This garden season, Giving Tree Gardens is proud to announce a working patnership with premeier Minneapolis permaculture hardscape designer
Andrew French
and his new company,
Make Giving Tree Gardens or Shadow Dance Stoneworks your first call for
Earth Friendly Landscaping!
What would the world be, once bereft Of wet and wildness?
Let them be left, O let them be left, wildness and wet,
Long live the weeds and the wildness yet.
Crabgrass can grow on bowling balls in airless rooms, and there is no known way
to kill it that does not involve nuclear weapons.
You fight dandelions all weekend, and late Monday afternoon there they
are, pert as all get out, in full and gorgeous bloom, pretty as can be,
thriving as only dandelions can in the face of adversity.
 | ||||
The Seed Vol. 39 June 20, 2010 A Giving Tree Gardens Newsletter
Photos by Russ Henry and Shaunna McBride ©2010 ,
Text by Russ Henry
©2010 by Giving Tree Gardens, all rights reserved.
Eeyore said it best,
“A weed is a flower too, once you get to know it.”
I never cease to be amazed at the fear that passes over folk’s faces when I suggest to them that dandelions or creeping charlie are valuable in the landscape.
Maybe it’s because I’m a rebel, or maybe it’s because of my respect for plants, but I’ve always loved weeds, in fact I can safely say weeds are my heroes. Take the dandelion for instance. How many of us are completely unaware of the power of this plant?
Dandelion is only the Diana Prince like moniker through which the super hero also known as Taraxacum hides her secret Wonder Woman identity. Providing free nourishing food, and medicine for the masses, offering soil fertility, and perfect plant companionship for tomatoes and other shallow rooted crops, and all of this in a form that is simple, ruggedly beautiful, and completely unstoppable. Sounds like your average garden super-hero job description to me.
I for one think weeds are terrific. I think it’s silly to be terrified of flowers.
Gardening is a co-creative process, the gardener and the garden both creating away night and day, each with their own ideas and intentions. As a landscape designer I like to remind myself that humans are far from alone in their desire to alter the world around them to better suit their own needs. Every time a bird in the woods eats a seed and poops it out that little bird increases the population of its favorite foods in the forest. This very humbling notion means that all the high-browed landscape design schools, students, and practitioners are essentially performing the same function that a bird performs when it shits. So while we landscape designers have our notions and practices, the birds, animals, plants, soils, and landscapes have their own notions and practices, which brings me back to weeds.
Nature uses weeds to perform functions that are often beyond our capacity to easily grasp or even understand at all. I like to point out to folks that in a lawn made of sod grass for instance, our hero the dandelion will drive roots into the earth allowing minerals and nutrients from deep in the ground to be accessed by the shallow rooted turf grass. The channels made in the ground by dandelions roots also help drive water and air downward increasing the overall capacity for root depth and allowing water to enter the water table instead of rushing off to damage local creeks, rivers, or lakes.
Get ready for Growth with a
home consultation from
Giving Tree Gardens.
We'll help you turn your yard into an
oasis of health and beauty!
Thinking of Going Green? Start by Growing Green!
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Mother Earth Gardens: The best plant selection, locally owned, and expert organic advice. One stop garden shop!
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Go Eat A Weed!
Sister's Camelot provides free organic food to folks in need throughout the Twin Cities!
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Offering on-site energy and sustainability consultations for families, businesses, and non-profits in Minnesota!
If the garden is like our mother in how it knows us, nurtures us, punishes us when we deserve it, but loves us unconditionally, then the Earth is like our grandmother. The Earth let’s us do what we wish, and she gives us everything we can need or want, but she knows so much more then we can imagine that we are silly to question her ways.
When you go back far enough in time, it’s plain to see that the “gardens” of this Earth created the very bloodlines of those who call themselves “gardeners”. From this humble perspective we can rethink what it means to be a weed, and if indeed it may be that the worst, most pernicious weed seeds sprout in our own imaginations.
Let us yank from the root the damaging notion that some plants are evil. Let us instead see beauty, life, and nourishment wherever we can, and let’s all celebrate the fact that nature cared enough to give us each other and the rest of the creatures on this lonely planet to keep us happy and healthy.
