Weeds and What They Tell Us

 I have recently been asked by someone when explaining unsustainable gardening practices to them, "But without the chemicals how do you get rid of the weeds?" This is a many layered question, even if the person asking had no idea that it was. First off, perfection is an illusion. Your lawn might look good and weed free with the application of pesticides but the truth is, your lawn is dead and is only kept alive by the constant spraying of chemicals. There are other ways to keep your lawn and garden weed free, an obvious one is to 'get down and dirty' and weed by hand, or you can purchase alternatives to herbicides, such as a flame weeder. There is another, lesser known reason why weeds are so darn hard to get rid of... They're trying to get a message through to you probably about the condition of your soil.  I'll start by listing a few common families, some plants that are in that family, how to get rid of them, and what they indicate about your soil.

Polygonaceae or Buckwheat Family 

This whole family indicates sandy, light soils as well as acidic soils. The spread and/or size of the weeds can indicate how acidic your soil might be.  

1. Docks and Sorrels: patience dock (also known as English Spinach), narrow-leaved dock, yellow dock, field sorrel, and tall sorrel. To rid your self of dock and sorrel the plant must be mowed frequently to starve the root, or one can always pull by hand.   
2. Knotweeds: prostrate knotweed, erect knotweed, swamp smartweed, mild water pepper, water pepper, lady's thumb, wild buckwheat, and hedge bindweed. Frequent mowing to starve perenial roots is recommended.  

Cruciferae or Mustard Family 

This group generally indicates a hard pan (a layer of soil that does not allow water through it) as well as a surface crust. To manage these weeds pull them out as soon as you notice them. 

1. Mustard: wild mustard, Indian mustard, ball mustard, wild radish, common peppergrass, green-flowered peppergrass, field peppergrass, false flax, ballmustard, sand rocket, hare's ear mustard, tumbling mustard, wormseed mustard, and green tansy mustard. 
2. Others: penny cress, winter cress, scurvy grass, and shepards purse. 

Convolvulus or Morning Glory Family 

The convolvulus family spells big trouble for your garden! This family mainly consists of climbing and parasite like plants. The ones that aren't parasitic usually indicate sticky soil conditions with not much humus.   

1.    morning glory, hedge bindweed, clover dodder (this parasitic plant usually shows up with clover and feeds on it. If you have clover dodder it would be best to just give up clover and alfalfa for at least seven years.), flax dodder, field and common dodder ( they don't care what plant they suck from.), and wild sweet potato vine. 

Chenopodiaceae or Goosefoot Family 

This family can survive in almost any soil, and tends to pop up around where people have cultivated. Shouldn't be put on compost heaps since they suck out all the moisture. 

1. lamb's quarters, smooth pigweed, oak-leaved goosefoot,spreading orache, turnpike geranium, wormwood, and Russian thistle (thrives in soil that's lost humus balance, and is a real warning about ones soil condition.)

Umbelliferae or Parsley Family 

This family is one of the largest consisting of some 1500 species! They seem to grow well on a lot of potassium and nitrogen.   

1. wild carrot (to prevent spreading it's best to mow it right after pollination to prevent it from going to seed, cut it any earlier and two or three plants will pop up where there had been one.), wild parsnip, cow parsnip, and meadow parsnip. 

Plantain Family 

doesn't necessarily indicate good soil or bad, it was called by Native Americans "the white man's footstep" because they would grow in the damaged landscape surrounding the European's settlements. The only way to get rid of it is to dig it up. 

1. broad-leaved plantain, narrow-leaved plantain, hoary plantain, red stem plantain, and large bracted plantain. 

Dynamic Plants 

Dynamic plants influence their surroundings in a specific way, so that other plants change their properties, or that the soil changes it's character. 

1. The Nettles- It makes other plants grow more resistant, changes the chemical process in neighboring crops, and stimulates humus formation. 
2. Dandelion- indicates good soil, worms are attracted to its roots because it makes good humus, and it transports calcium upward from deeper in the ground. 
3. Chamomile- breaks the surface crust, stimulates wheat to grow heavier and with fuller ears. This only works in quantities where the chamomile is much much less than the wheat plants.  

Resources   

• Weeds and what they tell us, by Ehrenfried Pfieffer