What makes a weed a weed?

[ACSAPA]

Anything can be a weed if you don't want it growing in that location, but I hate the weeds that have little spines that get stuck to your clothes and skin. Weeds usually have no ornamental or food use and just choke the life out of your real plants.

 

[zigs]

Oh, I don't know, a lot of weeds are edible, some are choice, like Chickweed & Fat Hen. Had some American Cress for breakfast this morning that had come up as a weed

 

[IcyBC]

It is sort of a puzzle for me too because I have seen so many beautiful weed flowers through the macro mode of a camera that now, I don't pluck them out anymore. I even delayed cutting the grass just to keep the weed flowers for a while longer. Many of them are small in size and delicate looking.

So now a weed has a place in my yard!

 

[Pat]

I like zigs answer, I have a friend that has a garden full of weeds, but she is happy with them.

 

[ChanellG]

Some of our weeds are really chicken food. We have purslane, henbit, and dandelions...

Purslane and dandelion are good for humans too. I wish we could get people to start referring to things they haven't planted themselves as "volunteers," "wild plants," or even better, "nature sown." That's really more accurate, and those terms would carry a much less negative connotation and stop the knee-jerk reaction that folk have to the word, "weed."

 

[Cereus]

To me it's how invasive it is. Even mint can become a weed haha despite its many uses. Also plants that are part of the invasive species list are considered weeds to me because they destroy the local ecosystem.

 

[hummingbird]

So funny, I was just posting about this on facebook and it created an uproar. Long story short, I LOVE my scarlet pimpernel and can't imagine why anyone would pull it. My neighbor recently took it upon himself to come spray MY yard with weed killer, even after having told him most of the plants in my yard he is seeing are flowers I'm growing from seed. Imagine my reaction a few days ago when I went outside to find them all dead. Anywho, I think a lot of opinions of weeds stem from how much people value their grass lawns. I'm not a fan of lawns, myself, but most people cant stand to see a dandelion or clover growing in the middle of their grass. Lush, flawless lawns are subconsciously ingrained into us because it has long been viewed as a status symbol.

 

[Rajesh Sethi]

I will consider plants that over grow in my garden as a weed.

It happens, you try to plant some plants and they suddenly start to grow at an alarming/ invasive rate then it will be considered weed for that specific time.

You may pull them out and replant them.

Generally, weeds would be those that are tough to kill and they seed profusely to out grow others by number or size.

 

[LIcenter]

From this day forward, anything I plant will be called a weed. No matter what I do, the weeds seem to always win, and I want a winning yard!

 

[MaryMary]

My neighbor recently took it upon himself to come spray MY yard with weed killer, even after having told him most of the plants in my yard he is seeing are flowers I'm growing from seed. Imagine my reaction a few days ago when I went outside to find them all dead.

That's how I imagine my reaction!! I'd really want to sneak into his yard at 3 a.m. and write "MYOB" in his grass with weedkiller.

 

[Rajesh Sethi]

That's how I imagine my reaction!! I'd really want to sneak into his yard at 3 a.m. and write "MYOB" in his grass with weedkiller.

 

[headfullofbees]

A weed is a plant for which I have no use, aesthetic or gastronomic, in a place where I don't want it.

 

[roadrunner]

That's how I imagine my reaction!! I'd really want to sneak into his yard at 3 a.m. and write "MYOB" in his grass with weedkiller.

If that happened to me, I'd be fighting mad... Most of my yard/gardens are composed of plants considered weeds by most, but as already mentioned here, so-called weeds do have a place. They are what create a true habitat. Spiderwort has a flower just as pretty as any cultivated plant and it's highly sought after by various pollinators. My cultivated hibiscus flowers have yet to be touched by any pollinator.

I have one section of my yard that I don't mulch or ammend the soil, because it's very close to the road, so what I do there is rip up the grass and allow the Blanket Flower, which thrive in dry, sandy, low-fertile soil (a very common weed here in Florida to grow). I once found a doggie poop bag in there (not easily seen because of the thickness of the growth). And that had my super, so I can only imagine if someone came and sprayed my plants....


And the local bees love this flower which is just a weed, but there are cultivated varieties, but mine are all weeds

 

[Fernsdaddy]

My front and back lawns are full of what some people call weeds, I call it clover and the bees love it when its in full bloom.

 

[Robert Cummings]

I have always thought the concept of a "weed" was interesting. Who decides what is a weed and what is a "good" plant. As a child, I always felt sorry for the weeds. They always got pulled up for nothing. Just because someone says it is a weed does not make it a bad plant.I know it all depends on what you are trying to grow and what you aren't trying to grow. I like many plants that people would consider weeds. What do you all think about this?

Hi there, The official description of a weed is quit simply this, a plant which is growing in an undesirable place, for example if you found little Ash tree saplings growing in your Rose bed you would get them out, that I guess is fairly obvious but if you see a plant which you like the look of in your herbaceous beds and you don't know what it is then it doesn't really matter if it's a weed or not as long as you see beauty in it. So it's you who decides what is a weed in your garden..