Read below to learn about some of the terrific edible and medicinal weeds that grace the presence of our midwestern yards and gardens.
Rainwater is not only the best water for your gardens, but it's free! Don't let another drop go to waste!
What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.
By now we are all well aware of terrorism, and it’s horrible effects on our lives. I for one think it’s time for a new counter-terrorism strategy, a strategy that relies on the notion that fighting fire with fire only burns the barn down faster. So while terror is the emotion stirred up by some folk’s bad behavior, I’m here to bring a new, much different set of feelings to the general public. What if instead of walking around feeling terrorized, we felt down right Terrific all day long?
That’s right, you guessed it… TERRIFICISM is my new tool for doing away with the common b.s. of industrial life on an injured planet. As the world’s first terrrificist I feel it is my duty to begin undoing the terrors of an oil-based economy, one well greased step at a time. With this little mission as my charge I’d like to start by dismantling a common misconception that has led to a vast fattening, sickening, and general disgruntling of the American population. This lie perpetuated through a well known popular idiom goes a little something like this…. “There’s No Such Thing As A Free Lunch”.
To all those pushing this capitalist propaganda, I say go eat a weed. Literally, eat a weed, and then eat another and another, till you’re chubby, because you deserve free food. Really, we all do, don’t we?
As the worlds first terrificist I hereby assert that all earthlings by right of birth and breath deserve a lunch by golly! So let’s eat!
Eat Your Weedies!
Dandelion (Taraxacum)
If I offered you a hardy perennial plant that bloomed all season, was entirely edible, could be used for medicine, helped shallow rooted crops like tomatoes grow stronger, and provided habitat for bees and butterflies would you think I was crazy for even suggesting that such a plant exists? Sure you would if you were unaware of the amazing super powers of the Dandelion.
Now the English name dandelion is a corruption of the French dent de lion meaning "lion's tooth", referring to the coarsely toothed leaves. I think the shape of the leaf is hardly the most notable part of this plant. I’d have to agree that taraxacum is a lion among plants, but given all this plant offers the world I think it’s time for a new name. Terrificum, or Terrific Lion seems much better suited then dandelion ever was.
Terrificlion grows everywhere, the leaves are yummy and full of vitamins A, C, and K. The root makes a tea that can help with liver detoxification, and just because it’s so good, I’m going to go ahead and adopt this noble beast as mascot for the terrificist movement worldwide. Long live the Terrificlion! Hear it’s terrific roar!
Creeping Charlie
(Glechoma hederacea)
Speaking of poorly named plants…. Wow, I sure don’t think I’d want to meet anyone whose nickname was creeping charlie, but then sometimes when we get to know a person we realize that our ideas about who they are don’t always match reality. Such is the case with dear Charlie.
A member of the mint family this rapidly spreading, lavender blooming, hardy perennial ground cover is also known by the name ground ivy, a name which describes accurately its growth pattern. Charlie’s growth pattern while important to know is only the beginning of the tail that Charlie would tell could his tangled stems talk.
Europeans who traditionally used it as food and medicine imported creeping charlie to America. My ancestors would eat the plant fresh and cooked and put it to use also as a flavoring and clarifying agent in beer making before hops were deemed the only legal herb for use in German beers.
Lately, creeping charlie has helped this gardener learn an important lesson. While speaking with a landscaping client who happens to be one of the world’s foremost experts on herbal treatments for curing autism in children, I was amazed to learn about the magic, magnetic meetings between plants and people.
The swing set in my clients’ back yard is the preferred hang out for her daughter a charming young lady who due in part to high mercury content in her blood lives with the effects of autism. As an herbalist, my client had been introduced to the notion that plants are attracted to those creatures that they can help heal and nurture. One day while considering her husband’s request to rid the lawn of weeds my client noticed an interesting phenomenon. The creeping charlie in her back lawn was growing from all directions toward her daughter’s swing set. The growth pattern was so pronounced that the creeping charlie was actually climbing the supports of the swing set in lieu the rest of her yard. As soon as she noticed this pattern the herbalist in her took over and she set to researching the association between creeping charlie and heavy metals in the blood. What she found was inspiring. Creeping charlie has been used since the introduction of lead based paints in Europe to treat what was known as “painter’s colic”, or lead poisoning, and modern herbalists swear by it’s use for treating heavy metal poisoning. Since finding this information my client has been using ground ivy, or dear old creeping charlie to effectively reduce mercury levels in her daughter and the other kids she helps.
