What can take care of itself and thrive regardless of surrounding "weeds"?

Hey all! I'm looking for suggestions for herbs/flowers that are edible/medicinal/tea/etc, (ie: useful to humans) that I can plant from seed, directly in questionable soil this spring after I dig up as much goldenrod, grass, etc as I can (the "weeds"). The picture shows the general area. No berries or actual food, because deer will walk right past it and bear are in the general area (my kitchen garden will be elsewhere, fenced). Basically I want to start an herb garden type of area in a place I cannot tend much (yet; I don't live there yet, lol), so it needs to take care of itself.
- border of zone 5/6, NY
- full sun
- I will not be testing or amending the soil at this point. I just want to desperately grow something useful, lol.
- not mint because my husband fears it spreading, so that will be somewhere else.
Sounds impossible, BUT we have been making headway removing goldenrod & grass in another area and I discovered mullein, which is doing just that: growing with zero care, regardless of what's around it! I watered it once and I think I heard it whisper in an Arnold Schwarzenegger voice, "Don't bother. I don't need you. You need me." and it just GREW!
I am now in love with mullein, and I need more things like that in my life right now!
It doesn't have to reach maturity or be productive this year; I have time & patience. I just reeeeeally want to see something in that area that I LIKE, and once I can be there more often I can get more particular and plant other things around it, beyond it, or whatever.

PS - I am not too concerned about planning it precisely because there are literally acres & acres of goldenrod & grasses. I just mentally and physically need to claim a small part of it and see something else!! thanks!

many useful and medicinal herbs are actually vigorous meadow plants and fully able to compete with things like grass and goldenrod when they are established.  The challenge is getting them established.  Try to start with large pots, or divisions from well established plants....and get out there and plant them as early as you can so they have a chance to settle in while the weather is still cool and moist.  Thinking things like yarrow, tansy, motherwort, mugwort, monardas, elecampane, evening primrose, agastache, lemon balm, self heal, milkweeds, althaea, echinacea, fennel, for instance, and also Jerusalem artichoke which you plant from a tuber (provided that is that you actually like to eat them!)  Many of these plants can become weedy in their own right so they are best in a semi-wild situation like this rather than being expected to stay in their lanes in an orderly and manicured garden.  Enjoy the journey of discovery!

Comfrey

Lovage is good at holding its own and is not very invasive. It spreads slowly so it's easy to control but it keeps what territory it takes until you dig the roots. ( which you can eat as well)
Fennel, sage and thyme can all do well too but they are not quite as good about blocking out the weeds. They should live, but you might need to weed around them a bit eventually.

I know nothing about growing in NY though my suggestion would be rosemary ...

Alder Burns wrote:many useful and medicinal herbs are actually vigorous meadow plants and fully able to compete with things like grass and goldenrod when they are established.  The challenge is getting them established.  Try to start with large pots, or divisions from well established plants....and get out there and plant them as early as you can so they have a chance to settle in while the weather is still cool and moist.  Thinking things like yarrow, tansy, motherwort, mugwort, monardas, elecampane, evening primrose, agastache, lemon balm, self heal, milkweeds, althaea, echinacea, fennel, for instance, and also Jerusalem artichoke which you plant from a tuber (provided that is that you actually like to eat them!)  Many of these plants can become weedy in their own right so they are best in a semi-wild situation like this rather than being expected to stay in their lanes in an orderly and manicured garden.  Enjoy the journey of discovery!

Wow, thank you so much! That really gives me hope, to know that so many plants can compete with grasses & goldenrod (with a little help). I'm about to start looking up your list. Milkweed is already doing well up in a few patches up there, and last fall I harvested a baggie full of seeds to share or in case I want to add more somewhere else. I don't know yet if I like Jerusalem artichoke. I don't know anyone who has it, so...? I'll put that one off a while. And lemon balm! Duh, I should've thought of that! I had it at my last apartment in a pot and it found its way to my stone driveway, lol! It kept coming back even when people tromped it into the sharp blue stones. I have my own seeds from that; I forgot!

