Rick's previous post about dandelions serves as a great warm-up for this blog discussion about weeds. First of all, what exactly defines a weed? According to Merriam-Webster a weed is:
"a plant that is not valued where it is growing and is usually of vigorous growth; especially : one that tends to overgrow or choke out more desirable plants"
So, I guess the key phrase here is "not valued where it is growing and is usually of vigorous growth". Seriously, this can create numerous discussions in our gardens and household. I've never been highly opposed to weeds in the garden, but then I also don't have issue with picking up a piece of dropped food, blowing it off, and eating it....factors which both say something incredibly important about my mindset, I'm sure.
I really believe that weed hysteria probably came into vogue about the same time that monoculture row cropping hit its stride. Monoculture row cropping is how many of us plant our gardens, a solid straight row of one kind of crop, e.g. corn or peas or tomatoes, etc. If you like to plant your garden this way, then you probably enjoy the solid lines of nicely tilled black earth in between the solid rows of your favorite crop....which is precisely what we've been taught to do as gardeners for decades and decades, because if you want to run your tractor or tiller down the rows and clear the weeds, you need straight rows without anything criss-crossing in the tractor's way. And if you want to flood irrigate your field or garden, you need to be able to maintain those irrigation ditches running between the rows and keep them weed-free and free-flowing.
But what did the human race do before they had machines to help them till and turn the soil? Was it as necessary way back when to have weed-free straight rows of a single crop? The first example that comes to mind is the Native American three sisters garden. A typical three sisters garden lays out corn which is companion planted with both beans and squash. The corn shoots up first and then the beans germinate and gradually start to grow up the corn stalk, then the squash starts spreading across the ground under the corn and beans, shading the soil with its giant leaves and choking out the "weeds".
I have been planting a variation of the three sisters garden for a few years now with good success. What are the benefits?
- No trellising or poles required for the beans as they climb the corn.
- The beans add nitrogen to the soil which is usually depleted by the corn. Because the beans are so beneficial for the soil, at the end of the season the soil is in much better shape for the next year with minimal or no soil amenities needed in the same garden space.
- You plant the three types of seeds in each "hill" so when you water, you are watering three crops at once.
- As stated, the corn and the squash work together to shade the soil and we all know that weeds don't do as well where it's shady.
- Maximum usage of square footage! Each of these crops can be rather space intensive, but when they are all planted together, you get a lot of bang for the buck.
What are the drawbacks? No mechanized weeding or harvesting can be used, which sounds like a big ag problem, doesn't it? I was admittedly quite skeptical about harvesting a three sisters garden. I envisioned the bean picking being quite a laborious task since they would be wrapped about the corn stalks. And then you would have to be careful not to step on squash vines....but in reality it works out very nicely. What I like to do is plant either a soup bean or a bush bean (or both) at the base of the corn. My reasoning is that the climbing soup beans can stay in the garden until the entire plant is dried up, which happens about the same time the corn is finished growing and harvested. So you can either pick your sweet corn and then allow the corn stalks and soup beans to dry together and then harvest the beans or if you are growing dent or flint corn, the beans and corn will be ready to be picked about the same time. A bonus if you are growing bush green beans or snap beans is that you can pick the beans in the shade in the corn rows even on the warmest days. The squash just seem to take care of themselves underfoot and not really cause any issues, in my opinion.
As for weeding, yes, you just have to get in there and do it by hand. Again, an issue for the very large gardens/producers. But honestly, I learn more about the health of my garden by spending some up-close (or should I say down-close) time on my hands and knees pulling weeds, than I can in any other way. When you are forced to pull weeds one at a time, by hand, you start noticing things like how the soil smells, how much moisture is in the soil, what kinds of bugs and worms are living in the garden, whether there is any damage to the stems and roots of the garden plants, etc.
The three sisters garden is just one example of companion planting. My other gardens have combos of things like snow peas and radishes, cabbages and cucumbers, tomatoes and onions and basil or tomatoes and carrots and beets, sweet potatoes and peppers, garlic and potatoes. An internet search will reveal hundreds of combinations for companion planting, all allowing for more food production in less space.
Another newly popular concept based on an age-old technique is called permaculture design. In permaculture design you plant compatible plants to best utilize space and provide a maximum quantity of food while building healthy soil and land. Generally permaculture design courses focus a lot on perennials; however, annuals can also be worked into permaculture. In permaculture very little attention is given to mechanized weeding and harvesting while lots of attention is given to companion planting and water efficiency. We have known for a very, very long time that flood irrigation is the absolute least efficient use of water resources. Sprinkler irrigation ranks about second in inefficiency. Both flood and sprinkler irrigation methods lose a lot of water to evaporation with a small percentage of water getting deep to plant roots where needed.
I recently read an article entitled
"Listen to Your Weeds" and felt very validated about my weed beliefs. This article states that if you take the time to assess the weeds in your garden, you can learn quite a lot about your soil such as degree of compaction, alkalinity, and levels of nitrogen, phosphorous, etc.
Our gardens sit atop a very breezy ridge where transplant shock is just common place in the spring. No matter how well you "harden off" a pepper plant, it's going to go through a setback when it's put out into a garden where 35 mph winds are common. I have come to really appreciate the value of those early weeds that shoot up in the spring as they provide a buffer for my poor transplants....kind of a safety net around the baby peppers until they can take hold with stronger roots and stems at which time I go through and simply pull the weeds out of the way and lay them down as mulch at the base of the transplants.
And ultimately, when you are working in questionable soil, weeds can do wonders to put it right. Weeds will pull nutrients up to the top soil from deeper levels while, at the same time, sending out an undoubtedly fabulous network of roots which help to aerate the soil. Lateral-growing weeds also serve as a "cover crop" or "green manure" in many situations---cooling soil, avoiding erosion caused by bare soil, and then providing critical biomass when turned back into challenged soil. The key is just keeping the weeds from going to seed.
Often times when I finally get into a specific area of the garden to pull out thigh or waist-high weeds, I will find a myriad of beneficial insects have taken up housing in the weed patch, often times many kinds of beetles and spiders. Unwittingly I have created a beetle bank within the garden, harboring a safe place for beneficial beetles and spiders to live and reproduce so that they can go out and prey on garden pests that are not to my liking.
Having said all of this, sometimes the weeds can just get on my nerves, hence the following list.
Times when weeds start to bother me:
- when they slow down the actual harvest process, e.g. trimming salad greens and needing to spend more time picking out grass and weeds than actually cutting the greens
- when it's obvious that the "chosen" crop (or maybe I should say "cash crop") is not prospering because of said weed, e.g. when bindweed slows growth of another plant by wrapping around it and choking it down (but pay close attention to what that bindweed is telling you about your soil!)
- when the weeds are so tall that I simply cannot see the cash crop anymore ALTHOUGH often times once I do get in there and clear the path to the cash crop, those veggies look spectacular! Plants sitting in a somewhat shady spot, cool roots, no wind.....life was good for them!
- thistles--ouch! I never like thistles in the gardens, maybe because I frequently like to harvest bare-handed and wearing flip-flops.
Once I do get into a garden to do some serious weeding I know the next step will be to lay down mulch to keep the soil covered and retain soil moisture. Often times the pulled weeds themselves can be laid right down as a mulch in addition to grass clippings and rotted hay.
So, don't fret about weeds. If you want a clean garden, then by all means keep those weeds pulled, but first make an assessment of what kinds of weeds are growing and try to determine WHY they are in the garden. The weeds might be able to tell you something very important about your garden's health.
Michelle Grosek
Michelle@Bear Butte Gardens.com
www.BearButteGardens.com
