What I found works for me: 1. When sowing seeds, do pull out all the weeds to create space, but don't do this to all the land at once (I'll clear a small patch to plant seeds and leave the rest of the garden intact, then I may clear another small patch the next week to plant more seeds). I've noticed my garden has way more ladybugs and other beneficial insects than the - clear all weeds and aim for "neat" bare ground - neighbors, because in my plot there are always lots of plants growing, it's never bare. 2. To decide which weeds to keep or pull I look at which weeds house which insects. If some are eg a bee or ladybird fav I'll let a few stay, even if they are big. 3. Overall, I leave all weeds when they are still small. They make good ground cover etc and aren't really competing with other plants when small. Also, small weeds are a lot of work to remove. 4. I pull out some of the weeds when they are big. This makes weeding much easier and faster. Also, it's easier to see what is what. I strive for a diversity of weeds and will pull more of the ones there are a lot of, unless I know they are beneficial to the plot (it's a learning work in progress). If I don't want the weeds to spread (or my neighbors don't want that haha) I'll pull them out before they set seed. 5. Depending on the weather I'll drop pulled weeds on the same spot, to shade the soil (heat) or put them in the compost if it's rainy and there are lots of slugs (helps take away their hiding spots in the garden). So whether I drop or move weeds can vary from week to week. Sometimes I also bury them (e.g. if I am digging a hole to plant a bigger seedling, and have a bunch of weeds, I'll drop those in the bottom of the hole) 6. I "use" weeds and flowers and spreading different plants all over the garden (instead of neat rows) to confuse bugs that may otherwise eat the veggies and also to avoid depleting the soil. 7. There are some weeds that stay very small, are barely rooted, and cover a lot of ground. I tend to leave most of those because - if needed - they are super easy and quick to remove, they mix well with most veggies and don't become a problem, and they keep the other weeds at bay. Overall, when fellow gardeners complain about how much weeding they need to do (daily!) I find that coming in once a week during the growing season for a few hours to tend to the garden overall is plenty. Also, during hot dry spells when most people need to water daily I often don't need to water for a whole week. My garden doesn't look "impressive and under control" but it's less work, more fun, and many of the veggies actually do better. I still have plenty to learn, but to anyone feeling stressed about keeping up with a veggie garden I'd say, go for this different approach! No, you won't win any awards and if you're in a community garden other gardeners will probably look down on you for "not having things under control" but the work/harvest balance is much better 😀
Thanks for taking the time to detail your specific approach and for reminding us to be ready for criticism because we are managing weeds differently. In this video, the focus was degraded soil - soil that's difficult to get most plants established.
@@LearningfromNature I understand and I appreciate your approach. It looked like the comment section was turning into a more weeds in general discussion hence my comment. I had a small piece of land with very degraded soil before. Previous "renters" would plough, let it dry out, plant nothing and give up till the next year. When I took on that plot it was dry and very compacted. I left half very "weedy" and constantly received criticism for it from other gardeners. But I was able to grow some veggies. It was sad because some other empty plots were full of beautiful wildflowers but it was all cut down in the name of tidyness.
Great points! I use a similar practice, even in the parts of my garden where the soil is not degraded. I allow weeds to grow early in the season, for the same reason you do: as habitat for beneficial insects. I also leave a particular variety of native weed that attracts aphids. It reduces the aphid problems in the rest of the garden and ensures that I always have a healthy ladybug population, which controls aphids in the entire garden. When the weeds get big enough to compete with my veggie crops, I pull them and add the weeds to the compost pile, where the green weeds will help heat up the compost to kill any weed seeds that make it into the compost pile. Those green weeds are high in nitrogen, which helps balance the carbon sources in the pile, creating a better habitat for the bacteria that cause compost piles to get hot. I also eat some of the weeds in salads. Tender young leaves from lambsquarter, wild amaranth (pigweed) and wild lettuce are all welcome additions to our salads early in the season before the lettuce is abundant. I also have some flowers in the garden that are somewhat invasive: mostly lambs ear, domestic amaranth and hollyhocks. Since they are grown for flowers, the faded flowers go to seed while the new ones on the end of the stalks are still blooming. Sometimes those seeds mature on the stock and spread themselves before I cut down the stalks in the fall. No problem, though! I allow the seeds to germinate in the spring, then transplant them to areas where I WANT those flowers, or I give away the seedlings to friends. My sister's yard is lovely now, after several years of transplanting my "weed" flowers into her yard!
yes ... sometimes we use to forget that all those pioneer plants which we call 'weed' today have generated our fertile soil of today in millions of years ...
I have ultra crap soil. I am working on a sort of food forest. Chop and drop has helped immensely. I let weeds grow but I really am selective about the weeds that I allow. They can act as nurse plants while trees/shrubs etc get established. They all get the chop in the end. They re grow and get the chop again. There are some that bring in the bees. The ones that are a real problem are some of the grasses. They can take over and wipe everything out so I spray those before they get out of hand.
If your soil is "ultra crap" as you say (like mine too), then why not try growing your veggies in raised wicking beds. They are marvelous. A bit of effort setting them up that is more than compensated for in its ability to grow alot more food per sq mtr, ease of watering and the bonus >> fewer weed problems to deal with. Give it a try.
I let my weeds grow wild in the yard, then chop them all down in to 55g drums and turn them in to liquid fertilizer. You give most if not all of the weeds' 'superpowers' to your edible plants.
Thanks - and remember that we can add other species into the pioneer mix! For example we can add species growing lots of plant biomass, deep roots and legumes....
Problem with a lot of weeds is that they form dense monocultures in stable environments. Lantana, Camphor laurel, crofton weed, just to name a few. Further, strong disagree with weeds repair the soil; "plants" repair the soil. Different plant communities encourage different conditions, e.g. eucalyptus encourage fire, grasslands encourage grasslands, forests encourage forest, it'd be unfair not to consider the negative impacts that weeds can have, or the improved ability some other plants have. Remember these are arbitrary terms, but to mindlessly say "all weeds are good" is probably not a great message. Camphor laurel causes chronic erosion over the course of around 20 years on creekbanks, lantana locks eucalyptus understory enabling BMAD, killing massive areas of eucalyptus forest. Where, if you're to consider say, crofton or fireweed or something in your garden or lawn or wherever you are, it's maybe worth considering that maybe there's something better that can be there? E.g. most grasses do not repair soils proportionally to forests or diverse broadleaf weed cover crops even, as grasses encourage a high bacteria:fungal ratio. If repairing your soil is what you want then diverse broadleaf species and perennial plants that can be cut back every year is the quickest most efficate way without external inputs. A single bunch of comfrey roots can make 100s of plants. Cunjevoi rapidly propogate themselves and can just be pulled out of the ground. Acacias grow incredibly quick, can be quite small and produce a lot of biomass. Also consider the humic acid return to the soil from the microbe chains that feed off the plants exudates; ragweed returns a tiny amount of HA back to the soil compared with comfrey. To simply enable "doing nothing about your weeds", is kinda counter-productive to understanding soil repair, and I feel just justifies people taking the easy way out. "Re-wilding is not regenerating, and probably more degenerating".
Thank you for your thoughts! Totally agree re plants repair soil. Plants provide the food resources for the microbes and invertebrates in our soils to repair our nutrient recycling system and the soil infrastructure (watch here for details - ua-cam.com/video/b_SD4RORwPw/v-deo.html) Weeds (for the reasons mentioned in the video) are just particularly skilled at colonising and growing in severely degraded conditions - they are pioneer plants. improving the soil to enable other species to colonise through ecological succession.
Fantastic, nuanced points @uenaeons - thank you for bringing it up. I believe the video certainly meant very well, but lacked the full nuance needed for such a complex topic.
I have a forest on my property that's about 30 years old, of various eucalyptus, acacias and other endemic and non-endemic species. Amongst this forest is camphor laurel, lantana and other non-native species. None of the non-native species grow densely and not as a monoculture. Eucalyptus dominate this forest and mountainous areas. I believe we know very little about what plants do to the soil. They've been doing their thing long before us humans decided we knew it all, creating soil for the future and ultimately for us to grow crops and plants. Weeds like fireweed and bracken fern are considered bad but are balancing the soil after an event of some sort. Some weeds are toxic to livestock eg. lantana and fireweed but not toxic to anything else. People don't consider the pollen for bees and food and shelter for birds and insects. I would rather an abundance of weeds than acres of dirt and crop monocultures that do NOTHING for the future of growing food without hefty inputs.