Ok, I'm getting excited now. And thanks for the terms I never though of like "meadow plants"; I never thought of our weedy fields as meadows, lol, but that is SUCH a nicer word! And semi-wild; yes, that's what I'm going for. Just enough input to get things started, and maybe guide enough so I can walk amongst things as needed. Let them create the design.

Thank you to the other 3 respondents, I will put yours on my list of things to look up, too, and I will gladly hear more!

Asparagus, rhubarb, bee balm, catnip (any of the mint family, really), horse radish, strawberries, rasp and blackberries.

My coworker a has family land over run with unwanted foliage, and needed useful plants that would fight back.
So I just gave her a bucket of roots that included Jerusalem Artichokes, Comfrey and Day Lily.
I warned her that each of them would grow where she planted them for the foreseeable future.
Compared to the English Ivy and honeysuckle, any of the 3 would be a treat.

Probably too late for this year, but I've found Angelica amazingly good at outcompeting grasses here. It grows from seed (and will self seed) but it reasonably easy to pull up. I've been planting it in my experimental polycultures area. Unfortunately my husband doesn't like it at all so I don't use it much (easy to candy for cake decoration). It dies after flowering in the secnd year - the large umbel flowers are excellent for beneficial insects like hoverflies.
I've attached a photo from the spring - Angelica shooting up on the right, camas is the big grassy looking stuff on the left.

I'm hoping that after the Angelica I will get more useful plants....mostly grass and narrow leaved plantain at the moment.

How about horseradish? Some animals might nibble very young shoots (our plants were eaten down this spring, I suspect the deer) but they are vigorous enough to keep growing anyway. If they like your place, they might expand and possibly compete with the "weeds", although the American goldenrod species do seem to be very tough...

Have you considered choosing a part of the land and putting in tree seeds? I don't know your ecosystem well, but I'd consider Oak, Chestnut, Hazelnut, Sugar Maple any fruit trees considered naturalized to the area, any trees that make good coppiced building material, possibly some trees that have medicinal value like Ginkgo biloba.

Consider where you might at some point need wind protection, or "snow fencing" (nothing like natural plants doing that job,) and stick seeds in the ground in a wide swath. If you can get seeds cheap or free (just look around neighborhoods for the trees doing their thing and ask permission to collect the seeds), plant plenty and hope that some survive.

Nancy mentioned Camas which is an edible bulb, and there may be more spring bulbs that have varieties that are edible and capable of out competing grasses in the right location.  

This sounds like a great project - hopefully you will post updates and pictures as you go along.

Try growing lupins, shasta daisies, echinacea, and black eyed susans.  I'm doing this in my acre to make the view stunning and they are easy to do.  I started some in small pots and I seeded some in late fall by tossing seeds on to bits of earth that was visible.  The lupins have come up easily fighting for space.  The others didn't germinate as well but I'm put in my potted plants and they are doing fine.  All of them spread by seed.  I know the deer wont eat them.  This fall I'm going to try poppies, bachelore buttons, and annual chrysanthemums.  I don't know if the deer will eat them.  They have eaten all my hosta, day lillies, and all the heads off my  calendulas.  I plant corn and other things like peas and pole beans far from my "garden".  I plant all the extra fruit and veg with the corn.  
Herbs are useful weeds.  Most of them will work in your field.  Put your invasive herbs in large pots {childrens wading pools with holes drilled in the bottom will hold a lot of plants.}
Good luck.

Hello Kim and everyone else.
The editing of your photograph with the blue squiggles is right up my street!!! Love it.
I avoid photos as much as poss.
Thank you forthe link from the pollinators post to here.

Enjoy your wonderful land even if at a distance.
You know that it is there, you can imagine and dream, take your time.
It may avoid repenting at leisure, is it more speed less haste?
Goldenrod can be useful in some circumstances.
It’s not local so don’t know much about its herbal uses
I’m pleased that there were challenges when I arrived here some time ago, which prevented me from charging in.
I do occasionally charge.

The idea of introducing some trees is attractive; just lob in some pips and stones and let them get on with it.

As always, looking forward to interesting and mind broadening reads from all over the place. It’s glorious.

Blessings and more blessings and thanks to all
M-H