Are weeds natural, and should we be removing it?

It's all perspective.
The difference between a weed and a wildflower is one we want, the other we don't.
Find 'weeds' that you like, and let them take over and choke out the ones you don't.

My parents neighbour has essentially her whole front yard as wildflower gardens and it looks great.

Weeds are as natural as a female with hairy legs. Both are unsightly if you ask me but whatever floats your boat.

The lawn industry is massive. They have successfully brainwashed the suburbanites, myself included. I got rid of grass on one side on my house.

bacalhau4me wrote: ↑The lawn industry is massive. They have successfully brainwashed the suburbanites, myself included. I got rid of grass on one side on my house.

I agree. Though I will say, some of those 'weeds' are prickly so they just make me mad!

Depends on what you mean by weed. Personally I love having clover in the lawn...some would call it a weed. I actually purposely spread clover seed on my lawn. Years ago, clover was common in grass seed. It fixes nitrogen, doesn't need as much water....and I love the colour.

Now, I don't have any issue with grass...problem is that people want grass that is not native and as such have to feed and water more than native species. Just doesn't make sense.

What I find interesting is when you look at a fallow field, no matter what time of the summer, there is always color. Something is always in bloom. Yet people struggle to get flowers for the whole season.

Now for a lawn, if it is filled in with grass, clover and some other lush weeds, that is fine. But something like thistles just doesn't work. And, many weeds need less water, less mowing and care, which means more time for me to enjoy the yard.

How about gout weed? They are really nice to look at, but a pain to remove.

im alergic to many of them, so removing them helps me be at ease when I sit in the backyard

nalababe wrote: ↑Depends on what you mean by weed. Personally I love having clover in the lawn...some would call it a weed. I actually purposely spread clover seed on my lawn. Years ago, clover was common in grass seed. It fixes nitrogen, doesn't need as much water....and I love the colour.

Now, I don't have any issue with grass...problem is that people want grass that is not native and as such have to feed and water more than native species. Just doesn't make sense.

but will clover choke up the grass and take over the whole lawn?

Most weeds look like grass when mowed so as much as i don't like them there is not much harm done. Dandelions are an exception, they grow pretty quickly and look ugly. I inherited a lawn thats more weeds then grass so unless i want to pull weeds as a full time job 8 hours a day 7 days a week i will never get rid of them all

Quentin5 wrote: ↑Most weeds look like grass when mowed so as much as i don't like them there is not much harm done. Dandelions are an exception, they grow pretty quickly and look ugly. I inherited a lawn thats more weeds then grass so unless i want to pull weeds as a full time job 8 hours a day 7 days a week i will never get rid of them all

I have several notched dandelion weeders...I leave them all over the garden. I weed in small allotments so I'm not overwhelmed by it all. If you work at it slowly, and don't let the weeds go to seed...you will steadily improve your lawn. I have access to all the strong herbicides but I hardly ever use them because I can manage what is there with manual weeding.

Can you link to one, i pull them by hand and sometimes get foot long roots (last week i was getting 75% by the root, today about 50%), but its a lot of work trying to do this hours at a time.

Compared to last year i do notice less weeds, but going from 10 million to 9 million still leaves a lot to do

One year's seeding is seven years' weeding... Just stay on top of them and don't let them go to seed too often, and eventually the situation will improve.

As others have alluded to, a weed is in the eye of the beholder. A lot of plants are useful in some situations for their vigorous growth. If they happen to be located somewhere where they're not desired, that same quality means it's in effect a weed regardless of its other characteristics.

SouthOnt wrote: ↑One year's seeding is seven years' weeding... Just stay on top of them and don't let them go to seed too often, and eventually the situation will improve.

As others have alluded to, a weed is in the eye of the beholder. A lot of plants are useful in some situations for their vigorous growth. If they happen to be located somewhere where they're not desired, that same quality means it's in effect a weed regardless of its other characteristics.

Lilies with spaghetti and meatball roots (that weigh 50lbs or more per full yard waste bag) and chinese lantern have coloured my opinions

dandelion -- can find the leaves in the store and can use for salad
dandelion tea -- a natural diuretic that lowers blood pressure

coupondiva2012 wrote: ↑dandelion -- can find the leaves in the store and can use for salad
dandelion tea -- a natural diuretic that lowers blood pressure

I can feed our family for the summer on our yard.

Drink coffee if you want a diuretic. And then, save your pee and dilute it, and pour it on your lawn to turn it green with nitrogen.

ChristineY wrote: ↑but will clover choke up the grass and take over the whole lawn?

Doesn't seem to.

I tried to convert my lawn to cover entirely. Doesn't need water (stays green throughout a drought) , grows slower than grass so less mowing, and is softer. Plus the bunnies like to snack on it!

Our lawn is just too big to do it by hand so I gave up at the moment, but I tried to kill off as much grass in some areas as I could and planted clover, but much of the grass has survived and come back. So now it's a mix. Which is fine as well.

I never plant any grass seed. Just overseed with clover seeds to fill in where I need too. My hope is one day there will be no grass.

The white flowers look nice too.

If I ever get the resources to strip the grass off our whole lawn and start fresh I'd love to plan clover (or micro clover needs even less cutting)

don242 wrote: ↑I can feed our family for the summer on our yard.

They call it the "urban salad" seen it around where I live. Not for me.. but with places banning pesticides its something people are doing now.