The job of weeds is to spread themselves, replicate themselves and adapt to the local conditions. Allow them to compete with domestic plants and weeds win EVERY time
The worst weeds are actually the unwanted grasses with rhizomes which spread widely and which choke the roots of other plants. They are difficult to completely eradicate without resorting to herbicidal treatments, & will persist in "no dig" soils.
Great video. Along with chop-and-drop you can add carbon to the soil by laying down hay or other vegetation on that ground to accelerate transition to grasses as soil improves. Greg Judy talks a lot about that on his channel where he often lays down hay as a cheap way to improve soil. He also occasionally further seeds with grass seeds so that the improving soil has grass seeds, though of course hay also has grass seeds.
Yes, I didn't mention in the video that we can combine using weeds with other strategies to fast-track improving our soil. For example, adding other pioneering species to our weed species mix - plants growing heaps of biomass, deep-rooted plants, straw and other mulch materials, compost, bio-ferts - depending on our circumstances!
Wood chips is another one, but it is for more extreme cases of barren soil and can take a couple years to break down before you can use the soil, and they don't work so well in dry areas as you need moisture for them to really break down. Obviously grasses, leafs, etc. break down a lot quicker and don't need as much moisture. But you don't have to apply it as much, dump a few inches over a large area, wait a couple years, plant some basic easy to grow crops or weeds to feed the soil and you can turn barren land into farmable land.
Hi Wendy. I watched some of your videos now and really like your simpel and natural approach of plant life with scientific backup. And I really like and enjoy the way you explain biological processes, and that you kind of look at nature as a teacher. To me there are no weeds anyway but herbs. In one video you said you are a doctor, may I asked in what field? Biology or environmental science? Best wishes, WH
Well explained. Thanks for taking the time. My garden is always an overgrown jungle, of sorts after harvest, but the soil is rich and productive. We just entertained some guests who wanted a tour of the 1 acre of beds and I'm always aware of how foreign everything looks to the average person. I enjoy explaining all the manual tools we have and use.
Don you may like to listen/read about the difference weeds made in this lime orchard in Australia - ABC News - Using weeds and the power of ecosystems to improve farm profitability - www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2018-01-22/using-weeds-ecology-to-improve-farm-profitability/9343028
I don't get the open grassland up the back slashed as keeping it long MAKES the moisture after rain go down deep. Also, the long roots HOLD the land together when flooding rains arrive!! I'm slowly getting it more and more trees planted on the slopes and WILL be planting trees till I die for food and home for wildlife and of course to benefit "Mother Earth"!
Thank you for sharing your project with us. One question - have you thought about getting the grassland grazed or slashed occasionally? This would increase the amount of organic materials to feed your soil organisms? I explain why here - ua-cam.com/video/b_SD4RORwPw/v-deo.htmlsi=g8qa1p4UySFZFQfZ
@@LearningfromNature I DO get the back slashed high when it's not too wet now and again. I USED to get it slashed regular but NOT for the last 6 years. I have lots of (Giant clumping Bamboo's) on the steep terrain to HOLD the soils and the leaves are high in silica. Deep underneath is loaded with worms. I was "raised" on the land and know "plenty" about what's GOOD for the soil. People that hate Lantana need to realise that is a legume and little birds LOVE to nest in it and it's holding the steep hills behind me together when heavy rains come. DO I want cattle on it = NO! As I want to fully replant and cattle and small tree's is NOT a good combination!!! All best Pete N/E NSW. 14 Hrs later= Why does it only show 1 reply You/Tube???
This is generalizing weeds which is bad advice. If you have the right weeds this works. Some weeds can become dominate over all other species and reduce diversity. Some weeds aren't native and can be even worse. I have to weed to keep my weeds alive so I have diversity.
Bryce, thank you for your comment. If I have weeds that become dominant, I manage them by chopping and dropping. The critical message in this video is that weeds are pioneer plants. They grow where often other plants can't survive because of degraded soil. As such, they provide the only food source for the microbes and invertebrates in our soil. As Megan talked about in the video, they spend hours in their community garden pulling out weeds, which otherwise would have supplied their soil organisms with the resources to improve their soil.
@@erics5757yes, look at 'the liquid carbon pathway'. it's all about succession, building soil up the succession to be fungal equal to fungal dominant, depends on what crop is being grown. That is a simplified description
@@erics5757Yes! When the soil has more microorganisms the nutrients are stored inside them and provides the plants with nutrients in a simbiotic relationship. Futhermore, some weeds have long patroots that absorb nutrients form deep layers and bring them back to surface.
I don't have a weed problem in my gardens, thankfully. Our pups do make a mess of the lawn in winter and digging up grubs in the spring so every spring our lawn gets a lot of early weeds filling in the holes in the lawn. We just leave them there, mow them and eventually as it warms up the grass grows in and takes over. Mulch mowing the weeds, grass and leaves feeds the lawn. Now if I could get the pups to stop grubbing.
Yes, you're right. But that's why we each need to work out if we want to use weeds to improve the food supply to our soil organisms and, if so, how best to do so.
Weeds become compost for me. If i get bare areas I cover it in cut grass, hay, sugar cane whatever i have. I plant legumes into that. If the cows gove me a chance i plant bana grass. Brilliant stuff.
Not exactly sure what you mean - the area shown is in one of our paddocks at Hill Top Farm - the education center for Learning from Nature - watch this video about our farm here - ua-cam.com/video/ngYv9YpySt0/v-deo.htmlsi=8eRQhnt9DkJyjeAv
Weeds r good no doubt. It take CO2 from air and deposite in soil if unburned. Weeds which have shallow roots take moisture and nutrients from top soil layers. Prevent soil from cracking thereby prevent deep moisture loss. Weeds encourage nitrogen deposition in soil via micro livings. If dead weed is is converted in manure via cattle or via composting and served in crop root area then is nice nutrition allocation with value addition. This way it act as nutrition storage and supply cycle as per need of crop. Managing weed is delicate issue like collecting butter from buttermilk. If not manage well it consume crop nutrition and reduce crop yield.
Using weeds can be a benefit for all growing habitats; but how much, what, when is something you will have to observe and adapt to your specific ecology. I grow on the coast in southern California (10a) and for my soil biology lambs quarter, night shade, and purslane. I harvest seeds and over crop to get the right ratios at the right times. I also use these inputs to make weed juice (JADAM/KNF). The night shade throws a deep tap and improves deep soil biology over time. The others spread shallow and make good living mulch. Having life in your soil is better than microbe free dry dirt. Mine happen to be a bit xeriphytic so I actually water less (better retention) I use compost only no salts, no till and zero insecticides or any chemical compound. I don’t even use OHN. The insect pressure is mitigated by the nightshade (sacrificial) and the vast predators that inhabit my garden. Also, about half the insects that get targeted by industry are actually detritavores and beneficial. 🤷♂️
Thank you for sharing your experiences and you are so right that we need to observe and adapt what we do to our unique growing conditions. That's why I also think that it is important to understand 'why' we use different regenerative practices. Because in understanding what we are trying to achieve, we are in a better position to choose and adapt how we use different tools, like working with weeds, to our growing conditions.
It's different in your back garden. Weeds will compete with plants. Try growing carrots in with weeds. Some weeds are handy they attract beneficial insects. My cattle love them too. So I grow a few weeds but never let them get out of hand.
Peace - I visited G Growers in the UK a few years back. One of the biggest commercial vegetable producers in the UK. They let weeds grow amongst their celery and lettuce crops once they are established because of the benefits to their soil. See photo and read more here - www.learningfromnature.com.au/weeds/
It’s a romantic idea, but the benefits of allowing all weeds to grow in with other crops will be far outweighed by the negatives. Also, something worth noting is that all weeds are not created equally. Exotic invasive species can quickly overtake an area and way outcompete anything you’re trying to grow.
