Round 2 - SPRING in Southern Ontario - Weeds I like to leave in my garden
- Samantha
- Jun 4
- 3 min read
Here's round 2 of WEEDS I love and nurture in my organic garden. I love wild gardening, keeping local plants that pollinators love! When common weeds have nourishing soil, many of them are beautiful.
I think it is common to see weeds in unwanted areas, with scarce, neglected soil, so they can look laggy and deficient. I decide whether or not to keep a plant in my garden after it has had had a chance to look its best!
I believe a variety of growth, both wild and planted, encourages a diverse environment for pollinators, insects and soil microbes (microscopic organisms that live in the soil).
So here are some weeds and wild flowers...
A little light blue/white wildflower, annual that is excellent at reseeding itself.
One of my favourite herbs that you can commonly see growing in trails- stinging nettle. I like to keep a little patch, tied off to prevent accidental stings. It is hearty, grows as tall as 6+ feet and a beautiful dark green. Excellent herb for a nourishing tea, oil and/or tincture.
A delicious start to the hot weather, black raspberry is one of the first berries ready in berry season. It grows wild all along the Bruce trail! The berries are sweet, juicy and grow abundant on the vines. With this patch shown above, I snack daily for about 2 weeks, in June, make jam and still have enough to freeze!
Wild Violet- comes in white or purple flowers that are beautiful! They thrive in partly shaded, cooler and slightly damper areas, although they will still grow in full sun, their flowers aren't as vibrant.
I love mallow, it's creeping, and grows fairly tall, about 4 feet, leaning up nicely against gates. It has a little lily pad like leaf and flower that is slightly pink.
Creeping ground ivy, a member of the mint family. Provides a nice cover crop with cute leaves and a nice little purple flower. I let it fill in between my stepping stones and along borders.
A beautifully tall standing bright yellow flower, one of the earliest to bloom in spring. Pollinators love it and I keep it for as long as it looks healthy and is blooming. Once the flowering stage is over, I tend to pull it out. The leaves change colour, become dull and the seeding stage is not pretty.
Clover comes in white, pink, crawling and various sizes of leaves. Lovely and edible. An excellent cover crop! A project on my list is to convert my front lawn into clover- no more mowing, just dynamic leaves and cute flowers and food for the local pollinators. We also like to use clover in herbal teas.
Caution! This is invasive! I just keep garlic mustard long enough to get a couple stir fries. I pull it once the flowering stage is over, it's not too pretty after that.
An interesting plant because its vines are sticky, not sap sticky, but a tacky feeling. We harvest cleavers for our product line, as it's an excellent herb for tinctures and teas. The photo above is before the flowering stage, where it grows a cute little white flower.
Phlox, a tall wildflower blooming in the Bruce trail from spring to fall. Phlox varies in colours from white, pink, to purple. It can also be found as a creeping garden perennial as well.
In the photos: the left bottom green patch is my late summer phlox, in the center photo it's pink spring phlox blooming just like the wild flowers on the right photo we spotted on a nature walk in grasslands.
A cute little yellow flower and some bright bushy leaves, I love yellow avens! After the flower is done, it turns to a sticky burr. Plant this in the soil for a new plant, or clip and maintain the foliage.
Blooming in spring, the grass lily comes and goes on my property, I don't think it reseeds well unless it has a large patch. It has a pretty white flower, and can grow right through grass, but then commonly gets mowed. I have dug it out and placed it in my garden, needing full sun to bloom.
Creeping bell flower (left growing amongst lily) and dandelion (shown on right) mentioned in my previous "weeds" I keep blog. Day lily blooms in summer.
I will post another blog when my summer "weeds" are in bloom :)
-Samantha
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