Have you ever started a garden with every good intention just to have your seedlings shade out and overcrowded by weeds? It is amazing how fast weeds grow and can take over a garden. Weeding is not much fun. I am sure no one starts a garden with the thought of how enjoyable it will be to pull weeds multiple times before they get a harvest. In the past I have tried to outsmart the weeds by heavily mulching around veggies with newspaper and grass clippings or straw. This is great for seedlings but not so much for direct seeded veggies. Two years ago I attended an herbal workshop and the herbalist opened my mind to the idea of edible weeds. Ever since then I have had a changed perspective on weeds and what I harvest from my garden. Weeds are to me a seemingly magical source of food. They are found all around us, they require no effort to grow and are more nutritious than the actual vegetables we work so hard to grow each summer. However, only harvest weeds to eat from a location you know is free from contaminants, like your garden. Here are some of my favorites: This year I let one of my garden beds go all natural. I am allowing the choice weeds to grow and establishing perennial flowers and herbs that I can make tea with. I started it with aged manure I hauled from a cattle farm. It had plenty of weeds seeds in the soil that are happily growing. So far I have harvested the red clover flowers and stinging nettle. I dry and store them in glass jars. At the end of the growing season I will be mixing some tea blends from them and the rest of the flowers and herbs I harvest. What weeds do you have growing in your garden? I bet you have some of the same weeds as me. Make this the year you stop fighting the good ones and embrace them as a source of food. You will never look at a weed the same way again!
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorJessica Mutunga is passionate about good simple living that focuses on relationships, food and creating a supportive healthy environment. She is The Light Way Coach. Archives
May 2022
Categories |