Thanks everyone for your comments. A couple of things we would like to add to the discussion. The information I shared was that weeds provide food for our soil organisms - the experts at improving soil. In the video, we talk about the role of weeds colonising degraded soil, where it is often difficult to get other plants established. But weeds can provide the same ecological services anywhere. However, as we all grow different crops, have different growing conditions and different types of weeds, we each need to work out if we want to use weeds and, if so, how best to do so. For further information on this eco-logical approach to building healthy soil watch next - ua-cam.com/video/b_SD4RORwPw/v-deo.html
I'm always loath to weed my garden because so many of the weeds are edible! some of them go in a salad (for dandelions, plantain and other strong-tasting ones, the trick is to cut the leaves into thin strips with scissors), some can be used in soups, palak paneer etc. Weeds and wild plants also tend to be very nutritious.
Hi Jungle Joe, Why do you think the title is misleading? The lady is talking about how weeds are good to chop and drop. I'd love to hear other title suggestions.
JungleJoe, the crucial information we wanted to share in the video is that weeds feed soil organisms - and soil organisms are the experts in reconditioning soil. Plants of course provide many other services
Bafore some very smart people called them weeds they where called pioneer plants ... Those plants only come when the soil need them so the soil becomes better and other plants can thrive on it.
Thanks for the reminder that chop & drop is good! I notice that although I know these things, I still have the old programming running in my head that weeds are bad 🙄 I was looking up why people love making perfect lawns and it was disturbing, basically we are fooled by people who are only interested in profit and may even create a problem to sell you the solution such as 'Weed'n'Feed' for the almighty perfect lawn so many strive for. We are programmed to make neat looking gardens to match the neighbours and maybe even win the award for the best street in town. Also, the fear of fire fuel is big. That's what was making me concerned about leaving clippings on the ground. So yes, thank you for the reminder to think like nature 🙏💚🌱
Thank you for taking time to respond! If you have time, take a look at our other video resources about learning from nature (@learningfromnature) and also our articles here - www.learningfromnature.com.au/resources-growing-food-ecologically/
Do you deal with weeds in your vegatable garden with the same strategy? Last year I've tried to remove as little weeds as possible and planted into them and cut a few as mulch. But at least the peas and the beans were struggling really hard and formed flowers and fruit when they were still tiny. I try to leave the weeds in the bed over winter to ensure the microbes get fed, but I think before planting next I will pull out most of them. What do you think? All the best
Jona - without seeing your garden i can't be prescriptive. How well a plant grows can depend on a whole lot of factors. However we do know that living plants improve soil better obviously than bare ground and also, interestingly, mulch. The reason being that plants supply leaves, stems, root tissues and root exudates. Plus research shows that the organic matter retained in soil tends to be root-derived.
The guest was talking about a community garden where they have to work hard to clear weeds so the garden will flourish, then the author starts talking about a cow pasture. The two are nothing alike. In a community or home garden you have a small space where you are trying to grow the most food while keeping the soil as healthy as possible, and manage it for annual production. A pasture is totally different. It's why large farm solutions don't apply to small farms or home gardens, they are completely different ecosystems. Look at Charles Dowding and Farmer Jesse's No-Till channels if you are looking for what you should be doing to get the best soils in a smaller setting like a home garden. The video here is more useful for people looking to grow pastures or food forests or orchards or something else on a larger scale than most viewers will have.
Simple Question: So if this practice if beneficial LIKE YOU BOTH CLAIM. Then why is it that none of the commercial food growers in the world use these method?
U.S. commercial farmers are all under contract from the chemical syndicate that goes by many names Monsanto Syngenta Bayer. They use a chemical burn agriculture called no till. They are in charge of the U.S. government department of agriculture by donating huge campaign contributions to each the presidents since 1957. They are tax subsidized and corrupted.
I am reminded by this farmer of another farmer who wrote "The One Straw Revolution" (Masanobu Fukuoka) about a half century ago in which he explained how to make better use of your time by patiently, intelligently, observing what nature is doing and asking yourself BEFORE you act: "Is nature doing this?" For example, does nature plow? NO! Does nature compost? No! Does nature weed? No! Do we see nature leaving the soil bare, unprotected? No! Does nature put poison, e.g., chemical weed killers, fertilizers, anti-fungi? No! Yet, farmers spend a lot of time/money doing it. This is ignorant, counter-productive, destructive. Masanobu's garden was a jungle of plants, making finding fruit difficult, but it was much less work, producing more nutritious food.
Yes! Learning from Nature! As you highlighted by referring to Masanobu Fukuoka, the concept and practice isn't new! Eve Balfour, the founder of the UK Soil Association, also said in 1948. "Fertility is a term that should be applied to the soil and vegetation together, for the soil derives its capacity for producing life from the vegetation, as much as plants derive their capacity for growth from the soil." Our social enterprise - learningfromnature.com.au - is developing resources to help food gardeners, and farmers learn from Nature by growing food eco-logically. Please do take a look at our other videos (@learningfromnature), articles (www.learningfromnature.com.au/resources-growing-food-ecologically/) and Handbooks (www.learningfromnature.com.au/handbooks-on-growing-food-ecologically/)
Maybe, the title of this video should have been "Why Weeding is a Waste of Time in Degraded Soil". Weeds, and I use the term loosely, seem much more efficient in taking up the required water, nutrients, and sunlight than most desired plants, to include lawn grass. If the soil is not deficient, weeds will quickly overtake other plants and inhibit their growth. You can see plenty of evidence of this with a quick drive around any neighborhood where weeds were not adequately addressed soon enough. Some people don't care if their yards are overrun with weeds but often, their neighbors do. Moreso, when they start spreading outside of their property lines.
I had to pull these cannibalistic weed out my garden because they were choking and strangling my tomatoes, then they sprouted creeping vines began to pull my tomatoes to ground so they rot while feeding the the invading vines. I wonder if you know anything about plants?
I consider some of this to be misinformation. You're basically describing weeds functioning as a cover crop, which may be the case, but that varies widely depending on the species. Sometimes "weeds" aren't really weeds, like, say, clover, pigweed, or dandelion. But other species (and their residues) may be strong allelopaths (like cocklebur, or cockspur grass), or they could harbor pests or disease that later infect/infest crops (solanceae family weeds like nightshades or jimsonweed harbor pests and disease harmful to tomato, pepper, potato, eggplant, etc.). Cover crops seem like the best solution, here. You get all of the benefits you described with comparatively minor allelopathy/pest/disease risk.
In this video, the focus was degraded soil - soil that's difficult to get most plants established. In these conditions pioneer plants that we often call 'weeds' (especially if they are not native) are behaving like a cover crop. There is no reason why we can't try adding other species into the 'weed' mix. The important thing to remember is that without plants of any sort growing our soil organisms are left unfed!
@@LearningfromNature But in the very beginning the guest was talking about weeding a community garden, which is completely different. You're giving great advice here but it is not aimed at the home gardener at all, it'd be better to clarify this is for larger scale use such as growing pastures and orchards and such. Almost none of what is discussed has a practical application for the home gardener, which I'd safely guess is the majority of the viewers here. Maybe a different video on similar practices meant for the intensive and small-scale, high yield requirements of a home gardener would be a good choice.
Once upon a time, my grandmother received an Indian strawberry from someone. She planted it in the garden and I haven't been able to get rid of it for decades, because its roots are so deep, and it reproduces in all possible ways. I don't want poisons in my garden, so, after a futile struggle, I decided to just pluck it superficially. If I want to have a nice garden, I'm afraid that its roots will eat up all the nutrients of the other plants that I really want in the garden. She hangs out with absolutely all the plants and I hate her from the bottom of my soul.
