By: Misty Murph'Ariens

If I were a plant, I'd be a weed.  Weeds get a bad rap because no matter how bad the conditions they are in, no matter how little space they have or how much they get cut down and trampled, they thrive.  They take whatever they are given and they work with it.  Weeds bother some people because they don't need to be planted, watered, trellised or otherwise pampered.  They don't like these plants because they are just plain indefatigable.  They just chug on, doing what they do, silently and thanklessly providing habitat, cleaning water, and improving the soil.  In permaculture, we refer to 'weeds' as 'pioneers'.  This is because the ecological function of most of those plants loathed by conventional gardeners and lawn enthusiasts alike is to pioneer new ground—to take soil that is so poor, compacted, acid or alkaline and make it rich with fertility, loose and neutral, for the more finicky plants to grow in.  And amazingly, when this job is done, they fade off into the subsoil.  That's right, in most cases these plants have copious seeds in the soil year after year, but after the soil becomes wonderfully lush and hospitable to other plants, these seeds lay dormant until the soil is once again disturbed (more often than not, due to human activities).  That's why most of what we call 'weeds' grow in waste places and along roadsides.  In fact, it is most often the efforts to eliminate weeds that makes them keep showing up!  An amazing upshot of their role as pioneers is that, in accumulating minerals, they tend to be especially healthful, many having compounds for their own defences that are highly medicinal.  For instance, dandelion is revered by the Mediterraneans as a tonic in the spring.  They eat the leaves (high in antioxidants, folate and iron), and they make wine, tea and jelly from the flowers.  What most people don't know is that the starchy taproot, (aside from breaking up tough clay, accumulating minerals in the topsoil, and leaving nutrient rich food deep in the soil for worms), are chock full of the prebiotic fibre inulin.   For those who don't know, prebiotic fibre is to plants what stem cells are to people, they stimulate beneficial cellular growth and repair.  Oh, burdock and chicory root are full of that good stuff too.  (Plus, if you chop the root up, roast it and grind it, it makes a caffeine-free coffee substitute.)  In fact, I could point out probably 20 edible and medicinal species growing from cracks in the pavement, most of which are far more nutritious than that stuff we buy in the grocery store.  So, before you go yanking out that pesky noxious whatsitweed, look it up and be prepared to be astounded...Or heck, email me—I'll tell you what it's good for!

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Seminar Dates:
Soil types/ Preparing garden beds/ Building Topsoil/Microherds,  May 11
Catching and conserving water in the garden/Creating a sustainable pond, May 18
Garden Grand Opening- May 25 Bring your perennial divisions and spare garden tools to donate, sign up for seminars or to get a garden plot.