Pay Attention to Your WEEDS. Here's Why... - Ep. 104

Weeds. If you garden, you get 'em! But what are weeds after all? These misplaced plants are often villianized, but can also be intensely useful too. ⁣
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After creating our orchard berms, we let the first group of errant weeds crop up in the beds so that we could learn from them. What weeds grow where can give you clues as to what may be happening in your garden bed (e.g., soil not well-draining enough? too little nitrogen?). ⁣
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Additionally, once you take an overall assessment of your weeds, you can decide whether those plants are even a problem for you at all-and sometimes it's just what lens you choose to look through.⁣
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[@FlockFingerLakes]

Stay around till the end to see a special treat!*

[@flowerpixel]

🥺

[@Loogiemistress]

Very nice 👍

[@jagaimo2]

That pretending to buy into the injured-wing bluff is heart-warming 🤓❤️

[@laurenervin1404]

SO sweet!! I'd LOVE to see an update on your doves!!🤞🤞❤

[@Alwaysherethere]

Summer you're a walking book of knowledge when it comes to plants!❤😊

[@Fabdanc]

Very interesting! I was just at my parents place in the extreme Northwest corner of Montana. As I was looking at their yard, other lawns, and disturbed areas, I was paying close attention to all the flowers and plants popping up. Especially since that area of Montana has such a unique climate. One that got me was orange hawkweed (pilosella aurantiaca). It was just coming up everywhere in undisturbed areas that I thought it was a native returning... Nope, it is an invasive. So many invasives creep in from the forests being cleared, along the disturbed/compacted logging roads, and the land that has been converted into pasture for horses and cows. Will take a lot of work to re-wild their yard... But man... Just the sheer number of butterflies in that area!

[@vlong7112]

Can we get a field notebook tour? 🤩 I'd love to see what you note, why, and how..

[@olgakuchukov6981]

Native Nitrogen fixers: comptonia peregrina-sweetfern, Morelka caroliniensis/Northern bayberry, Myrica gale/sweet gale - salt-tolerant shrubs for dry, sunny, thin soils. Wildflowers: Senna hebacarpa (excellent pollinator plant), Baptisia tinctoria - yellow baptisia and the one native to the north (loves dry, thin soil), lupinus perenis, Thermopsis villosa/Carolina lupine (gorgeous tall upright yellow blooming now), hog peanut (tenacious vine but also a food crop and possibly one of a very few native N fixers for shade). I’m on a search myself and have most of these plants

[@ellium1147]

We gardeners tend to slap the label "weed" on anything that wasn't planted by design, and it renders it useless, or even malicious. But your research correctly shows that it's much more interesting than that: a "weed" could be anything from a valuable native to an invasive, from an edible to a poisonous plant. But even more fascinating is the fact that most plants have those complicated relationship with other living things in the environment that we could be completely oblivious to: insects, soil microorganisms, worms, fungi, birds. Not just us. It pays to learn more about your "weeds", and thank you for showing that!

[@mfrow8337]

Thank you for all this information! Love your channel!!! I have learned so much about native species and also all sort of things! When we go hiking or I’m working in the garden, I am paying so much more attention to what is growing. Thanks for the education …. Keep it up! Look forward to all your posts.

[@FlockFingerLakes]

Glad you're thoroughly enjoying and learning along with us!

[@archasvityagi9997]

Hi, Lamb's quarters is a very famous food here in Northern India. Locally it is called Bathua.

[@anastasiawak894]

I love this. I was pulling weeds last weekend and literally says to myself ‘self, must remember to comment or make a request on what benefits to weeds have on Flock’s next video’ and poof here it is. Great timing. 🥰

[@TDN3052]

This video had some of the most in-depth information I've ever seen about native species gardening, thanks so much! Im really looking forward to that guild video!

[@cherylcarlson3315]

Have noticed some years have huge amount of one thing or another then don't see it for a few years. My homing pigeons seem happy to eat the seeds of lambsquarter and plantain if I dont' eat some. Very educational you are.

[@JoannaLouise200]

It makes me smile that nothing goes unnoticed Summer...not even the tiniest weed. You tease out the significance, character & relevance of so much, which so many of us have (mis)learnt to ignore. That's what endears me to your channel! (and I love a Latin binomial!) It was so sweet to see the Killdeer (unusual name!) feigning wing injury ~ to protect her clutch of eggs...and such pretty eggs!

[@cookplantworkout]

Hey! Just remember that clover has long white blotches on the leaves, while wood sorrel does not. Something ive noticed the past year to help me differentiate the two.

