Weeds? What makes a weed?

For some strange reason, we regard some wild flowers as weeds, when they are not only wild flowers but also, in many cases, herbs or plants containing medicinal properties. We only consider them as weeds when they grow so profusely that they take over, surely. I have a lot of aquilegia in my garden, which started as weeds and are largely regarded as weeds, but I've collected the seeds over time, and cultivated them because I think they're beautiful. (I've added a picture). There are so many colours, from a cream, a candy pink and cream, going through dusky pink, lilac and purple to a very deep purple.. almost black. The flowers are beautiful, but very rampant, so I have to split them at times, and replant them. Lots of people go more for a wild garden than a cultivated one, because wild flowers attract butterflies, bees and birds, besides looking good. I also grow bluebells and have some fern in the garden and have loads of heathers, which could be regarded as a "weed" or wild flower. Wild flowers are also more hardy than the ones which are cultivated in greenhouses, and they don't need any attention. Having said all that though, I would definitely steer clear of some... like the bindweed and deadly nightshade, but nettles and dandelions are very welcome, as they provide herbal cures, tea and salads. Sure... leave them where they are, if you enjoy them, my friend... as nature intended. Brightest Blessings, my dear friend.

even i am intrested to grow all these things but i dont have enough space in my garden

Right now it's a constant battle between me and the damn weeds, no matter how dry or wet the weather is they grow! Grow faster than my vegetables which I have put in, I dug a big plot of land to grow vegetables and the weeds are growing faster, as quick as I pull the damn things out, up they grow again, I pull the roots but still they come with a vengeance. We have a massive garden so when it's just me doing the gardening, it's like never ending, as soon as one patch is clear, I go and do another patch and the patch I have just cleared is smothered with weeds. Loads of wild life indeed, may look pretty but they are taking the goodness away from Wolfies veggies LOL! Damn sticky stuff makes me itch and it's hayfever time too. We have these tall yellow flowering weeds that come up, nice colour but they too grow with a vengeance and high too! What makes a weed a weed? Well whatever the weather it will grow LOL! Even through frost and snow, shame the same can't be said about my prize veg ;0)

I do my best to pull out anything that creates stickers. There are the "begger's lice" stickers and the "sticker clover" and I'm sure there are others, but those two I know on sight!

i let grow what grows.. unless its in my veggie garden and will choke out what ive planted. odd as it may sound.. i love dandelions.. weed or not, theyre pretty, edible.. and downright very healthy for ya. i adore daisies.. and clover.. even golden rod and milkweed.

A weed is anything that grows with your crops/plants. They usually compete with your plants for nutrients and all. :) When I see "lovely" weeds in my garden, I sometimes save them but I eventually pull them out.

A weed is a pant that is growing where you don't want it to. A lot of weeds are also eatable. Unless you spray your yard with herbicides you can harvest a salad from the lawn. My grandmother would harvest dandelion and lambs quarters before the garden was ready http://hsny.blogspot.com/2009/07/edible-weeds.html

hi ellie I was always the same way and now days a lot of what we used to call weeds have been refined and cultivated as flowers so just think of your pretty weedss as potential flowers. We had violet growing wild, creeping phlox and golden rod and they were so pretty also indian paint brush and bellflowers, they are wild flowers but can be tamed in your garden too.

A weed is anything growing where you don't want it to grow. I have some vinca, which is a very pretty ground cover and it's a terrible weed. Mostly we just let things grow where they are but when they start to take over sometimes we need to act.

I am not a gardener so weeding is not on my list of chores! We have them in our garden of course and, as you say they are not all bad, some are pretty daisies which my daughter picks for me all the time (LOL)! My husband gets rid of the nasty ones but the majority stay and yes, they are all part of nature and they don’t look so bad!

Isn't it funny how the weeds are sometimes prettier than the flowers you have planted? I find this to be true a lot lately. I go to pull a weed and I have to remember what the flower i want looks like. I'm afraid I'll pull my flower out of the ground and leave the weed behind.

A weed is just a plant that grows without you wanting it to. last year I planted a really pretty weed in a container and it spilled out over the sides in a lovely white bloom. Some of the prettiest places I have ever seen are over run with wild flowers and weeds.

To me a weed is anything that is growing where i do not want it. Some weeds are so lovely that i have picked the flowers they produce to dry and preserve.

i agree to some degree.. when i was little i despaired when the daisies buttercups and pretty blue flowers were mown along with the lawn! i still leave them if i can! i dont even mind most of the weeds on the allotment! my only real dislike is horsetail as i get a violently itchy rash from it when it matures! even chickweed is meant to be a rabbit delicacy! as hard as i've tried cant find any rhyme or reason for nettles or thistles tho! x

Oh sure not . I wait for the weed to get done , and then I pull it off . I don't mind see in all that weed in my garden . Actually I like weed more than daisies . Weed are part f the beauty of nature . You are right . It makes you feel like living in wild places . Especially if that weed is being taken care of like all other flowers . Let the be free and justice for all the flowers in the garden . Long live the weed :D !

I think wild flowers are very pretty. Even if they're considered weeds, who said so? Weeds are not attractive like the flowers you describe. In California the wild flowers (lots of poppies) dot the landscape in early spring. People drive for miles just to see them.

Hi ellie, My garden is a little wild, I have grown a lot of shrubs and rose trees and the look lovely also I have got those weeds flowers, blue ones as well and one day my friend was just about to pull some out when I screamed at her not to, she said its only weeds, but I said I like them, so leave them alone, she thougt I was nuts, LOL! love and hugs. Tamara xxxx

Hi ellie! I don't have a garden, but know exactly what you mean! I have had gardens before and have seen the same things! I hate to pull "weeds" that have flowers too! I used to just leave them if they looked "pretty"! I guess that's because I wasn't a "real gardener" to begin with and just loved to see the pretty flowers and whatever grew I was happy with! Oh, well now that I can't have a garden I really miss it!

i thought that weeds were just unwanted leafy things,but aparantly they are just wild flowers that end up your garden,i like some of them,giant poppies are my favourite,in my old garden i didn't know what were weeds and what were flowers that i'd planted,so i decided that if they were pretty then they stayed,and if they were ugly they went