Ekscentar I need to do a video on competition! But for now, the other way to look at the Indian Strawberry plant is as a source of root tissues, root exudates and leaf litter to feed your soil organisms! Watch this video for more info - ua-cam.com/video/b_SD4RORwPw/v-deo.htmlsi=Jq7-pvNY4KXQo6Ns
Balance is required. I have tried letting weeds grow in my allotment and it creates chaos and ultimately takes up more time and headache, ahd reduced yeilds (which many studies have shown too). I have tried keeping some weeds and removed the rest. There is no discernable benefit over just adding compost/mulch. Its all just theory, but crops don't care about the theories. Mulch/compost works excellent, period. There's nothing more to it. I've never seen anyone be grow better vegetables than Charles Dowding consistently. That is my barometer. Show me the results... You almost never see the crops of theoreticians. And your in the corner of an unused field, I really don't get the point here.
Exactly right, the guest was talking about a community garden where they have to work hard to clear weeds so the garden will flourish, then the author starts talking about an ugly corner of a cow pasture. The two are nothing alike. In a community or home garden you have a small space where you are trying to grow the most food while keeping the soil as healthy as possible, and all while keeping in mind you need to manage it for annual production starting immediately. A pasture is totally different as you can rotate livestock on and off of it, limit impacts, let it sit for multiple seasons to slowly regenerate, and so on, and you aren't trying to get maximum production out of it. It's the same reason why large farm solutions don't apply to small farms or home gardens, they are completely different ecosystems. You can look at soil samples under a microscope and compare them from pastures, large farms, and home gardens and very clearly see the differences even when all three are what experts would consider healthy soils for what they're used for. Look at Charles Dowding and Farmer Jesse's No-Till channels if you are looking for what you should be doing to get the best soils in a smaller setting like a home garden. The video here is more useful for people looking to grow pastures or food forests or orchards or something else on a larger scale than most viewers will have.
The thing is, weeds will condition soil to be better for them. You aren't wasting time weeding. Weeds should be composted and then can be added as organic matter to the soil
Thanks for your comment. Yes weeds will improve the condition of our soil, especially if we chop-and-drop the leaves onto the ground. But most annual weeds are pioneer plants. With improved soil conditions other plants can colonise the land. We talk more about this here - ua-cam.com/video/VXmPRX-mRvE/v-deo.htmlsi=-YAJY7yCnolc2sRp
Hi David thank you for your question. We'll be publishing a video on competition in a few weeks. But in the meantime... I think it depends on your circumstances. In this video - ua-cam.com/video/KR64rgv5z_I/v-deo.htmlsi=m620rnRwHNox54IF we talk about how weeds can be used to improve degraded soil. These are situations where it's difficult to get other plants established. Weeds like other plants provide leaf, stem and root tissues and often root exudates to feed our soil organisms. Without this food and other types of organic waste materials from faeces and animal remains etc,. soil organisms don't have enough to eat. They can't get on with the job they have had billions of years of training to do - maintain the soil infrastructure, recycle nutrients and re-supply them to plants for reuse. See - ua-cam.com/video/b_SD4RORwPw/v-deo.htmlsi=bRFuC6sJanRHZWVz. We allow weeds to grow in our veggie gardens, but not all. We look at how they grow and manage them - chop-and-drop to feed our soil organisms.
I prefer not to pull weeds/grass just cut/trim them and I leave them where they are trimmed. They compose and makes our soil healthy, feeds our plants. Just like how the cows, goats eat grass and grow healthy and give us healthy meat.
Some weeds, not all. This woman is Australian like me. I wonder how she deals with that damn introduced weed Kikuyu, which roots from the tiniest piece and takes over everything. The thought of poisons dismays me, but I have been battling this weed for decades. Too old for this.
Hi Kalayne - Thanks for highlighting that grasses can be weeds too! When I brought my farm it was just paddocks of African grasses, like Kikuyu. None were considered 'weeds' because of their value as feed for cattle! Trying to grow other things in these African grasses is a challenge. I've used weed mat and mulch - left for 4-6 weeeks until the grass has died - remove weed mat and replace mulch. But we can also reduce the cover and slowly eradicate these grasses by working with ecological succession. Grasses prefer bacteria/fungal soils - planting fast growing pioneering shrubs and trees we start to create more fungal dominated soils, and the grasses die back. If you would like more details - I explain how to work with succession in my Eco-logical Gardening and Eco-logical Farming Handbooks - www.learningfromnature.com.au/handbooks-on-growing-food-ecologically/
RE weeds stealing nutrients from our veggies - this can be true for some types of weeds. Some weeds can benefit our veggies as shocking as that may sound. Curious? Click here: ua-cam.com/video/EwQQdmePIzQ/v-deo.html
Ruby - we can combine several strategies to fast-track improving our soil. For example, adding other pioneering species to our weed species mix - plants growing heaps of biomass, deep-rooted plants, mulch, compost, bio-ferts - depending on our circumstances!
@@LearningfromNature yes but it won't produce much of a harvest for a long time and possibly the weeds will continue to propagate, which is fine if you don't need to grow food, I grow food. I do like the idea of adding pioneer species to the mix, might try it
I cannot disagree more about this practice. Weeds in particular alien weeds downgrade the area to a point where the seed load in the soil makes it almost impossible to rehabilitate the soil. I is far more beneficial to plant and cover crop of useful plants or of local native plants. Mulching with organic waste is also a good option
Mulch is great for boosting the organic materials on your soil. But mulch doesn't supply root tissues or root exudates - two important food sources for your willing team of soil renovators - the microbes and invertebrates in your soil. Re natives and cover crop - yes definitely if your soil is in a good enough condition to get them established. This video shows how to use weeds to rehabilitate degraded soil.
@@LearningfromNaturejust add mulch. It will feed the soil life. Don't overcomplicate things with exudates etc. It's just not necessary and causes more work to manage the weeds/plants.
Jez - we all have different growing conditions, types of weeds, and production systems. It's up to each of us to work out if and how we can work with weeds.
@@LearningfromNature that's not what your video says... Or your explanations afterwards. Honestly, why not just dump a bucket or two of compost on this area? How is that not simpler than trying to manage weeds? At least hoe them out and compost them. Nothing is lost. It doesn't even have to be fully finished compost. So many problems are averted. It's a bad idea to let weeds grow in a place where you want to grow stuff, and the benefits are fluff. I have experimented with this extensively. Just creates more work, no benefit. Adding organic matter above ground increases fertility and soil biology, full stop. No seeds flying around, no getting on your knees and deciding what to keep or remove. It's simple and effective. Obviously everyone does what they want, but this isn't a good strategy in most cases.
What I found works for me:
1. When sowing seeds, do pull out all the weeds to create space, but don't do this to all the land at once (I'll clear a small patch to plant seeds and leave the rest of the garden intact, then I may clear another small patch the next week to plant more seeds). I've noticed my garden has way more ladybugs and other beneficial insects than the - clear all weeds and aim for "neat" bare ground - neighbors, because in my plot there are always lots of plants growing, it's never bare.
2. To decide which weeds to keep or pull I look at which weeds house which insects. If some are eg a bee or ladybird fav I'll let a few stay, even if they are big.
3. Overall, I leave all weeds when they are still small. They make good ground cover etc and aren't really competing with other plants when small. Also, small weeds are a lot of work to remove.
4. I pull out some of the weeds when they are big. This makes weeding much easier and faster. Also, it's easier to see what is what. I strive for a diversity of weeds and will pull more of the ones there are a lot of, unless I know they are beneficial to the plot (it's a learning work in progress). If I don't want the weeds to spread (or my neighbors don't want that haha) I'll pull them out before they set seed.
5. Depending on the weather I'll drop pulled weeds on the same spot, to shade the soil (heat) or put them in the compost if it's rainy and there are lots of slugs (helps take away their hiding spots in the garden). So whether I drop or move weeds can vary from week to week. Sometimes I also bury them (e.g. if I am digging a hole to plant a bigger seedling, and have a bunch of weeds, I'll drop those in the bottom of the hole)
6. I "use" weeds and flowers and spreading different plants all over the garden (instead of neat rows) to confuse bugs that may otherwise eat the veggies and also to avoid depleting the soil.
7. There are some weeds that stay very small, are barely rooted, and cover a lot of ground. I tend to leave most of those because - if needed - they are super easy and quick to remove, they mix well with most veggies and don't become a problem, and they keep the other weeds at bay.