[@patricklamson1391]

I have a 13 year old city dwelling granddaughter that I have been teaching gardening and how to appreciate beautiful things. She gets it that beautiful things can be natural AND beauty often times need to be planned. Her first question was, “how does she know all those names for the plants?” I told her that you remember things that you love. She gets it. I also told her this stuff is your passion, that at the shows are your way of sharing and recruiting future gardener. So could you do a show detailing the education steps y’all have taken from kid to adult? She says you talk like a teacher, yet you explain things down to a level that is understandable. The 13 year old girl also thinks Saunder is cute and needs more time in front of the camera. Also, Edible Acres is a favorite and really liked it that y’all and Sean are friends. She like his calm voice and his chickens. Oh, I love your show too. You have given me a lot of ideas for future weekend road trips.

[@brainfeedersbyruru]

This is a very informative channel. The reason why I always watch your videos!

[@FlockFingerLakes]

Glad you find these videos educational.

[@jenniewilliams1668]

I've used painter's paper too because eventually you DO run out of cardboard! Warmest regards Jennie

[@katemiller8113]

Have been interested in understanding this subject for a long time. Nice work..thanks!

[@judymckerrow6720]

Thank you Ms. Summer 🌸💚🙃

[@Wendy-zl8kv]

Thank you so much 💚 I hope your wing gets better 🥰

[@extracaliber432]

Wow those beds really POP!

[@sevenspineiii7524]

Beautiful spot!

[@rbphilip]

Fascinating as always. Back when I owned a lawn I had killdeer nest one or two time a summer. Easy to find and mow around.

[@flowerpixel]

Thanks for explaining nitrogen-fixing

[@sonnysome3201]

Yes! This was very interesting. Made me see weeds in a different way. Thank you!

[@christophertaylor9826]

Great info.

[@charlesbale8376]

Fabulous information.

[@julie2bailey]

Beautiful!!!

[@gardengirl4718]

Wow! So much helpful, useful information! I continually learn from you! Thank you for that!

[@anacabrera5617]

Such a lovely video! Especially the end 🐦

[@RahimasFamilyVlogsUk]

Wow very nice video thank you soo much for sharing 👍👌❤️❤️

[@natalyarager8348]

I am amazed.

[@SHARONSHORTOrchidsandGarden]

cool! Thanks for the information.

[@alicatdotcom]

I got an ad for "Scott's weed be gone". They don't want us to learn.. Just consume. Keep learning and observing everyone :)

[@futurehomestead1263]

me too!

[@jsaysyay]

always useful and interesting info, also thought of this channel the other day as, from you guys' recommendations, i recently found bunchberry and some fun vaccinum species. if you're ever in eastern MA, "garden in the woods" in framingham, it's amazing, they have a whole section of forest established in the 30s, literally fit to burst full of every native plant imaginable with different native habitats. i'm just gushing because i'm so happy to have found a place just like some of those amazing gardens you guys show off just a few towns from me lol, and i got to buy nice native plants

[@nathanielgeltner8013]

Queen Anne’s lace seeds are a great spice. Easy to harvest and it’s quite an aggressive plant so you can harvest at will. I leave some and pull some when the population by the garden gets excessive. I’ve just been laying them down as mulch. My kids help and chew on the roots like some kind of chewing gum (they are pretty woody). My biggest complaint about them is they sneak into your carrot beds like some kind of plant cuckoldry

[@ayanashimmer]

I really have to thank you for mentioning Baptisia australis. I took seeds from a nearby bush and had no idea what it was, only that it was clearly in the pea familly. Mine give white creamy flower though, very pretty.

[@FlockFingerLakes]

yes! It comes in different color variations. perhaps that is var. alba

[@reahlegaspi8953]

Mabuhay Ka idol.

[@ecocentrichomestead6783]

I believe if anyone tells you a certain product or design will eliminate "weeds", s/he is lying to you! If weeds won't grow, nothing else will either!

[@TJtheHuman]

Could messed up paper be sent to digesters instead of dumps?

[@travisdavis1042]

Can you link/do you have a good place to source all of the research you are talking about? I love reading research about ecosystems, pollinators and the like, I just have problems finding information sometimes. I think a video about how you go about this would be immensely beneficial for the community. Thanks for sharing the information you find valuable. You all have been a great virtual mentor without even knowing so.

