Weed Farm

I'm not a great gardener. My skills lie in making compost, pruning trees, and removing dead plants. Growing plants from seeds or starts seems to be contrary to my nature, but luckily not my sweetie's. He loves to garden but is neutral when it comes to making compost or pruning, although he knows they are important for the garden and happily leaves those tasks to me.

However, with no effort whatsoever - actually more through neglect and inattention, I have managed to cultivate large expanses of plants in my new yard. OK, I suppose I should give credit where it is due and say that these weeds are really the result of nature taking its course when a property is totally neglected for a couple of years and then liberally doused with summer rains.


What was mostly bare ground in the dogs' yard is now a lush-looking spread of green.


Beyond their yard, there were scattered plants until the rains began. Now the weeds are ankle high and growing daily. I'm not sure what these are but they look like they'll have some kind of pretty composite flower.

I have not dragged any of my plant books outside to positively identify what is growing in the yard yet. I do recognize several of the plants, though, because they are unpleasant ones to deal with once they've gone to seed.


Russian thistle, aka "tumbleweed", starts out as a rather innocent looking plant. It is already prickly, though, at this stage and will rapidly grow a foot and a half high and wide. After putting on tiny unimpressive flowers, it goes to seed, dries out, and then becomes a real nuisance. After drying out, it breaks off and rolls about with the wind, scattering seeds as it goes. Every self-respecting Western movie features tumblin' tumbleweeds in at least one desert scene.

Supposedly the young plants are tender and edible. I've never tried eating them because they are prickly as soon as they sprout and I just can't imagine that would have a good mouth-feel. 'Course if TEOTWAKI ever really does happen and I find myself starving to death, I probably will be willing to saute up on Russian thistle on the rocket stove.


Amaranth is one of the most common plants in the dogs' yard right now. While it also is edible, it becomes a nuisance as well once it goes to seed. You can see the beginning spike of stickers on this one, which once dried out catch on dog fur, socks, and bare feet. I do not think any amount of rinsing would make me willing to eat this harvested from the dogs' yard but I might be willing to try some from beyond the fence.


Not pictured is the worst weed of all: puncturevine. Puncturevines produce goathead stickers. These are hard pea-sized seed casings with several long and very sharp spikes protruding out from the center. They are incredibly painful to step on and can even penetrate through the thin soles of flip-flops or sandals. Dogs hate them, too. I am trying to pull as many from the dogs' yard as I can see, but I'm sure I'll miss enough to cause us all some pain later.

According to this site, the seeds can stay viable for up to 7 years which means getting rid of these is nigh impossible. Since we won't be using Round-up for chemical control, our only option will be manual removal (preferably before they go to seed) and possibly trying to burn the seeds later. The linked website sells weevils that kill the seeds, so that may be another option.

I wonder if goats will eat the plants...


We do have one more edible weed in the yard that does not produce nasty stickers. This sprawling purslane is a tasty tender little plant with a tangy flavor. Again, however, I will only be harvesting from outside the dogs' yard.

I'm guessing that a number of these could be fed to chickens, too, once we get a few. I'd think purslane and amaranth, but I'm not sure about the Russian thistle or puncturevine. There was also lots of London rocket when we first moved in, which I know they love. What kind of weeds do you feed your chickens?