Not only did I learn about the important uses of creeping charlie as a medicine, but just as profound to me is the notion that the plants growing around us know how to help and want to so desperately that they will use their growth and beauty to show us their helpful potential.
So while charlie does creep his way through the garden, his popular nickname would tend to leave a gardener feeling creeped out, and given how terrific Charlie is, I say it’s time we give this old boy a new nickname. Good Time Charlie used to sing the garden blues, but now that he’s better understood I’m sure we’ll all be singing a different tune.
Lamb’s Quarters
(Chenopodium album)
Grows like crazy, and tastes like spinach. These are the outstanding traits of dear old lamb’s quarters. The list of minerals and nutrients available from lamb’s quarters are almost as long as it’s list of common names. Known world wide as every thing from goosefoot, fat-hen, nickel greens, pigweed, and lamb’s quarters to the nicknames, which denote it’s preference for compost piles, dungweed, and my personal favorite, dirty dick.
While the nickname dirty dick works wonders at wiggling the giggle out of folks, it only tells half the story. This plant is nutritious, and that’s not dirty, it’s delicious! Delicious Dick is the new terrificist nickname for this strong, upright, freely seeding weed. You’ll find new dinner delights with Delicious Dick in your dish!
Terrificlions, Good Time Charlie, and Delicious Dick are all right outside your door! A buffet of heroic plants waiting to please your pallet, and these three are just the beginning. Wood Sorrel, Burdock, Chickweed, Violets, Daylillies, Garlic Mustard, Milk Thistle, Plantain, Purslain, and Nettle are a few of the other heroes of health that grow freely all around us here in Minnesota and Wisconsin.
In the near future you may awaken one day to a rumbling plea from masses gathered in the streets below your window. You will know these people are your friends when you hear their merciful battle cry, “Free Lunch Now!”. Join with these brave brothers and sisters, fear no plant, and make allies of heroic weeds!
The Plantain pictured above is my favorite medicine for treating insect bites and stings. I simply score the leaves between my teeth and place the chewed up greenery on the fresh bite or sting. Plantain is also edible, for both food and medicine choose plants off the pathway and take the young leaves while the plant is not in bloom.
Burdock pictured above in bloom, and below as an immature first season plant. In Japan this plant is called gobo and the root is eaten raw, cooked, or fermented. Burdock is a biennial and should be eaten the first year while the plant is not in bloom and the root is not yet woody.
These pictures could make a salad. Chives and violets above with terrificlion, delicious dick, and wood sorrel just below while the daylillies in the bottom shot grow with delicious onion flavor. With all this free lunch growing everywhere, walking through the weed patch sure does make me feel terrific!
Lamb's quarters, now known as Delicious Dick is free spinach that grows all over! Why buy spinach again with all this free healthy food everywhere? You'll find new dinner delights with Delicious Dick in your dish!
Mullein or Verbascum Thapsus is one beautiful weed. Free throat and lung medicine that grows up tall and beautiful in my gardens. The wild creatures love this plant and the rest of the weeds as much as I do. I figure if I'm on the same team as the birds, bees, and butterflies, then I must be doin' something right!
Dandelion, shall now and forever be known as Terrific Lion. Never before has a plant been so helpful, so strong, and so terrifically terrifying to those who don't know it's hidden inner beauty.
Long Live Terrificum The Terrific Lion!
Queen Of The Garden Jungle!
Creeping Charlie is no creep at all! Now and forever to be known as Good Time Charlie, this happy plant is a welcome guest at any garden party that I'll ever throw. I love this plant as a boulevard grass replacement, as a slope control, and as a living mulch that will shade the ground beneath trees and shrubs. Used in salads, beer, and medicine, Good Time Charlie is one of my new best friends!
Eat Wood Sorrel, it's delicious and nutritious!
Notice the heart shaped leaves and tiny yellow flowers. Zesty lemon flavor poors into my mouth when I chew this weedy delight!