[@FlockFingerLakes]

Here in this state there is a lot of output from the New York Invasive Species Research Institute. www.nyisri.org/ ... In regards to the garlic mustard information, there was a useful conference that took place that reviewed different research trials and came up with some of the conclusions I had mentioned in this video. The USDA Forest Service, (sometimes) but not always has fairly good overview assessments of particular 'weeds of interest' particularly ones that also penetrate intact forests. So that could be of interest: www.fs.usda.gov/ .... Basically how I'm doing this is I 1.) ID the main weeds that are in my bed (there were 8 of them) , 2.) and then deep dive more of the literature and extension work and natural history on the plant to determine what 'role' it plays in the ecosystem, and then use that to determine whether I want to manage it or not and understand what other plants can fulfill its role that are more desirable. Hope that helps some here. And if I am more organized with all the various different research reports, I'll try to link to them as well.

[@rosalieb-m3636]

How satisfyingly informative! 💚 Thank you! Would you recommend a book about bioindicator plants?

[@FlockFingerLakes]

I can't think of one off the top of my noggin, but I think any good old weed book may be useful. You may be able to intuit information from what's provided. I also find that the county cooperative extensions can be a wealth of information, especially if you're in an agricultural area where 'ag weeds' are definitely something that are studied.

[@rosalieb-m3636]

@@FlockFingerLakes Unconsciously, I think i would'nt have bought such books because they would have demonized weeds! haha but you're right, i'll explore this way. Thank's for the infos!!

[@sbaker3232]

I like weeds, they make me happy

[@olgakuchukov6981]

Lots of aphids this year due to the hot dryness, I’m noticing, as the years go by. Fewer aphids during the wet years, like last year. Aphids on many of my native plants due to the extra Nitrogen produced by the over abundance of invasive jumping worms (Amynthas sp) pushing out tons of new green growth and attracting aphids but the bigger problem is the ants farming them. Goldenrod, ninebark, red osier dogwood. Regarding swallowtail host plants, I have a native wildlife garden in southern Vermont. My focus is host plants. I have both zizias - golden alexanders - but every year the Eastern swallowtail butterflies lay eggs on the bronze fennel and the Queen Anne’s Lace. This year the fennel did not return and I found 2 swallowtail caterpillars on the zizia - yes! But here’s a cautionary tale: I was trimming up some the Queen Anne’s Lace greens everywhere. At night with a headlight. As I trimmed up a clump I discovered a hapless teeny tiny second or third instar swallowtail caterpillar - tiny brown thing with a small white band, looked like a clump of poop . I just almost chopped him off! I transferred him to the zizia and now I check all the QAL for eggs or cats before I chop. I’m letting them be for the most part until after they bloom. It always saddens me when the road crews mow, scorched earth style, all the QAL along the roads- all those swallowtail caterpillars killed. My 3 cats were also all hanging out at the very tippy top of the zizia aurea plant, right beneath each individual seed head of the compound umbel flower structure. They were eating the fresh juicy just forming seed. This plant is often recommended to be dead-headed, even by Wild Seed Project out of Maine, if I recall correctly. More dead caterpillars. I will not Be deadheading until the seeds harden fully and the season is later and thus the caterpillars larger and more obvious. And only because zizia is a prolific reseeder. And of my early 3? Two younger cats disappeared, likely food for the birds or wasps and the surviving oldest biggest green striped guy made very quick work in fattening up and traveling just a very short distance and forming a chrysalis on a very tender flower stalk of a native bleeding heart plant, Dicentra eximia. Certainly not a stalk that would support him through the winter or even a few hard rains! I propped him up a bit with some zizia in a pitcher of water in case he wanted a snack before metamorphosis. A day later he hardened into a chrysalis. Truly amazing. The caterpillar knows it will eclose soon this season and chose a flimsy hanging structure. Also fascinating was that he incorporated the leaning zizia stalk, supplied by me, into his situation by gluing it to the Dicentra stalk below him. I could not remove my pitcher with the zizia stalks. It’s now a set. Swallowtails are on their own, very particular, some say, arbitrary, schedule. I’m really hoping this one becomes a butterfly soon. So host plants ... a lot more going on!

[@alicatdotcom]

Just a friendly tip. If you put mulch on all exposed soil your weed numbers will go way down! Better soil health and mushrooms usually pop up!

[@LisaOsterholt]

Will you be giving tour videos. I would like to see and compare the progress from the last tours. Thanks!

[@FlockFingerLakes]

We skipped a spring tour due to too many projects on the land, but yes, we'll likely pick up with a summer tour. Spring just came and went!

[@aprilbox3766]

we have european bellflower and lambs quarters and chickweed and i love eating them all

[@einkornic]

I love the flavour of lambsquarters, but they are rich in oxalic acid, thus i avoid consuming them raw so the won't interfere with iron and calcium absorption.

