Weeds: a revisit

I've just come back to writing this blog after a bit of an absence, and found that my views on some things have grown and, perhaps, matured.

For example, the What are weeds? post I wrote originally for the purposes of the HomeOne forum and then duplicated here.

Since writing it, I have decided I am in fact happy to have dandelions in my veg and flower beds too!  



They really do remind me of summer, with that colour and the kinda musky smell of warm days, but I've also come to understand that those annoying deep taproots, which are the bane of any weekend weeders life, are great for bringing up nutrients for use by the rest of the plants.

Occasionally, I'll decide one is getting too big for it's boots, so I pull it and use the leaves as small areas of mulch around particular plants.  Of course, they regrow, so I have a constant supply of fresh green mulch and nutrients.  Sometimes, I'll add them to the compost pile or feed them to the worm farm.

Oh, or we can eat them fresh in salad - every part of the dandelion is edible.  Just out of interest, I found this nutrition data for them, so they're a good weight loss choice! :)

Anything that I cannot easily control the spread of, remains a 'weed' and is treated mercilessly: Wandering Trad (Tradescantia fluminensis), Bulbil Watsonia (Watsonia meriana var. bulbillifera), Sweet Pittosporum (Pittosporum undulatum), Mirror-bush (Coprosoma repens) and Holly (Ilex aquifolium).  The Bulbil Watsonia spreads when the bulbils drop to the ground or are spread by wind and the remainder produce fruit which is very attractive to birds, so we need to be observant to remove any seedlings as they come up.


Since moving in, we've been trying to kill off three Mirror-bushes that the previous owners allowed to grow.  They were massive when we moved in, blocking light from anything else that wanted to grow.  We've repeatedly cut them down to the ground, painted and drilled and filled with glyphosate, yet still they come up.


Agapanthus...  that I still hate.  We worked hard to remove them from our garden.  Yet, since this years seeds were dropped from neighbours yards, I've pulled hundreds of tiny agapanthus seedlings out.  A small, 50cmSq area, yielded an entire bucketful. Previously, I'd thought that the issue of seed dispersal was one for only the immediate area, but we are pulling them out 8m up our driveway, so they are light enough to be wind-born.

I've made my peace with several other weeds of this area.  The Arum Lily (Zantedeschia aethiopica) is becoming naturalised in this area around creek lines and elsewhere.  Kahili Ginger (Hedychium gardnerianum) is also very common in the area, although mostly contained to private and public gardens.  All of our neighbours have them in their gardens and they've of course made their way into ours.


I've found that both of these provide a fantastic jungle for my children.  They are also very attractive to native bees and honey eating birds.  Some may think that this is irresponsible and, in fact, I have had to try and defend my view on several occasions.  


To keep them under control, we allow them to grow in sunken containers and remove any shoots that we find have come up from seeds dropped by birds or from overhanging neighbourhood plants.  We use the beautiful bracts as cut flowers before seed formation begins and, at the end of the growth season for each, we then dig up the rhizomes, burning a portion of them, and replanting the rest in the sunken pots.

My view is this: if they are of use in my garden, of a benefit to wildlife, providing a habitat and attracting indigenous fauna that might otherwise not be there, and I can keep them easily under control with little effort on my part - then they have a place in my garden.