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 😀

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

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 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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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".

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.

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 - kzfaq.info/get/bejne/mMWDd5eDtLjbgKs.html

Thank you for this. I've been saying this so many times to non believers.

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 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.

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.

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 🙏💚🌱

Great video! I love short-form videos that are packed full of information. There's no filler here 😊

Really enjoyed this vid: Happily bc I follow these ideas already. Great to hear it so eloquently.

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.

Fantastic and well-explained video. Thank you!

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. 🤷‍♂️

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.

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.

some weeds are not easy to chop since they grow by hugging the ground.

This is great! Definitely have native plants moving in where invasive thistles initially paved the way.

Such good advice, and what kind way to carry the explanation. You got a new follower 💚 Have a good new year!

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.

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

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

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 watched a good video about how dandelions are great for compacted soil and will break it up and once they do their job, they die back and the grass moves in. To be honest, I find that when grass grows where I don't want it, it's worse than fighting weeds. Really depends on context and what outcome I want.

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

Great topic, thanks for talking about this!

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.

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?

Awesome

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

I agree but I am not convinced that leaving three corner jacks to multiply is a good idea.

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.

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.

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.

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.

thx for sharing :) is this beside active farmland?

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?

Very true and some weeds you can eat and use for medicine 😅❤

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.

What do you make of the claim that the weeds need to be removed, otherwise they compete with your food plants for nutrients?

if you have 10 years to build your soil leave the weeds. there are better ways to feed the land.

There's nothing like a good ecological giant hogweed colonising your land.

I want to see more videos about the nature 👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️💋💋💋👍👍👍💕👍👍👍👍💋👍👍👍👍👍👍

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

Foolishness! You don't like all those weeds in that area if you want to plant it with vegetables.

No such things as weeds