How to Encourage Good Weeds in Your Garden

Wonderful weeds are simply plants that pop up in your garden by themselves. Whether Mother Nature plants them or they grow on their own as a result of your having introduced them in the past, these plants are very low maintenance. If a plant like basil drops its seeds on the ground and if the conditions are right, it will thrive without you doing a thing. Even some plants commonly considered weeds can have their value in your landscaping--once you know what they are, perhaps you’ll learn to like them and decide not to pull them out.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Herb and flower seeds or plants
• Garden space
• Trowel

1. Choose seeds or plants that quickly produce seeds or that spread by runners, such as basil, dill, lemon balm and mint.

2. Scatter your wonderful weed plants throughout your garden. When they re-seed themselves, they will grow “here and there,” so banish the idea of having a garden with tidy rows.

3. With a trowel, dig holes that are large enough for the size of the plants you are introducing.

4. Plant your young plants in the holes you have made, and then fill with soil and gently press it down around the base.

5. Do not deadhead (cut off spent flowers) when your “wonderful weeds” go to seed. Instead, allow them to drop their seeds onto the ground around them.

6. In time, you will begin to recognize the babies of your plants, especially if you have started them from seed originally and remember what the “cotyledon,” or first young leaves, looked like.

7. Let your volunteer plants flourish--they will probably do better than the parent plant.

Tips & Warnings

• Many plants that are considered weeds are native to the area where you live. Some of these can have culinary or medicinal value, so do your homework and learn about them before you weed them out.
• If you start with seeds, sometimes it’s wise to sow them in pots or flats in order to give them a head start and protect them against chewing insects and other pests.
• Many herbs and native plants require no fertilizer or additional water, since they are often considered weeds.
• Avoid hybridized varieties of plants you want to have naturalize in your garden because they might not reproduce “true to type.” Always select “heirloom” or traditional varieties of plants whose seeds you want to collect or allow to drop and grow on their own.