Overall, when fellow gardeners complain about how much weeding they need to do (daily!) I find that coming in once a week during the growing season for a few hours to tend to the garden overall is plenty. Also, during hot dry spells when most people need to water daily I often don't need to water for a whole week. My garden doesn't look "impressive and under control" but it's less work, more fun, and many of the veggies actually do better.
I still have plenty to learn, but to anyone feeling stressed about keeping up with a veggie garden I'd say, go for this different approach! No, you won't win any awards and if you're in a community garden other gardeners will probably look down on you for "not having things under control" but the work/harvest balance is much better 😀
Thanks for taking the time to detail your specific approach and for reminding us to be ready for criticism because we are managing weeds differently. In this video, the focus was degraded soil - soil that's difficult to get most plants established.
@@LearningfromNature I understand and I appreciate your approach. It looked like the comment section was turning into a more weeds in general discussion hence my comment. I had a small piece of land with very degraded soil before. Previous "renters" would plough, let it dry out, plant nothing and give up till the next year. When I took on that plot it was dry and very compacted. I left half very "weedy" and constantly received criticism for it from other gardeners. But I was able to grow some veggies. It was sad because some other empty plots were full of beautiful wildflowers but it was all cut down in the name of tidyness.
Thanks for your input! Did you get the chance to look at our video on building healthy soil? - ua-cam.com/video/RXDNYTo8RLE/v-deo.html.
Great points! I use a similar practice, even in the parts of my garden where the soil is not degraded. I allow weeds to grow early in the season, for the same reason you do: as habitat for beneficial insects. I also leave a particular variety of native weed that attracts aphids. It reduces the aphid problems in the rest of the garden and ensures that I always have a healthy ladybug population, which controls aphids in the entire garden.
When the weeds get big enough to compete with my veggie crops, I pull them and add the weeds to the compost pile, where the green weeds will help heat up the compost to kill any weed seeds that make it into the compost pile. Those green weeds are high in nitrogen, which helps balance the carbon sources in the pile, creating a better habitat for the bacteria that cause compost piles to get hot.
I also eat some of the weeds in salads. Tender young leaves from lambsquarter, wild amaranth (pigweed) and wild lettuce are all welcome additions to our salads early in the season before the lettuce is abundant.
I also have some flowers in the garden that are somewhat invasive: mostly lambs ear, domestic amaranth and hollyhocks. Since they are grown for flowers, the faded flowers go to seed while the new ones on the end of the stalks are still blooming. Sometimes those seeds mature on the stock and spread themselves before I cut down the stalks in the fall. No problem, though! I allow the seeds to germinate in the spring, then transplant them to areas where I WANT those flowers, or I give away the seedlings to friends. My sister's yard is lovely now, after several years of transplanting my "weed" flowers into her yard!
Which ladybugs? Some are vegetarian and will defoliate a vegetable garden.
yes ... sometimes we use to forget
that all those pioneer plants
which we call 'weed' today
have generated our fertile soil of today in millions of years ...
I have ultra crap soil. I am working on a sort of food forest. Chop and drop has helped immensely. I let weeds grow but I really am selective about the weeds that I allow. They can act as nurse plants while trees/shrubs etc get established. They all get the chop in the end. They re grow and get the chop again. There are some that bring in the bees. The ones that are a real problem are some of the grasses. They can take over and wipe everything out so I spray those before they get out of hand.
Hi Jenny - thank you for highlighting that we can work with weeds by managing them.
hi... "...grasses...spray them..."... how and with what do you spray them exactly ?
If your soil is "ultra crap" as you say (like mine too), then why not try growing your veggies in raised wicking beds. They are marvelous. A bit of effort setting them up that is more than compensated for in its ability to grow alot more food per sq mtr, ease of watering and the bonus >> fewer weed problems to deal with.
Give it a try.
I let my weeds grow wild in the yard, then chop them all down in to 55g drums and turn them in to liquid fertilizer. You give most if not all of the weeds' 'superpowers' to your edible plants.
This is great..I'm trying to build soil on my own degraded land..I look at weeds as pioneer species.. they're my biggest helpers
Thanks - and remember that we can add other species into the pioneer mix! For example we can add species growing lots of plant biomass, deep roots and legumes....
Problem with a lot of weeds is that they form dense monocultures in stable environments. Lantana, Camphor laurel, crofton weed, just to name a few. Further, strong disagree with weeds repair the soil; "plants" repair the soil. Different plant communities encourage different conditions, e.g. eucalyptus encourage fire, grasslands encourage grasslands, forests encourage forest, it'd be unfair not to consider the negative impacts that weeds can have, or the improved ability some other plants have. Remember these are arbitrary terms, but to mindlessly say "all weeds are good" is probably not a great message. Camphor laurel causes chronic erosion over the course of around 20 years on creekbanks, lantana locks eucalyptus understory enabling BMAD, killing massive areas of eucalyptus forest. Where, if you're to consider say, crofton or fireweed or something in your garden or lawn or wherever you are, it's maybe worth considering that maybe there's something better that can be there? E.g. most grasses do not repair soils proportionally to forests or diverse broadleaf weed cover crops even, as grasses encourage a high bacteria:fungal ratio. If repairing your soil is what you want then diverse broadleaf species and perennial plants that can be cut back every year is the quickest most efficate way without external inputs. A single bunch of comfrey roots can make 100s of plants. Cunjevoi rapidly propogate themselves and can just be pulled out of the ground. Acacias grow incredibly quick, can be quite small and produce a lot of biomass.
Also consider the humic acid return to the soil from the microbe chains that feed off the plants exudates; ragweed returns a tiny amount of HA back to the soil compared with comfrey. To simply enable "doing nothing about your weeds", is kinda counter-productive to understanding soil repair, and I feel just justifies people taking the easy way out. "Re-wilding is not regenerating, and probably more degenerating".
Thank you for your thoughts! Totally agree re plants repair soil. Plants provide the food resources for the microbes and invertebrates in our soils to repair our nutrient recycling system and the soil infrastructure (watch here for details - ua-cam.com/video/b_SD4RORwPw/v-deo.html) Weeds (for the reasons mentioned in the video) are just particularly skilled at colonising and growing in severely degraded conditions - they are pioneer plants. improving the soil to enable other species to colonise through ecological succession.
Fantastic, nuanced points @uenaeons - thank you for bringing it up. I believe the video certainly meant very well, but lacked the full nuance needed for such a complex topic.
I have a forest on my property that's about 30 years old, of various eucalyptus, acacias and other endemic and non-endemic species. Amongst this forest is camphor laurel, lantana and other non-native species. None of the non-native species grow densely and not as a monoculture. Eucalyptus dominate this forest and mountainous areas. I believe we know very little about what plants do to the soil. They've been doing their thing long before us humans decided we knew it all, creating soil for the future and ultimately for us to grow crops and plants. Weeds like fireweed and bracken fern are considered bad but are balancing the soil after an event of some sort. Some weeds are toxic to livestock eg. lantana and fireweed but not toxic to anything else. People don't consider the pollen for bees and food and shelter for birds and insects. I would rather an abundance of weeds than acres of dirt and crop monocultures that do NOTHING for the future of growing food without hefty inputs.
The job of weeds is to spread themselves, replicate themselves and adapt to the local conditions.
Allow them to compete with domestic plants and weeds win EVERY time
Thank you for this. I've been saying this so many times to non believers.
You are so welcome!
Really enjoyed this vid: Happily bc I follow these ideas already. Great to hear it so eloquently.
Thank you!
The worst weeds are actually the unwanted grasses with rhizomes which spread widely and which choke the roots of other plants. They are difficult to completely eradicate without resorting to herbicidal treatments, & will persist in "no dig" soils.
Hi Mike - totally agree! In this video the focus was degraded soil - soil that's difficult to get any plants established.
I read this comment to my chickens and all of them just LOL
Johnson grass. 🤬
Yes, she didn’t mention the rhizome weeds, did she? Nor did she mention the heartache of having invasive weeds.
Great video. Along with chop-and-drop you can add carbon to the soil by laying down hay or other vegetation on that ground to accelerate transition to grasses as soil improves. Greg Judy talks a lot about that on his channel where he often lays down hay as a cheap way to improve soil. He also occasionally further seeds with grass seeds so that the improving soil has grass seeds, though of course hay also has grass seeds.
