6 Reasons To Keep Some weed Around
benefits of weeds? Some lawn and garden weeds bring nutrients and water up from deep in the soil and down from the air, and subsequently make them available to microbes and plants. Some weeds break up hardpans and compaction and control erosion. Another benefit of weeds is that they increase the organic matter content of the soil as they continually grow and die. That’s one reason to let them cycle through the lawn. Garden weeds also act as our own diagnostic tool by telling us a tremendous amount about the nutritional balance of our soil through their presence and growth habit. They also fix nutr ition al imbalances, vastly improving soils, perhaps in as little as a couple of years, but often decades or centuries. One of my favorite benefits of weeds is that they provide homes and food for microbes and animals. (If you get a chance, check out the documentary Microcosms. It’s a very close-up account of insects’ lives on plants in meadows and ponds, beautiful!) T hat’s just a few ...