Harm and benefits of weeds

Weeds are not a specific type of plant. In nature, they have equal rights with all other representatives of the flora. So they are called by those who nurture and cherish vegetables, berries, flowers and fruits. All foreign plants in the garden are enemies for them. If you ask any gardener if weeds are needed in the garden, then everyone will answer – no, and they will be right.

But not everything is so clear. Outside the garden, weeds can not only bring tangible benefits, but also be a medicine for both people and plants. Some of them help to successfully deal with various pests that plague garden crops. They give signals about the acidity and fertility of the soil. Many can serve as mulch and even fertilizer. In a word, weeds have many functions. But first, let’s figure out what harm they do.

Weed damage

What harm do weeds bring to cultivated plants, animals and humans?

• They take away food from cultivated species, preventing them from developing. Plants, which we call weeds, are taught by nature itself to develop without human intervention, ensuring their existence in all possible ways. In terms of water consumption and nutrition, most of them are far ahead of cultivated plants. Tall weeds, by shading cultivated plants, interfere with their photosynthesis process, which can even lead to the death of vegetable plants. Weed control for better living conditions depletes cultivated species. According to statistics, crop losses in agriculture due to weeds can reach a quarter, and with their strong spread, half or more. Of course, on his personal plot, the gardener will not allow such excesses of weeds and will remove them on time. Remove weeds in the germination phase. An unbranched root will not sprout. If the root of a weed plant begins to branch, the weed will definitely grow back.
• They can serve as carriers of dangerous diseaseseven if they don’t get sick. Wheatgrass and nettles can infect cereals with rust. The same wheatgrass transmits the causative agent of ergot and powdery mildew to cultivated plants. Together with bristles and wild oats, they infect garden crops with root rot. Nightshade carries potato cancer, and wild cruciferous plants are sources of downy mildew. Many viruses that infect cultivated plants first appear on weeds and are then transferred by sucking insects to vegetables or grains. Wheatgrass is a weed that is very difficult to remove from the garden. Even a piece of root 1 cm long can germinate. Dig up the ground with a pitchfork that does not cut the wheatgrass roots into pieces, carefully choosing even small pieces of roots.

  

  

• They give shelter to various pests of garden crops. Bindweed and thistle are the place where the winter cutworm lays its eggs. Its caterpillars feed on plants of the grass family. They are also affected by flies – Swedish and Hessian, they lay their eggs on the roots of cereal weeds. Pests of cultivated species of this family breed on wild cruciferous plants: cabbage moths, flea beetles, cabbage moths.

  

• The meadow moth lays eggs on bindweed and wormwood, and its caterpillars harm many garden crops. Where there is wheatgrass, there is always a lot of wireworm, it contributes to its reproduction. Even if there are no weeds on the beds, but they run amok in nearby spaces, pests very easily move to cultivated plants. Mow the grass on roadsides, along fences, in the garden to prevent pests from breeding.

  

• Weeds can parasitize cultivated plants, sucking out nutrients from them. This distinguishes dodder and broomrape – parasitic plants.
• Getting into forage grasses, can cause poisoning in animals. If weed seeds get into the grain, the flour not only loses its taste, but can also become poisonous.
• wild plants can be cross-pollinated with cultivated species, worsening their varietal qualities. This phenomenon is observed in cereals and cruciferous. When growing cabbage seed plants, make sure that colza, mustard, and other wild plants from the cruciferous family do not grow in the vicinity.

  

• Ambrosia is a weed that causes severe allergic reactions in humans.

This is the behavior of weeds in fields and beds. Of course, they don’t belong there. But all these plants are also found in areas not developed by humans. Collected there, they can serve a person well.

Weed use

How to use weeds for the benefit of humans and cultivated plants? The use of these plants is very diverse, and the benefits of weeds are not in doubt.

• Use in food. Surprisingly, many weeds can be successfully used as food plants. Properly prepared, they are not only healthy, but also tasty. It turns out that gout can be added to soups and salads and even sour like cabbage.

