Permaculture Weed Confusion, Part 1

Every garden has weeds and most gardeners hate them - but some think that there's more pros than cons to just letting them run wild. Here's my take on a selection of those arguments.

Every garden has weeds, no matter what is done to manage or suppress them. Some methods work better than others, but regardless of one’s ingenuity, weeds always find a way to grow. Most gardeners hate weeds and weeding - but there seems to be a small contingent of permaculture practitioners who are in favor of letting weeds do their own thing in many circumstances. As a result, I thought I’d have a look around to see what the gurus tend to say about weeds. In this two-part series, I will review what I consider to be the top 10 “pro-weed” permaculture maxims (in no particular order), and give my take on whether they are worth heeding.

Don’t let the pretty purple flowers deceive you. Despite it’s nitrogen-fixing ability, vetch is one of the worst weeds in my garden [source].

Anyone that has been following my podcast and YouTube channel for a number of years knows that I am a fan of permaculture. Moreover, I consider my garden to be a permaculture garden, because I employ many permaculture principles in its design and maintenance. Still, I am often bothered when I sift through Facebook pages and other online materials devoted to permaculture, because there is so much bad information out there in cyberspace. Recently I was looking at a post on one such page by a novice gardener who had grown garlic and potatoes, and left all the weeds to go wild because he wanted to try a “non-weeding” approach that is apparently a thing among some “permies”. The picture he provided of his garden was basically a pile of weeds - with a couple garlic bulbils sticking out at the top.

I couldn’t help but think what bad advice this guy had been given, because I can guarantee that his garlic are tiny, and his potato yield is poor. Why? Because weeds tend to outcompete most adjacent plants for water, nutrients, and sun. Every plant needs these three things - so if they get less than they need, they grow poorly. This is simple stuff to figure out, but I find that people are often so blinded by the optimism and zealotry of certain permaculture practitioners, gurus, and so-called experts, they prefer this pleasant fiction to the harshness of reality. I don’t think this does anyone any good - so let’s get real about weeds!

What is a weed?

Any meaningful discussion about a topic should first begin with a definition of key terms. Since this article is about weeds, I thought I would explain what I mean when I use the term “weed”. A weed is any unwanted plant that grows without sowing or cultivation in an agricultural or horticultural setting. Weeds are not good or bad in and of themselves - they are just part of the ecology in a given ecosystem. Some weeds are medicinal; some are edible; and others are toxic and not much use (at least to us humans). I often find it odd that whenever I pull a weed in my garden on camera - someone usually comments about how useful that weed is as a medicine or food source. I’m never sure what the point of these comments are, because regardless of whatever usefulness such weeds have, I have to pull them because they are growing too close to something that I am trying to grow for food.

Things the gurus say - and my take

1. Soil Improvement: Many weeds are deep-rooted and can break up compacted soil, allowing better water infiltration and root penetration for other plants. They also help to improve soil structure by adding organic matter as they decompose.

Deep-rooted weeds only help to break up compacted soil if they die, decompose and break down (leaving a space behind). Many weeds are perennial, so their roots just get bigger and bigger. Other weeds develop roots that develop more weeds, which develop more roots to develop more weeds - and before you know it they are everywhere, and regardless of how good the soil becomes from all those weeds - all that can be grown in it IS THOSE WEEDS… which is really not the point of a vegetable garden…