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Author Topic: What makes a weed a weed?  (Read 3986 times)

Bionic

  • Joined Dec 2010
  • Talley, Carmarthenshire
What makes a weed a weed?
« on: May 16, 2012, 05:06:58 pm »
Many of the weeds are now in flower. There are of course the usual suspects like dandelion, buttercup, daisy etc but there are some other very pretty ones too like campion and others in the hedgerow that I don't know the names of.

Why do we choose to plant some flowers in the garden yet call others weeds and get rid of them?

Sally
Life is like a bowl of cherries, mostly yummy but some dodgy bits

Mel Rice

  • Joined Sep 2011
Re: What makes a weed a weed?
« Reply #1 on: May 16, 2012, 05:09:11 pm »
I like the description of weed as....plants that are growing in the wrong place....It fits everything I even like to look at fields of buttercups AS LONG AS ITS NOT MY FIELD!!!!!

jaykay

  • Joined Aug 2012
  • Cumbria/N Yorks border
Re: What makes a weed a weed?
« Reply #2 on: May 16, 2012, 05:50:59 pm »
I think basically a weed is over-enthusiastic and doesn't know when enough is enough  ;)

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: What makes a weed a weed?
« Reply #3 on: May 17, 2012, 01:28:53 am »
I think basically a weed is over-enthusiastic and doesn't know when enough is enough  ;)
I thought he was called Skye?  ;)   :love: :dog:
Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: What makes a weed a weed?
« Reply #4 on: May 17, 2012, 01:37:00 am »
On topic, many years ago, where I lived with then-hubby had a beautiful cobbled stableyard.  Many teeny weeds grew in amongst the cobblestones, which I thought gave a beautiful multi-coloured softening effect.  However, hubby wanted to see the cobbles, and wanted to decimate the weeds - but neither of us wanted to use noxious chemicals.

I tried the flame-thrower, hand-weeding, mulch-mats, to no avail.  (Scorched no longer beautiful multi-coloured - but still not clear cobbles; hand-weeding worked, of course, but took an hour per half square metre, and needed repeating about once every three weeks - there weren't enough of us, plus we had jobs!; matting much more unpleasant to look at than the weeds, which regrew within weeks when the mat was removed.)

At a gardening show I asked the ladies on the HDRA (now Garden Organic) stand for their advice.  "Simple." they said.  "Change the hubby." 

Turned out, they were right!   :D
Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

Beewyched

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • South Wales
    • tunkeyherd.co.uk
Re: What makes a weed a weed?
« Reply #5 on: May 17, 2012, 02:19:04 am »
Give the seedlings a gentle tug - if they stay put, they're weeds, if they pull away easily, you've just killed next months veg  ::) :D :D :D
Tunkey Herd - registered Kune Kune & rare breed poultry - www.tunkeyherdkunekune.com

omnipeasant

  • Joined May 2012
  • Llangurig , Mid Wales
Re: What makes a weed a weed?
« Reply #6 on: June 09, 2012, 12:33:39 pm »
I loved some of these replies. Personally I like weeds as long as they don't get out of hand. After enjoying the flowers amd the insects they attract I feed the dandelions to my piglets. most are opicked before they seed. Now surely that is changing the weed into a crop! Some of my docks are left to seed because the bullfinches and the goldfinches love them.


dizzy1pig

  • Joined Jan 2010
  • Leuchars, Fife
Re: What makes a weed a weed?
« Reply #7 on: June 09, 2012, 12:52:17 pm »
A weed is a plant in the wrong place.
 
its as simple as that... tulips in the tatties... weeds or cauli in flowering border weed
 
 

 

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