Good Weeds

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Rich soil: Chicory (Cichorium intybus), pigweeds (family Amaranth), purslane (Portulaca oleracea), dandelion (Taraxacum officinale), lamb's-quarters (Chenopodium album), burdock (Arctium minus), pokeweed (Phytolacca americana), butter print (Abutilon theophrasti), Queen Anne's lace (Daucus carota).

Just cut the plants down before they go to seed and compost them or—once they've wilted—turn them under into the soil. (If the plants have matured, you can compost them in a pile that heats up to at least 140°F to destroy the weed seed.)

Pulling Up Nutrients and Water

Unlike our pampered produce crops, weeds have had to get by without human-supplied water and fertilizer. Hence, many have learned to send taproots down three, five or even 15 feet in search of their supper.

This serves the gardener in several ways. First, if we compost or turn under those weeds, the valuable nutrients and trace minerals they've brought up will get redistributed to the topsoil.

Weeds can also break up hardpan, that underground layer of compacted soil caused by regular mechanical cultivation. Hardpan keeps salts and other toxins from leaching downward while preventing domestic plants from reaching lower soil nutrients. It can also inhibit good soil drainage. But deep-rooted weeds like dandelions, prickly lettuce, spiny sow thistle, wild amaranths (often called pigweeds), cockleburs, nightshades and Queen Anne's lace can break that soil barrier and blaze a route for domestic roots to follow.

To take advantage of those weeds' soil-probing abilities, don't disturb a fallow area filled with the ground breakers, or leave a deep-reaching weed every 10 or 20 feet among your crops. Over time, this practice will do a great deal to open up your soil.

Weed roots can break a trail to underground water reserves. Moisture from those depths is also wicked upward outside the weed roots by capillary action.

Providing Food

Once upon a time, the year's "Pick of the Crop" vegetable selections would have included purslane and dandelions. Lamb's-quarters would have received the seed catalog praise we now give to tomatoes. Today we neglect such no-effort crops in favor of ones that require hours of toil.

We shouldn't. Some weeds make superior eating. Lamb's-quarters, yellow dock, young dandelion leaves, purslane, chick-weed, land cress and sorrel have two or three times the nutritional value of spinach or Swiss chard. Try these sautéed in garlic and olive oil and drizzled with lemon juice.

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