How to recognize a weed

Heh...my dad says a weed is anything that grows where you don't want it. :-)

TOM KAN PA wrote: : Gardening Rule: : When weeding, the best way to make sure you are removing a weed and not a : valuable plant is to pull on it. If it comes out of the ground easily, it is a : valuable plant.

LOL!

I do so much weed pulling that I am developing a highly scientific measure of a weed's coefficient of resistance to total removal. It takes into account stem diameter and tensile strength, root length, diameter, and tensile strength, root type, and soil type, texture, and moisture content.

On one end of the scale, there's red clover which offers complete resistance to total removal because its stems are so weak it invariably sacrifices its top to save the roots. On the other end, there's Lamb's Quarters, a good weed for beginners since it offers a sastifying experience of total removal under a wide range of soil and moisture conditions for stem diameters under 3/4".

Among the most deeply rewarding moments for the expert weeder, I think, is having gauged the weeding conditions just right and bagging a mature Pokeweed with a taproot the size of a turnip in a single straight pull unassisted by tools. It's moments like this that remind us why we garden.

-- Karen

The Garden Gate

Yeah, but valuable plants that you have been trying to grow for years will also do that, too. ;)

The way I heard it: If it's hard to grow, it's a flower. If it's hard to kill, it's a weed.

Karen Fletcher expounded:

LOL! Oh, ain't it the truth!

As my dad used to say every spring, "What's the first thing you see on a dandelion in the spring?" And I'd go along with him and reply, "What?" And he'd say, "An Italian with a knife."

A wise man.

Bill who live 10 mile's from Vineland N.J. aka the dandelion capitol of the world. I also eat chickweed, purslane, and a few other's whose name skips me at the moment.

What's the secret to pulling a poke weed with any size root without tools?? If it's bigger than a seedling, part of the root at least, stays.

Good for you Bill. I can recognize dandelion and chickweed as edible but that's about it. Wish I knew a heck of a lot more.

pixi wrote: : What's the secret to pulling a poke weed with any size root without tools?? : If it's bigger than a seedling, part of the root at least, stays.

As I said, a rare and memorable occasion ;-) Mine came out after six inches of rain to my well-drained, to-die-for, six-foot deep silty loam soil.

-- Karen 'Above the glacier', on top of an end moraine, if not THE end moraine, in East Central Illinois.

The Garden Gate

There are so many 'weeds' that have medicinal uses. Stinging nestles-tea good for....stuff. I hear it, I don't have to remember it...until today! Damn, I should pay more attention to all this stuff. Well, Pixi, find a certified organic farmer if they don't know they will know someone who does. If they don't email me...direct and I will put you in contact with those that know. "Wish I knew a heck of a lot more"...are you just wishing or 'do you really want to know?' There is a difference. Gary Fort Langley BC Canada

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