Weeds are not always the enemy

Last year I couldn't grow watermelon to save my life, and this year I have a volunteer in a spot that hasn't had watermelon for 2 or 3 years. I was so excited.  I weeded the tall Johnson grass around it so it didn't complete for water and nutrients. Not considering the protection it was giving the watermelon plant. Now it looks very sad, and may not make it.  Sometimes I should learn to leave well enough alone.

I am so curious about the relationship between weeds and intended crop. I was watching a garden a couple of months ago that had a bunch of weeds, while I was spending an hour or more each day pulling weeds in a nearby garden. Though we were growing different things, I did wonder if I needed to be doing all that weeding when I would look at how good their crop looked without any weeding. And after a couple of months passed and their garden was overgrown with weeds, their crop still looked good.

I was also reading a post on here, where someone said they let the weeds grow and native plants came in, and after that the predatory insects got established who ate the pest insects. That really got my attention too.

Sometimes I want to give the desirable plant more access to the sun and my first thought is to pull the surrounding weeds, but I'm sure I've messed up the roots of the keeper plant. So now I like to just chop and drop the easy-to-reach part of the plant and let it grow more fertilizer for chopping again in three weeks.

I had something similar, Jen. Chopped and dropped (and pulled a few too) some thick and tall grassy weeds, and the plants in amongst them that I wanted to keep looked very sad and droopy and lost sunburned leaves within days. It hadn't occured to me that they needed the shade and extra humidity the weeds provided.

Yeka Sorokina wrote:I was spending an hour or more each day pulling weeds in a nearby garden. Though we were growing different things, I did wonder if I needed to be doing all that weeding  

If a person chop and drops those weeds instead of pulling them the nutrients in the weeds will go back into the soil and add much needed mulch at the same time.

That mulch potentially might suppress future weeds.

I agree with the concept, this is great to share our experiences with "weeds".

I planted 11 white pines a few years back, the only 2 that survived were practically forgetten about by me, and during some cleanup of a very weedy area, found them still living under the shelter and company of tall weeds! I left those areas weedy and have since taken that same approach in the orchard I'm slowly establishing.

A twice yearly light hand clearing, especially of grasses, then using that to mulch around desired trees seems beneficial.

"Weeds are not always the enemy" -- YET!

A long while ago I had a great harvest in a situation with extreme heat and drought; because chickweed flourished and provided shade and held moisture. And I was busy and let it go.

Next year, chickweed thought it owned the place. I still like chickweed, but I know its nature. "Give a thief your finger and he will take your hand." Watch your alliances for treachery!

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:"Weeds are not always the enemy" -- YET!

A long while ago I had a great harvest in a situation with extreme heat and drought; because chickweed flourished and provided shade and held moisture. And I was busy and let it go.

Next year, chickweed thought it owned the place. I still like chickweed, but I know its nature. "Give a thief your finger and he will take your hand." Watch your alliances for treachery!

I love chickweed. It's low, shallow roots, and dies a natural death in the hot summer. I let it go wild this spring, just cleared off the hills where I planted corn. Where the chickweed was left growing, hardly any other weeds grew. I think it protects the soil and eventually adds nutrients when it dies.

This year I am letting a lot of low 'weeds' grow between the rows. Dandelions, clovers, chickweed. I suspect they will take away some nitrogen this year, but in coming years will become a net gain. I even scattered some trefoil seed today on some bare ground. Definitely going to work on getting that established.

This year I tried to chose my weeds.
Ive under sown many beds with legumes and few with turnips or radish.
The leguems are doing the best, maybe becuse they have larger seeds that has more initial energy to start with.
I also grew spring peas in these beds as a green manure/soil conditioner.
The peas nicly self terminated as the weather got hot and I left them in the beds.
Im hoping some will come back from seed next year.

I've learnt so far that if the plant I'm aiming to grow doesn't need lots of sun it can do fine with volunteer plant friends.  But if it does need lots of sun then taller, faster growing surprises can keep it from growing.  Case in point, my first attempt at cucumbers failed because the amaranth/pigweed grew faster and so the baby cucumber plants got no sun and died.  My second attempt at cucumbers appears to not have taken, probably a couple o dud seeds, since I made sure these guys had sun.  So no cucumbers (yet)?  But some good salad greens instead.  I try to be flexible about my plants and enjoy whatever happens.