  

• Burdock roots are quite edible boiled and fried. In Japan, this plant is grown as a cultivated plant, none of its varieties are bred there. Many dishes are prepared from Siberian hogweed. From the roots of wheatgrass, grinding it in a meat grinder, you can make cutlets. Dandelion leaves and young leaves of clover and plantain are added to the salad. And wood lice mixed with other greens can serve as an excellent filling for pies.

  

  The leaves of wild primrose contain a record amount of vitamin C, which is very important in spring, when salads are prepared from it. Dandelion contains a lot of beta-carotene. Well, young nettle soup is just a classic. You can even make a dessert from weeds, for example, cook delicious and healthy dandelion jam. When using wild plants for food, remember that you cannot collect them near busy highways. Plants tend to absorb harmful substances emitted by car exhaust gases.

  

• Many weeds are medicinal in combination.. Their list is very long, and they often treat diseases more effectively than conventional medicines. Suffice it to recall yarrow, dandelion, nettle, clover, coltsfoot, St. John’s wort, which can cure many diseases. The same wheatgrass helps with joint pain, diseases of the kidneys and respiratory tract. There are plants that help to cope even with oncology. These are hemlock and aconite. Simple burdock is an excellent prophylactic against cancer. The rubber molecules contained in its roots are similar to cancer cells. Once in the human body, they force it to produce special immune cells to destroy itself. At the same time, all other atypical cells, including cancer cells, are destroyed.

  

  Japan is famous for its nutritional programs, in which the consumption of burdock plays a significant role. No wonder the Japanese are the healthiest nation in the world. Even the best medicinal plants have contraindications for their use. Keep this in mind when planning to use phytotherapy.

• Even in the beds they can be useful. Weeded out in time and folded into a compost heap, they will be invaluable to gardeners who, with their help, enrich the soil with organic matter and many useful substances. Most plants are rich in nitrogen, dandelion and sorrel leaves are rich in phosphorus, while chamomile, yarrow and nettle are sources of potassium. Horsetail will enrich the compost with silicon. There are also trace elements in weeds. If cultivated plants have already gained strength, weed control, especially annuals, can be slightly weakened. Covering the soil with a green carpet, they protect it from overheating. Left for the winter, they will enrich the soil with organic matter, their dead roots will become food for earthworms. Do not let the plants left in the beds inseminate, so that next season you do not have to fight them with a vengeance.
• Rich mineral composition of weeds allows you to prepare from them a very useful fertilizer for garden plants. The richer the herbal composition of such a fertilizer, the more beneficial it will be for garden crops. The technology of its preparation is very simple. The container is ¾ filled with chopped herbs and filled with water. During the fermentation process, water is enriched with nutrients. After a week, the solution can be used for feeding, diluting it ten times with water. This green elixir is not suitable only for onions and garlic. All other garden plants respond to such top dressing with increased growth. For the preparation of such a fertilizer, you can not use metal utensils. An undesirable oxidation process can occur in it.

  

• Weeds help in pest control. Plants containing phytoncides, such as wormwood, tansy, dandelion, serve as natural insecticides in the fight against leaf-eating insects, mites and many other pests. Decoctions and infusions of them are a mild and effective remedy. Unlike chemicals, natural ones are safe for humans, so their use is preferable.
• Weeds can become indicators of the state of the soil. Horsetail, goose cinquefoil, three-horned violet, buttercup indicate that the soil is too acidic and it is time to lime. If white gauze settled in large numbers on a potato plot, the site is depleted, and it is time to change it. If there is a lot of chamomile in the garden, the soil is too dense and needs to be loosened more often. And the spread of weeds from the cruciferous family indicates an excess of potassium in the soil.

  

• Weeds can also perform another very important function for gardeners – you can create an excellent mulch layer from them, which will help reduce the number of waterings, prevent the soil from overheating, and increase its fertility. There are plants whose mulch can prevent plant diseases. For example, a layer of nettle under tomatoes will be a prophylactic against late blight.

  

  

  Weeds that have already acquired seeds cannot be used for mulching, otherwise you can scatter them around the garden with your own hands.

Conclusion

There is nothing superfluous in nature. Weeds have the same right to exist as cultivated species. And to maintain a balance between the number of different plants is a matter of man.