Yes, I didn't mention in the video that we can combine using weeds with other strategies to fast-track improving our soil. For example, adding other pioneering species to our weed species mix - plants growing heaps of biomass, deep-rooted plants, straw and other mulch materials, compost, bio-ferts - depending on our circumstances!
Wood chips is another one, but it is for more extreme cases of barren soil and can take a couple years to break down before you can use the soil, and they don't work so well in dry areas as you need moisture for them to really break down. Obviously grasses, leafs, etc. break down a lot quicker and don't need as much moisture.
But you don't have to apply it as much, dump a few inches over a large area, wait a couple years, plant some basic easy to grow crops or weeds to feed the soil and you can turn barren land into farmable land.
Such good advice, and what kind way to carry the explanation. You got a new follower 💚 Have a good new year!
Thank you!
Fantastic and well-explained video. Thank you!
You're very welcome!
Hi Wendy. I watched some of your videos now and really like your simpel and natural approach of plant life with scientific backup. And I really like and enjoy the way you explain biological processes, and that you kind of look at nature as a teacher. To me there are no weeds anyway but herbs. In one video you said you are a doctor, may I asked in what field? Biology or environmental science? Best wishes, WH
Ecology!
@@LearningfromNatureThank you.
Well explained. Thanks for taking the time. My garden is always an overgrown jungle, of sorts after harvest, but the soil is rich and productive. We just entertained some guests who wanted a tour of the 1 acre of beds and I'm always aware of how foreign everything looks to the average person. I enjoy explaining all the manual tools we have and use.
Don you may like to listen/read about the difference weeds made in this lime orchard in Australia - ABC News - Using weeds and the power of ecosystems to improve farm profitability - www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2018-01-22/using-weeds-ecology-to-improve-farm-profitability/9343028
I don't get the open grassland up the back slashed as keeping it long MAKES the moisture after rain go down deep. Also, the long roots HOLD the land together when flooding rains arrive!! I'm slowly getting it more and more trees planted on the slopes and WILL be planting trees till I die for food and home for wildlife and of course to benefit "Mother Earth"!
Thank you for sharing your project with us. One question - have you thought about getting the grassland grazed or slashed occasionally? This would increase the amount of organic materials to feed your soil organisms? I explain why here - ua-cam.com/video/b_SD4RORwPw/v-deo.htmlsi=g8qa1p4UySFZFQfZ
@@LearningfromNature I DO get the back slashed high when it's not too wet now and again. I USED to get it slashed regular but NOT for the last 6 years. I have lots of (Giant clumping Bamboo's) on the steep terrain to HOLD the soils and the leaves are high in silica. Deep underneath is loaded with worms. I was "raised" on the land and know "plenty" about what's GOOD for the soil. People that hate Lantana need to realise that is a legume and little birds LOVE to nest in it and it's holding the steep hills behind me together when heavy rains come. DO I want cattle on it = NO! As I want to fully replant and cattle and small tree's is NOT a good combination!!! All best Pete N/E NSW. 14 Hrs later= Why does it only show 1 reply You/Tube???
Thanks for sharing how you are managing the grass and thereby improving your soil ecosystem. All the best to you as well!
This is generalizing weeds which is bad advice. If you have the right weeds this works. Some weeds can become dominate over all other species and reduce diversity. Some weeds aren't native and can be even worse. I have to weed to keep my weeds alive so I have diversity.
Bryce, thank you for your comment. If I have weeds that become dominant, I manage them by chopping and dropping. The critical message in this video is that weeds are pioneer plants. They grow where often other plants can't survive because of degraded soil. As such, they provide the only food source for the microbes and invertebrates in our soil. As Megan talked about in the video, they spend hours in their community garden pulling out weeds, which otherwise would have supplied their soil organisms with the resources to improve their soil.
@@LearningfromNatureCould this also reduce the need for fertilizer and soil remediation?
@@erics5757yes, look at 'the liquid carbon pathway'. it's all about succession, building soil up the succession to be fungal equal to fungal dominant, depends on what crop is being grown. That is a simplified description
@@erics5757Yes! When the soil has more microorganisms the nutrients are stored inside them and provides the plants with nutrients in a simbiotic relationship. Futhermore, some weeds have long patroots that absorb nutrients form deep layers and bring them back to surface.
@@erics5757of course
This is great! Definitely have native plants moving in where invasive thistles initially paved the way.
Thanks for sharing your observations!
I don't have a weed problem in my gardens, thankfully. Our pups do make a mess of the lawn in winter and digging up grubs in the spring so every spring our lawn gets a lot of early weeds filling in the holes in the lawn. We just leave them there, mow them and eventually as it warms up the grass grows in and takes over. Mulch mowing the weeds, grass and leaves feeds the lawn. Now if I could get the pups to stop grubbing.
Good thing they grow up! :)
some weeds are not easy to chop since they grow by hugging the ground.
Yes, you're right. But that's why we each need to work out if we want to use weeds to improve the food supply to our soil organisms and, if so, how best to do so.
Weeds become compost for me. If i get bare areas I cover it in cut grass, hay, sugar cane whatever i have.
I plant legumes into that. If the cows gove me a chance i plant bana grass. Brilliant stuff.
Peace thank you for sharing your practical experiences. I know some market gardeners who add legumes to their natural weed mix.
thx for sharing :) is this beside active farmland?
Not exactly sure what you mean - the area shown is in one of our paddocks at Hill Top Farm - the education center for Learning from Nature - watch this video about our farm here - ua-cam.com/video/ngYv9YpySt0/v-deo.htmlsi=8eRQhnt9DkJyjeAv
Great video! I love short-form videos that are packed full of information. There's no filler here 😊
Glad it was helpful!
Weeds r good no doubt. It take CO2 from air and deposite in soil if unburned. Weeds which have shallow roots take moisture and nutrients from top soil layers. Prevent soil from cracking thereby prevent deep moisture loss. Weeds encourage nitrogen deposition in soil via micro livings. If dead weed is is converted in manure via cattle or via composting and served in crop root area then is nice nutrition allocation with value addition. This way it act as nutrition storage and supply cycle as per need of crop. Managing weed is delicate issue like collecting butter from buttermilk. If not manage well it consume crop nutrition and reduce crop yield.
Shirish - thank you for highlighting that weeds remove carbon dioxide from our atmosphere!
Using weeds can be a benefit for all growing habitats; but how much, what, when is something you will have to observe and adapt to your specific ecology.
I grow on the coast in southern California (10a) and for my soil biology lambs quarter, night shade, and purslane. I harvest seeds and over crop to get the right ratios at the right times. I also use these inputs to make weed juice (JADAM/KNF). The night shade throws a deep tap and improves deep soil biology over time. The others spread shallow and make good living mulch. Having life in your soil is better than microbe free dry dirt. Mine happen to be a bit xeriphytic so I actually water less (better retention)
I use compost only no salts, no till and zero insecticides or any chemical compound. I don’t even use OHN. The insect pressure is mitigated by the nightshade (sacrificial) and the vast predators that inhabit my garden. Also, about half the insects that get targeted by industry are actually detritavores and beneficial. 🤷♂️
Thank you for sharing your experiences and you are so right that we need to observe and adapt what we do to our unique growing conditions. That's why I also think that it is important to understand 'why' we use different regenerative practices. Because in understanding what we are trying to achieve, we are in a better position to choose and adapt how we use different tools, like working with weeds, to our growing conditions.
It's different in your back garden. Weeds will compete with plants. Try growing carrots in with weeds.
Some weeds are handy they attract beneficial insects. My cattle love them too. So I grow a few weeds but never let them get out of hand.
Peace - I visited G Growers in the UK a few years back. One of the biggest commercial vegetable producers in the UK. They let weeds grow amongst their celery and lettuce crops once they are established because of the benefits to their soil. See photo and read more here - www.learningfromnature.com.au/weeds/
It’s a romantic idea, but the benefits of allowing all weeds to grow in with other crops will be far outweighed by the negatives. Also, something worth noting is that all weeds are not created equally. Exotic invasive species can quickly overtake an area and way outcompete anything you’re trying to grow.
