
This late fall, I have been cleaning up the garden. I am added woodchips pathways, weeding as I go, and creating new pathways that currently consist of weeds and grass. These days, deciding whether to allow weeds in the garden or on a small farm has become an overcomplicated topic. On one end of the spectrum, we have people rightfully encouraging others to leave the dandelions for early spring pollinators. There is a push to not clean the garden too much over the winter to help provide habitat for organisms to survive the winter months. People are also increasingly averse to having herbicides applied to or near their food which, to my way of thinking, shows basic common sense.
On the other end of the spectrum, I have seen weeds eat farms. I have seen many farmers lose their crops to weeds. One local farm announced it was cutting back on its CSA deliveries because being out on the road meant their farm was buried in six feet of weeds. I have been seriously injured weeding for long hours on a farm. Lesson learned. Even if a crop can get through heavy weeds, it becomes more labor intensive to harvest and clean the crop, much less get the next round of seedlings to survive in a weedy bed. Weeds can also endanger humans and livestock. Poisonous weeds like poison hemlock or anything with the word "nightshade" in its name have no business being anywhere near a food supply.
I have spent my entire life in or adjacent to the horse industry. The first thing that happens in every single credible stable each day is that the horses are fed, given fresh water, and the stalls are cleaned. Stalls are never left dirty. Not only would it be poor animal husbandry, left undone, a simple task would quickly become an overwhelming task. I feel the same way about weeds. If beds are regularly hoed with a colinear hoe, the labor invovled is negigble compared to handweeding an overrun bed. Weeds seedlings are disrupted at the thread stage, never allowing them to take hold. If weeding is a priority, weeds never get the upper hand. For me, this is the way.
But what about nature?
There has been a hotly-debated topic in agriculture known as the "land-sparing versus land-sharing debate." The question is whether it is more ecologically beneficial to intesively use a piece of land for agriculture and "spare" undeveloped land to remain as habitat for wildlife or to "share" agricultural land by integrating areas for habitat along with agricultural activities. While there is support and criticism in research literature for either approach, land-sparing currently seems to be more beneficial than land-sharing; using an area intensely for agriculture, thus sparing other land for wildlife, is more ecologically beneficial than trying to share the land with wildlife. This has informed my approach to weeds in the garden.
One of my primary goals in having a large garden is to produce a yield. If I am producing a yield using local resources, I am not drawing down on someone else's aquifer or wild spaces. By gardening intensely in a small space, I can return other areas of my property to the wildlife. Being able to give space back to wildlife is predicated on producing a yield. I have never been able to obtain ongoing meaningful yields in a weedy garden. Seedlings get shaded out and never truly take off. Their small root systems have to compete with plants with large root systems, well-adapted to taking hold in distrubed soil. As weed leaves break down and decay, it creates an optimal environment for slugs, which can decimate young vegetable plants.
The only reason I will leave a weed in the garden is if I am going to use it. Then it becomes a crop. I will leave a few dandelions because I harvest the roots for tea. I will rarely remove plantain. It behaves nicely with the other kids and can be used in teas, tinctures, salves, poultices, and even hydrosols. For the same reason, I will leave chickweed in the spring until it is about to go to seed. Everything else must go.
No really, what about nature?
I love nature. As much as I garden for myself, I garden for nature. Keeping your vegetable garden free from weeds does not preclude having dense, diverse perennial garden plantings that can provide habitat for all kinds of life. Within my garden, I am building small guilds of perennial trees, shrubs, and herbs. Once established, I certainly won't be sweating a few dandelions under elderberry shrubs because it will not affect yields in any meaningful way. Pockets of dense plantings will provide refuge for the frogs, snakes, birds, and other wildlife that regularly visit the garden. Just not in the annual vegetables!
If you have tried to leave your vegetable garden a bit wilder and have had poor results, you are not alone. Having gone down that road, I recommend shrugging it off, grabbing a colinear hoe, and consistently weeding your garden. By taking excellent care of your vegetables and then yourself, you might actually find yourself more inspired to create spaces for wildlife.
Most veg crops started out as weedy annuals, but our selection pressure for increased food value made them noncompetitive with their wilder cousins. Definitely in the "spare" camp at our farm.