Weeds to Kill and Weeds to Leave: Taking Care of Your Lawn Properly
Any of us with lawns, gardens, or even flower boxes, have experienced weeds popping up where they weren’t wanted. We’ve spent hours with our garden hats and gloves on, while we’ve pulled, plucked, and sprayed pesky weeds with the best weed killer for lawns we could find.
But are we doing ourselves, our lawns, and nature, a disservice by killing too many weeds in our yards?
The truth is, some weeds are highly beneficial for ourselves, and the wildlife around us. In fact, some people are going so far as to plan to keep weed-friendly lawns, that can be both beautiful and beneficial.
Hold Back the Hoe
You may enjoy caring for your lawn and garden on the weekends, and part of that often involves spraying the best weed killer for lawns to eliminate the weeds that threaten our planted grass, shrubs, flowers, or vegetables. While this can be a good thing—some weeds such as foxglove, poison oak, poison ivy, and even beautiful buttercups are poisonous, and others are just so unsightly and invasive they may have your yard cited by your neighborhood homeowners society—other weeds can be left alone, and even appreciated—or eaten!
Dandelions may be high on your hit list when you are out in your yard brandishing your best weed killer for lawns. They are probably the most easily recognized weed, and one of the first to be removed from most lawns and gardens. However, did you know that until the 20th-century gardeners actually made room for these weeds in their gardens, and nourished and cared for them? In fact, they are not indigenous to North America but were brought here long ago for their incredible advantages.
Dandelions provide an incredible wealth of benefits that are sadly overlooked today. They are more nutritious than most of the vegetables you have in your garden. Dandelion greens have more vitamin A than spinach, more vitamin C than tomatoes, and are rich in potassium, calcium, and other minerals. In the past, they were considered a crucial medicine for many illnesses which we now recognize as vitamin deficiencies.
So instead of spraying these weeds, try plucking them and putting them in your salad!
Other edible and nutrient-packed yard weeds include clover, purslane, plantain, lambs quarters, chickweed, and mallow.
Protect the Pollinators
Dandelions are also an important first source of spring pollen for honey bees. With the worldwide shortages of honey bees negatively impacting agriculture, leaving dandelions and other flowering weeds in your yards and gardens can help bring back critical bee populations.
While planting pollinating plants is helpful for the bee and butterfly populations in your neighborhood, the best options for local pollinators are plants that are native to your area, which the bees and butterflies will have adapted to over the decades.
Some common flowering weeds that are critical for bees and butterflies are flowering clover, loosestrife, goldenrod, milkweed, pickerelweed, and many more.
If you are treating your yard with any of the products that contain the best weed killer for lawns, you can still have an attractive lawn if you leave these important pollinator-pleasing plants free of chemical weed killers at least around the borders of your yard.
Does it Have to Come Down to Manicured or Mayhem?
Having a lawn or garden that’s full of both edible weeds and weeds that are important for pollinating insects such as bees and butterflies doesn’t mean you have to let your yard go wild and grow into an unsightly tangle of weeds and plants that will have your neighbors shaking their heads.
Worldwide, gardeners are creating beautiful lawns that are safe habitats for bees and butterflies, while also being highly pleasing to the eyes. Many of the weeds that benefit bees are low growing flowering plants that will bloom even after being mowed, and butterflies prefer taller flowering weeds, making the perfect combination for beautiful, multi-level gardens of wildflowers that will make your yard the envy of your neighbors.
Some low-growing weeds that are ideal for bees are white and purple clover, creeping thyme, self-heal, and ground plum. Taller butterfly-friendly plants and blooming grasses include calico asters, prairie groundsel, and lanceleaf coreopsis.
Bee and butterfly-friendly lawns should be planted, or allowed to grow, in the areas of your lawn that don’t receive high-traffic and aren’t used recreationally. Some ideal places for pollinator-pleasing weeds and plants are slopes, easements, and borders. It’s important to keep these areas free of chemicals, and if you use one of the best weed killers for lawns, be sure to prevent over-spraying, and avoid these areas completely.
Your yard and garden can be a sanctuary for the senses, as well as a sanctuary for important pollinators.
Resources— TreeHugger.com, MNN.com, GardeningKnowHow, BlueThumb.org
About The Author