Yeah weed compete with our corn , make our corn leafes yellow not green
Thanks everyone for your comments. A couple of things we would like to add to the discussion. The information I shared was that weeds provide food for our soil organisms - the experts at improving soil. In the video, we talk about the role of weeds colonising degraded soil, where it is often difficult to get other plants established. But weeds can provide the same ecological services anywhere. However, as we all grow different crops, have different growing conditions and different types of weeds, we each need to work out if we want to use weeds and, if so, how best to do so.
For further information on this eco-logical approach to building healthy soil watch next - ua-cam.com/video/b_SD4RORwPw/v-deo.html
I'm always loath to weed my garden because so many of the weeds are edible! some of them go in a salad (for dandelions, plantain and other strong-tasting ones, the trick is to cut the leaves into thin strips with scissors), some can be used in soups, palak paneer etc. Weeds and wild plants also tend to be very nutritious.
It's a misleading title, but the content is sensible and important. Of course many plants such as bidens pilosa are vital in reconditioning soil
Hi Jungle Joe, Why do you think the title is misleading? The lady is talking about how weeds are good to chop and drop. I'd love to hear other title suggestions.
JungleJoe, the crucial information we wanted to share in the video is that weeds feed soil organisms - and soil organisms are the experts in reconditioning soil. Plants of course provide many other services
Bafore some very smart people called them weeds they where called pioneer plants ... Those plants only come when the soil need them so the soil becomes better and other plants can thrive on it.
Quite right!
Thanks for the reminder that chop & drop is good! I notice that although I know these things, I still have the old programming running in my head that weeds are bad 🙄
I was looking up why people love making perfect lawns and it was disturbing, basically we are fooled by people who are only interested in profit and may even create a problem to sell you the solution such as 'Weed'n'Feed' for the almighty perfect lawn so many strive for. We are programmed to make neat looking gardens to match the neighbours and maybe even win the award for the best street in town. Also, the fear of fire fuel is big. That's what was making me concerned about leaving clippings on the ground.
So yes, thank you for the reminder to think like nature 🙏💚🌱
Thank you for taking time to respond! If you have time, take a look at our other video resources about learning from nature (@learningfromnature) and also our articles here - www.learningfromnature.com.au/resources-growing-food-ecologically/
Do you deal with weeds in your vegatable garden with the same strategy? Last year I've tried to remove as little weeds as possible and planted into them and cut a few as mulch. But at least the peas and the beans were struggling really hard and formed flowers and fruit when they were still tiny. I try to leave the weeds in the bed over winter to ensure the microbes get fed, but I think before planting next I will pull out most of them. What do you think?
All the best
Jona - without seeing your garden i can't be prescriptive. How well a plant grows can depend on a whole lot of factors. However we do know that living plants improve soil better obviously than bare ground and also, interestingly, mulch. The reason being that plants supply leaves, stems, root tissues and root exudates. Plus research shows that the organic matter retained in soil tends to be root-derived.
If you leave pulled out weeds there, the seeds will grow like crazy next year.
The guest was talking about a community garden where they have to work hard to clear weeds so the garden will flourish, then the author starts talking about a cow pasture. The two are nothing alike. In a community or home garden you have a small space where you are trying to grow the most food while keeping the soil as healthy as possible, and manage it for annual production. A pasture is totally different. It's why large farm solutions don't apply to small farms or home gardens, they are completely different ecosystems. Look at Charles Dowding and Farmer Jesse's No-Till channels if you are looking for what you should be doing to get the best soils in a smaller setting like a home garden. The video here is more useful for people looking to grow pastures or food forests or orchards or something else on a larger scale than most viewers will have.
Great topic, thanks for talking about this!
Awesome
Thank you!
I agree but I am not convinced that leaving three corner jacks to multiply is a good idea.
Hi Kerry - please see my pinned comment above
Simple Question: So if this practice if beneficial LIKE YOU BOTH CLAIM. Then why is it that none of the commercial food growers in the world use these method?
Some do!
U.S. commercial farmers are all under contract from the chemical syndicate that goes by many names Monsanto Syngenta Bayer. They use a chemical burn agriculture called no till. They are in charge of the U.S. government department of agriculture by donating huge campaign contributions to each the presidents since 1957. They are tax subsidized and corrupted.
I want to see more videos about the nature 👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️💋💋💋👍👍👍💕👍👍👍👍💋👍👍👍👍👍👍
Thanks - they're coming @learningfromnature
I am reminded by this farmer of another farmer who wrote "The One Straw Revolution" (Masanobu Fukuoka) about a half century ago in which he explained how to make better use of your time by patiently, intelligently, observing what nature is doing and asking yourself BEFORE you act: "Is nature doing this?" For example, does nature plow? NO! Does nature compost? No! Does nature weed? No! Do we see nature leaving the soil bare, unprotected? No! Does nature put poison, e.g., chemical weed killers, fertilizers, anti-fungi? No! Yet, farmers spend a lot of time/money doing it. This is ignorant, counter-productive, destructive. Masanobu's garden was a jungle of plants, making finding fruit difficult, but it was much less work, producing more nutritious food.
Yes! Learning from Nature! As you highlighted by referring to Masanobu Fukuoka, the concept and practice isn't new! Eve Balfour, the founder of the UK Soil Association, also said in 1948. "Fertility is a term that should be applied to the soil and vegetation together, for the soil derives its capacity for producing life from the vegetation, as much as plants derive their capacity for growth from the soil."
Our social enterprise - learningfromnature.com.au - is developing resources to help food gardeners, and farmers learn from Nature by growing food eco-logically. Please do take a look at our other videos (@learningfromnature), articles (www.learningfromnature.com.au/resources-growing-food-ecologically/) and Handbooks (www.learningfromnature.com.au/handbooks-on-growing-food-ecologically/)
Maybe, the title of this video should have been "Why Weeding is a Waste of Time in Degraded Soil". Weeds, and I use the term loosely, seem much more efficient in taking up the required water, nutrients, and sunlight than most desired plants, to include lawn grass. If the soil is not deficient, weeds will quickly overtake other plants and inhibit their growth. You can see plenty of evidence of this with a quick drive around any neighborhood where weeds were not adequately addressed soon enough. Some people don't care if their yards are overrun with weeds but often, their neighbors do. Moreso, when they start spreading outside of their property lines.
Most weeds pioneer plants - It would be interesting to get a spade and have a look at the soil.
I had to pull these cannibalistic weed out my garden because they were choking and strangling my tomatoes, then they sprouted creeping vines began to pull my tomatoes to ground so they rot while feeding the the invading vines.
I wonder if you know anything about plants?
Howard can you chop-and-drop these weeds to manage them? Or plant something else that is better at supporting the growth of your tomatoes?
I consider some of this to be misinformation. You're basically describing weeds functioning as a cover crop, which may be the case, but that varies widely depending on the species. Sometimes "weeds" aren't really weeds, like, say, clover, pigweed, or dandelion. But other species (and their residues) may be strong allelopaths (like cocklebur, or cockspur grass), or they could harbor pests or disease that later infect/infest crops (solanceae family weeds like nightshades or jimsonweed harbor pests and disease harmful to tomato, pepper, potato, eggplant, etc.). Cover crops seem like the best solution, here. You get all of the benefits you described with comparatively minor allelopathy/pest/disease risk.
In this video, the focus was degraded soil - soil that's difficult to get most plants established. In these conditions pioneer plants that we often call 'weeds' (especially if they are not native) are behaving like a cover crop. There is no reason why we can't try adding other species into the 'weed' mix. The important thing to remember is that without plants of any sort growing our soil organisms are left unfed!
@@LearningfromNature But in the very beginning the guest was talking about weeding a community garden, which is completely different. You're giving great advice here but it is not aimed at the home gardener at all, it'd be better to clarify this is for larger scale use such as growing pastures and orchards and such. Almost none of what is discussed has a practical application for the home gardener, which I'd safely guess is the majority of the viewers here. Maybe a different video on similar practices meant for the intensive and small-scale, high yield requirements of a home gardener would be a good choice.
