Topic: Do you let 'selected' weeds grow on your plot?

[saddad]

Fiddleneck is apparently another name for phacalia...  :)

[MrBean]

I've put a mention on the bumblebee post too, white dead nettles are a useful food plant as the bees are out so early, and dead nettles are one of the few things in flower.

PS
I HATE sites like this http://www.killthatweed.co.uk/deadnettle.html  >:( 

[PurpleHeather]

A weed is a plant growing where it is not wanted.

I never want buttercups, docks, nettles, bind weed, chick weed, dandelions or thistles among others, I do not know the name of growing in the beds wanted for fruit and vegetables. In fact they are hoed to death long before they get a chance to grow big enough to be identified.

Cultivated flowers, are where I deliberately put them.

[Nemesia]

I let Verbena bonariensis grow more or less anywhere it pops up, and figwort here and there. All other weeds get cleaned up as time permits. There is always lots of flowers on my plot but these are planted by me.

I didn't know this was classed as a weed and have found that it does not pop-up at all in my garden and have wondered why not. Is it possible that my soil is too rich if it is indeed a weed?.
In fact, as a result of the ones I had last year and the year before not coming back in profusion I have sown more seeds this week.  Isn't it strange?

[Unwashed]

heartsease - that is one I'm reluctant to pull up.

[Bjerreby]

I've also got purple dead nettles growing. I've found its about the only plant in April that has a bit of nectar for the early bees..........and this April here in Denmark has been warm and dry with quite a few bees.

My Phacelia tanacetifolium is only just starting to flower now.

[Columbus]

Hi all,  :)

I`ve managed to get poppies and evening primrose to seed in more convenient places this year by stacking the dried plants by the plot edges last year. I allow a couple of golden rods to regrow every year because the wasps like them and apparently the wasp larvae eat slugs. Other plot holders dislike these weeds, and suggest I uproot them. In the past if they got large enough to be seen when hoeing I just went round them. I had poppies in my broad beans.  I allow nettles and hyacinths to grow under my blackberries at each end of the plot and avoid strimming them to extinction. I have clumps of comfrey that I leave for the bees, but I throw a handful of slug pellets under the leaves from time to time.

I don`t let dandelions make seed, I kill groudsel, shepherds purse, chick weed, fat hen, dead nettle, thistle, and dock and of course bindweed on sight at this time of the year. Later in the year I don`t worry about weeds quite so much because the crops are better able to compete.

I also have self-seeding Nasturtiums which are stronger than the ones I grow and I transfer them or leave them be, They provide excellent ground cover and hold back weeds. I harvest nasturtium seed for pickling.

Col

[thifasmom]

heartsease - that is one I'm reluctant to pull up.

yep they are so pretty, i have these recently popping up in the veg beds late last year and early this year, so as not to kill them when adding compost etc i potted up the sedlings and plants i found and replanted them in my flower beds and even on the edge of the vege bed foot paths.