Weeds

The following is an editorial written by me. It was originally posted as a two part article on weeds with my friend Paula McLean. I'll post a link sometime soon.

If the term weed is purely subjective and describes a plant that is considered to be a nuisance, then perhaps we, as humans, need to change our perspective on weeds.

Weeds are hearty plants. They pioneer disturbed environments. They protect against erosion. They feed wildlife. They even cure disease.

In our ongoing endeavor to control our environment, it seems humans try to obliterate anything just a tad bit unruly. If it can’t be easily controlled, then it is a nuisance. That is a scary thought to me. Does every yard have to look like everyone else's? Nice little plants in their nice little spots doing exactly what they are supposed to do.

Many of my neighbor’s yards are all the same dark shade of chemical green. They have very few birds who frequent their property because their chemically treated ground provides no insects for the birds to eat. The plants they have selected for their yards don’t self-seed (easily controlled), so they don’t provide a food source for wildlife either.

I once gave a nature journaling assignment to my students. They were to spend 30 minutes each day outside and write about what they observed. I had one student who wrote that he was bored because the only living things he observed on these outings were golfers on the golf course adjacent to his yard.

Our 1.3 acre property, on the other hand, is a proliferation of plants, beneficial insects, and wildlife. We’ve seen over 30 species of birds and at least 7 species of toads and frogs. With plenty of food sources and roaming room to go around, even the nuisance animals are more joy than problem. Rabbits come to our back door to munch on clover. A groundhog lives under my art studio and loves to scamper up and down the fallen tree trunks near the stream. Deer follow the stream during migration times on their way to the meadow behind our house. Raccoons play on the rocks in our backyard, swim across our little pond, and sometimes eat a fish or two. The fish spawn annually and seem to refill the pond with generation after generation of goldfish while our one large koi keeps watch over them.

Wild violet, wild geranium, cocklebur, rabbit tobacco, dandelion, pokeweed, mullein, red clover, St. John’s Wort, jewelweed, cleavers, and chickweed can all be found on our property…and yes, they are all considered weeds. They are all also medicinal plants with value greater than just their beauty (and they are all beautiful too).

As long as humans have cultivated plants, weeds have been a problem. What about before humans cultivated plants? Do we really have to have control over our surroundings? Isn’t control just an illusion anyway?

Let's see...what is the opposite of manicured, orderly, cultivated? Full, boisterous, wild?! That's just fine with me. At first look our property may seem unkempt, but if one looks more closely (and through new eyes) one can see a most beautiful landscape.