Forum home› Plants
This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.

What ‘weeds’ do you keep?

NotyalcaNotyalca Posts: 134
in Plants
I’m a believer that a ‘weed’ is just a plant growing in an unwanted place.  
I know there are very invasive and problem plants which I think are best to get rid of unless you love them I suppose and can keep them under control. 

I have 2 new flower beds and I had just planted some small plants in, and had a few seedling coming up. I have spent a lot of time on it growing everything from seed..  My in laws came round and my father in law just disappeared into the garden and I found him digging over my garden saying I had loads of weeds.  (Words cannot begin to describe how angry I was). There were a handful of ‘weeds’ but until I was sure it wasn’t the plants I had grown from seed, I was leaving them be.   So because he turned my flower bed over I lost a lot in that patch... my poor plants,  this was weeks ago and now and I still can’t forget about it.  

And every time he comes round he points out that’s a weed just pulls stuff out. He also grabbed a shovel and scraped the moss out from between my flags before I could shout Noooo!  (It drives me absolutely bonkers and I’ve told him he’s not allowed to touch anything anymore) my garden is like my baby and I’m very protective haha.

I don’t like my garden to look too pristine, I love moss in the cracks in my flags and if a weed does come up and it looks nice, I leave it. I just think it adds to the charm of my garden. I want it to look wild but also well designed if you know what I mean. 

So it got got me thinking,  who gets rid of weeds? Do you keep any? And are there any you always get rid of no matter what? 

I get rid of nettles because of the kids so they don’t get stung, buttercups if they are getting too tangled around my existing plants.  I remove anything if it’s growing in my gravel, and anything that just looks out of place.  
«13

Posts

  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    The weeds I get rid of are easier to count: geum urbanum, michelmas daisies, buttercups, brambles, dandelion, Spanish bluebells and woundwort. That's about it really.
    My garden is a good 60% 'weeds'. I love seeing what pops up through the cracks in the paving slabs.
    You must have been devastated when you saw what he'd done, but I'm sure he thought he was doing you a good turn.
    Your 'weeds' will soon return. Never fear!
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • autumngloryautumnglory Posts: 255
    I'm the same, I like to give weeds a chance. I think paving looks better with weeds in the cracks. I have aubretia, thyme and liverwort growing in mine. I also have lots of self seeded stipa tenuissima, chives, nemesia and rose campion. 

    I do remove oxalis because it spreads too much. I also hate creeping buttercup because it's difficult to keep under control and it just takes over. 
  • JellyfireJellyfire Posts: 1,139
    Same here, pretty much all I get rid of are nettles, thistles, ground elder and the odd patch that is getting out of hand, and I love it 
  • nutcutletnutcutlet Posts: 27,445
    I prefer the term 'native plants' and grow as many as I can. Most of them are the food plant for something. I like to see wild and cultivated all mixed up together


    In the sticks near Peterborough
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    I pull out dandelions, herb robert, enchanter's nightshade, geum, bindweed, Spanish bluebells, bittercress and oxalis. The things I keep that some consider weeds or a PINA: celandine, FGMNs, woodruff, violets, ox eyes, penny wort, arum, clover, daisies, hypericum and comfrey.
    These run wild but I like them.
  • DampGardenManDampGardenMan Posts: 1,054
    Docks, brambles, Spanish bluebells, bindweed (if we had any!) and ground elder get pulled. Nearly everything else is left (although creeping buttercup is kept in check in certain beds).
  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    If it's in the flower beds or the veggie plot weeds come out - when I have time to blitz - but in the grass or the bits we haven't got to (and that's a lot) weeds get left for the insects and birds.   Lots of lovely hedgerows full of wildflowers round here too. 
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • micearguersmicearguers Posts: 646
    Some of the favourites that I keep: Vetch (Vica sativa), fumitory (Fumaria purpurea or perhaps muralis or yet another one), common daisy (Bellis perennis), white clover (Trifolium repens, in the lawn with the daisies) and a top favourite, ivy-leaved toadflax (Cymbalaria muralis). The latter arrived of its own accord. It's such a dainty delicate plant, it can hardly be called a weed. Vica has become a bit rampant this year, but it's easily controlled. A plant that in my garden became a weed that I remove is linaria purpurea. It seeded everywhere and each new seedling became a big sturdy plant flowering for months. Bluebells are another one. More commonly-known-as-weeds that I control are comfrey, celandine, oxalis corniculata. I love mosses too. Birds throw them off roofs sometimes, if I find a good chunk of moss on the pavement I take it home.
  • Paul B3Paul B3 Posts: 3,154
    I firmly believe my large garden is a balanced ecosystem ; apart from the odd greenfly on the roses I get no pests at all , (apart from the infernal Lily-Beetle) !
    My 100' central border contains Hostas , ferns of all species , unusual shrubs and trees and larger perennials . The most important things are my two 150' long hedges which border the garden on both sides ; these contain a bewildering assortment of native and exotic flora which I planted 35 years ago . The herbaceous 'weeds' and other things are left well alone ; every species (in my opinion) is a foodstuff for some creature which in turn feeds on something else ! 

    I encourage 'weeds',(or non-introduced plants) to grow in them , and am impressed by the species that have appeared over the years ; Lilium martagon and Phytolacca americana materialised several years ago !! Pentaglottis sempervirens (Alkanet) with its beautiful blue flowers , ( a pest in a herbaceous border) is left to grow undisturbed.
    I exclude Geum urbanum from my main borders but leave it to thrive (alongside the nettles) in my hedges . I draw the line at Ground Elder though !!!!
    My other perennial borders are kept clear of 'weeds' purely to reduce competition for moisture , as my soil is a moderately light neutral to acidic loam which needs all the water it can get in the summer .

    I think that an older mature garden (of which I am a temporary custodian) is a complex array of life-forms . Encouraging 'weeds' (to a certain degree) is to be admired , and can only be of benefit to wildlife in all its multitudinous array !!!
  • wild edgeswild edges Posts: 10,497
    My father in law is exactly the same. 'You want to get some weed and feed on that lawn' 'you need to get some poison down for those mice' 'you need to spray some roundup on that path'. 'why don't you get those weeds out of your stone wall' *yanks 'weed', pulls out a plug of alpines, 'oh that's why...'. I'm sure his heart is in the right place.

    I keep a patch or 2 of nettles as they're useful, dandelions are welcome in most areas, clover is actively encouraged, daisies and self heal have been a struggle but I think I've got them well established now, coltsfoot is a great plant and very underrated in my opinion, sorrel is tasty so that's always welcome, are teasels even a weed technically?

    Creeping buttercup is sadly too annoying to leave, I'd keep it just for the flowers but the stuff is like sand at the beach, it gets in everywhere.
    If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
Sign In or Register to comment.