Once upon a time, my grandmother received an Indian strawberry from someone. She planted it in the garden and I haven't been able to get rid of it for decades, because its roots are so deep, and it reproduces in all possible ways. I don't want poisons in my garden, so, after a futile struggle, I decided to just pluck it superficially. If I want to have a nice garden, I'm afraid that its roots will eat up all the nutrients of the other plants that I really want in the garden. She hangs out with absolutely all the plants and I hate her from the bottom of my soul.
Ekscentar I need to do a video on competition! But for now, the other way to look at the Indian Strawberry plant is as a source of root tissues, root exudates and leaf litter to feed your soil organisms! Watch this video for more info - ua-cam.com/video/b_SD4RORwPw/v-deo.htmlsi=Jq7-pvNY4KXQo6Ns
Balance is required. I have tried letting weeds grow in my allotment and it creates chaos and ultimately takes up more time and headache, ahd reduced yeilds (which many studies have shown too).
I have tried keeping some weeds and removed the rest. There is no discernable benefit over just adding compost/mulch. Its all just theory, but crops don't care about the theories. Mulch/compost works excellent, period. There's nothing more to it. I've never seen anyone be grow better vegetables than Charles Dowding consistently. That is my barometer. Show me the results... You almost never see the crops of theoreticians.
And your in the corner of an unused field, I really don't get the point here.
Because it's a cow pasture. Did you even watch the video? 😂 This video wasn't even about crops.
Exactly right, the guest was talking about a community garden where they have to work hard to clear weeds so the garden will flourish, then the author starts talking about an ugly corner of a cow pasture. The two are nothing alike. In a community or home garden you have a small space where you are trying to grow the most food while keeping the soil as healthy as possible, and all while keeping in mind you need to manage it for annual production starting immediately. A pasture is totally different as you can rotate livestock on and off of it, limit impacts, let it sit for multiple seasons to slowly regenerate, and so on, and you aren't trying to get maximum production out of it. It's the same reason why large farm solutions don't apply to small farms or home gardens, they are completely different ecosystems. You can look at soil samples under a microscope and compare them from pastures, large farms, and home gardens and very clearly see the differences even when all three are what experts would consider healthy soils for what they're used for. Look at Charles Dowding and Farmer Jesse's No-Till channels if you are looking for what you should be doing to get the best soils in a smaller setting like a home garden. The video here is more useful for people looking to grow pastures or food forests or orchards or something else on a larger scale than most viewers will have.
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The thing is, weeds will condition soil to be better for them. You aren't wasting time weeding. Weeds should be composted and then can be added as organic matter to the soil
Thanks for your comment. Yes weeds will improve the condition of our soil, especially if we chop-and-drop the leaves onto the ground. But most annual weeds are pioneer plants. With improved soil conditions other plants can colonise the land. We talk more about this here - ua-cam.com/video/VXmPRX-mRvE/v-deo.htmlsi=-YAJY7yCnolc2sRp
Very true and some weeds you can eat and use for medicine 😅❤
Absolutely!!
What do you make of the claim that the weeds need to be removed, otherwise they compete with your food plants for nutrients?
Hi David thank you for your question. We'll be publishing a video on competition in a few weeks. But in the meantime... I think it depends on your circumstances. In this video - ua-cam.com/video/KR64rgv5z_I/v-deo.htmlsi=m620rnRwHNox54IF we talk about how weeds can be used to improve degraded soil. These are situations where it's difficult to get other plants established. Weeds like other plants provide leaf, stem and root tissues and often root exudates to feed our soil organisms. Without this food and other types of organic waste materials from faeces and animal remains etc,. soil organisms don't have enough to eat. They can't get on with the job they have had billions of years of training to do - maintain the soil infrastructure, recycle nutrients and re-supply them to plants for reuse. See - ua-cam.com/video/b_SD4RORwPw/v-deo.htmlsi=bRFuC6sJanRHZWVz.
We allow weeds to grow in our veggie gardens, but not all. We look at how they grow and manage them - chop-and-drop to feed our soil organisms.
@@LearningfromNature thanks for the education. Oh I'm looking forward to the video on competition.
I prefer not to pull weeds/grass just cut/trim them and I leave them where they are trimmed. They compose and makes our soil healthy, feeds our plants. Just like how the cows, goats eat grass and grow healthy and give us healthy meat.
Yes thank you for reinforcing the message about weeds and how managing weeds we get extra benefits!
Some weeds, not all. This woman is Australian like me. I wonder how she deals with that damn introduced weed Kikuyu, which roots from the tiniest piece and takes over everything. The thought of poisons dismays me, but I have been battling this weed for decades. Too old for this.
Hi Kalayne - Thanks for highlighting that grasses can be weeds too! When I brought my farm it was just paddocks of African grasses, like Kikuyu. None were considered 'weeds' because of their value as feed for cattle! Trying to grow other things in these African grasses is a challenge. I've used weed mat and mulch - left for 4-6 weeeks until the grass has died - remove weed mat and replace mulch.
But we can also reduce the cover and slowly eradicate these grasses by working with ecological succession. Grasses prefer bacteria/fungal soils - planting fast growing pioneering shrubs and trees we start to create more fungal dominated soils, and the grasses die back. If you would like more details - I explain how to work with succession in my Eco-logical Gardening and Eco-logical Farming Handbooks - www.learningfromnature.com.au/handbooks-on-growing-food-ecologically/
As long as the ground is NOT BARE, weeds are better than nothing. Still don't want a bunch of weeds stealing nutrients from my veggies
RE weeds stealing nutrients from our veggies - this can be true for some types of weeds. Some weeds can benefit our veggies as shocking as that may sound. Curious? Click here: ua-cam.com/video/EwQQdmePIzQ/v-deo.html
Bare soil is not natural. Better to leave the weeds, cut them but don't pull them. Only pull when they're actually competing with something else.
You've got it!
if you have 10 years to build your soil leave the weeds. there are better ways to feed the land.
Ruby - we can combine several strategies to fast-track improving our soil. For example, adding other pioneering species to our weed species mix - plants growing heaps of biomass, deep-rooted plants, mulch, compost, bio-ferts - depending on our circumstances!
@@LearningfromNature yes but it won't produce much of a harvest for a long time and possibly the weeds will continue to propagate, which is fine if you don't need to grow food, I grow food. I do like the idea of adding pioneer species to the mix, might try it
There's nothing like a good ecological giant hogweed colonising your land.
I cannot disagree more about this practice. Weeds in particular alien weeds downgrade the area to a point where the seed load in the soil makes it almost impossible to rehabilitate the soil.
I is far more beneficial to plant and cover crop of useful plants or of local native plants.
Mulching with organic waste is also a good option
Mulch is great for boosting the organic materials on your soil. But mulch doesn't supply root tissues or root exudates - two important food sources for your willing team of soil renovators - the microbes and invertebrates in your soil. Re natives and cover crop - yes definitely if your soil is in a good enough condition to get them established. This video shows how to use weeds to rehabilitate degraded soil.
@@LearningfromNaturejust add mulch. It will feed the soil life. Don't overcomplicate things with exudates etc. It's just not necessary and causes more work to manage the weeds/plants.
Jez - we all have different growing conditions, types of weeds, and production systems. It's up to each of us to work out if and how we can work with weeds.
@@LearningfromNature that's not what your video says... Or your explanations afterwards. Honestly, why not just dump a bucket or two of compost on this area? How is that not simpler than trying to manage weeds? At least hoe them out and compost them. Nothing is lost. It doesn't even have to be fully finished compost. So many problems are averted. It's a bad idea to let weeds grow in a place where you want to grow stuff, and the benefits are fluff. I have experimented with this extensively. Just creates more work, no benefit. Adding organic matter above ground increases fertility and soil biology, full stop. No seeds flying around, no getting on your knees and deciding what to keep or remove. It's simple and effective. Obviously everyone does what they want, but this isn't a good strategy in most cases.
Foolishness! You don't like all those weeds in that area if you want to plant it with vegetables.
No such things as weeds
Kotu there are situations were plants can become weeds.