field of weeds and work with the native ecosystem rather than try to dominate and suppress it. 

One of the founding fathers of permaculture, Bill Mollison, felt that gardens should mimic the natural environment, and I'd always felt that way too, which I guess is what drew me to this philosophy. 

This successful trial showed me up close how plants can support each other. When you walk up to the garden from outside the fence, it looks like an old abandoned weed patch. That alone protects the plants from passing deer. 

Our garden... looking like a weed patch

The distraction of all the other weeds act as food for rabbits and chipmunks and other animals that would normally be devouring garden plants that were laid out in +in a traditional bare rowed garden. In return, they poop in the soil, contributing nutrients as a sort of payment for the meal. 

Actually the only vegetables that got eaten by critters other than us were on the perimeter of the garden...except the brussel sprouts...which suggests that this method may not work the same for all plants. However, I know of some more traditional gardeners whose brussel sprouts were also attacked. (see fix below)

The rich and fragrant air when you put your face down into the weeds suggests to me that the soil is like a small rainforest during hot summer days. Compare that to a bare rowed traditional garden on the same day who's parched dirt would be begging to be watered. 

And mind you I had never watered this garden at all this summer, aside from the very first planting and covering it all with cardboard and straw when the weeds were covered and things were initially pretty exposed to the elements. (see fix below) 

In fact, aside from cutting back weeds maybe 3 times all summer, this was a remarkably maintenance free garden. 

Mistakes:

So yeah I made a few.. . 

I didn't use strong enough tomato cages. 

I didn't anticipate so much food production so some of it ended up rotting in the straw. 

I didn't create supports ahead of time for the vining plants, although some used the surrounding fence for support. 

I wasn't there to watch my brussel sprouts that got eaten early by something. But I did take photos and researched what it was and their lifecycle so maybe next year I can prepare better for them. 

What I'll do next year :

• To start, I'll lay the cardboard, etc. more like Geoff does it in his videos. I failed to add table scraps under the cardboard this time. I think they would have better fed the worms and created a richer soil. I'd also plant after the cardboard is laid... cutting holes in it to plant. 
• I'd water the soil before I laid the cardboard. I think the cardboard and mulch sucked up a lot of the water from the soil and the plants never got the advantage of getting soaked first. 
• I'd wet the cardboard first so it's wet on both sides all the way through before I lay it down. I think in some areas it wasn't fully saturated and puckered up in the beginning when it didn't rain for a few days. 
• I'd mulch with leaves as well as straw. I recently learned that straw can dry out soil, or at least not hold in moisture as well. Leaves break down better than straw, and I believe would nourish the soil faster. 
• So my real goal is to make this garden as corporate free, maintenance free and as commercial free, as I can. Note all the sticks sticking out between the plants. Those have the plant names on them. Tomato cages are nice, if Better Homes and Gardens plans on stopping by and using your tomatoes to sell their magazine. But I think I'll pass on the cages altogether next year. 
• Instead, after I lay down the cardboard, leaves and straw, I'd toss a thick (at least 6") layer of medium size branches all over the garden. By medium size I mean maybe anywhere from 1/8" to 1/2" thick, 1 to 3 ft long, and I would lay a blanket of them. This would create a support for the tomatoes and melons that wouldn't get "knocked down" by the wind, and would keep the fruiting bodies off the soil, high and dry, but still protected by the lush environment of the weeds' nurturing ecosystem. So it would be OK if the tomatoes grew on the ground, because there'd still be air under them and they'd be less likely to rot. One thing that was a little frustrating was that there'd be many big juicy tomatoes lying on the ground but I couldn't lift the branches up without breaking them. This would make supporting them unnecessary. 
• An added benefit to the branches would be the mycological environment it would create. It's only recently that we've discovered the intimate relationships between mushrooms and plants, and I think the sticks settling into the moist environment of the weeds would promote fungal growth rapidly. 
• I'd cut the weeds down more after the veggies started to ripen to release some of the moisture. Too much moisture might promote rot.