[@rezayaseri2790]

Hi. Thank you very much. can you explain to us about your notebook. what if we want to have notebook, what should we write in it? can you make a video about nitrogen fixer plants? 💝💝

[@bookswithatwist-vanvelzerp9262]

I want to see it in a few months and then late next spring - because my experience is that will be so taken over with weeds you won't see any of those unnatural straight lines in less than a year ....

[@meredithnichols3572]

Can you do an episode on plant guilds?

[@Shaden0040]

Forget the grass,seed the inbetwwen areas of the orchard with native wildflowrs. Bringthose polinators in and feed them.

[@lisaholgash2924]

Why not edge with comfrey preventing the grass from creeping in?

[@grannyplants1764]

I have comfrey, put it in the end of the vegetable garden. It spreads a lot, pretty plant and flowers but only in a pot away from cultivated areas! 🌱

[@philimon73]

What’s the name of the book?

[@davidhuth5659]

We have a problematic weed, Creeping Charlie (Glechoma hederacea). Do you ever use any organic, non-chemical methods of eliminating weeds? I have seen some recipes with vinegar and other stuff. I'm wondering if they would work. This stuff grows everywhere, sun, shade, wet or dry.

[@blunderbuss1395]

not really a reccomendation for exterminating, but you should take a cutting inside for a houseplant since glechoma hederacea also does amazing indoors

[@jessiet8706]

Me, to my garden: Stop trying to make vetch happen!

[@peterclark2374]

Interesting definition of weed! A plant that's not where you want it!

[@sandylee1717]

Omg I have ALL THOSE WEEDS

[@judymckerrow6720]

There you go with those long words again, hahaha, I think I’m going to have to look some of them up. 🌸💚🙃

[@FlockFingerLakes]

Let us know if there is something that needs to be further clarified.

[@judymckerrow6720]

@@FlockFingerLakes ah honey I was just teasing you. The weed names are no problem, you just used some words in the beginning that I was not familiar with. 🌸💚🙃

[@apextroll]

I was under the impression that wild carrots were non-edible.

[@FlockFingerLakes]

Not so. They are most edible. The root, when you get it young, even smells of carrot. Nice and sweet. But I think some folks caution against it because there are some poisonous look-a-likes that have the umbelliferous form, like hogweed, poison hemlock, etc. Some folks with a sensitive skin can get a little irritation from touching copious amounts of Daucus carota, but typically not that much of an issue if you're digging/foraging for roots. Once the plant grows out to a larger size and more mature, the root tends to get woodier and then becomes more inedible.

[@apextroll]

@@FlockFingerLakes Thanks for the info. I was thinking of the hogweed(even though I haven't seen one) but also the ditch carrot( wild daucus) that I see everywhere in July and August. Turns out I consume a lot of carrot family herb and roots. All the best Summer!!

[@jeanneeguizabal471]

💚🌳💚🌳

[@NickBoileau]

Do you suffer from dog strangling vine? How have you chosen to manage it if so? We have entire woodlands destroyed by it.

[@FlockFingerLakes]

Hey Nick, had to look that one up. Seems to be in the milkweed family: Vincetoxicum rossicum....Thankfully we have not seen that here but now that you mentioned it, I'll be keeping a look out!

[@NickBoileau]

@@FlockFingerLakes yep. It doesn't respond well to spraying. Usually 2 treatments. It is a beast to dig up because the roots. Any remnant will return. It will climb trees. It will completely engulf underscores and replace entire fields. Apparently it tricks monarchs and kills the caterpillars too.

[@NickBoileau]

It appears to die if a burn regime is applied. Also, I've noted it doesn't like walnut. So that's something I guess.

[@katherinespencer2073]

Like the silly wivestale that pollinators like horrible aggressive dandelion. What likes them is slugs & ants. The pollinators are already in the violets, wild pear, the bulbs now starting to bloom in lawns like crocus etc, then maple, then choke cherry, yellow clover, pink clover etc. etc. At least in my area so I will always keep hand digging then on my huge property & in 3 deep wide ditches. The hundreds of hours each year give me time to be gently active, have thinking time and just listen to the birds.

[@ideotek]

Weeds are important tools for the Succession of Soil. It's a shame to see you pulling and tossing the urgent assistence they're offering. Most of the species there are rebalancing, covering and over time, improving your soil (which has been radically disturbed). When the soil is fixed (i.e.soil fungus is higher than soil bacteria) then weeds can't compete. Yes, they will produce a lot of seed and keep fixing that soil, and those seeds will come back until your soil is too good for them. None of this will happen if you remove them and don't replace them with something of equal hardiness and equivalent function. BTW: Chenopodium should be cooked to degrade the oxalic acid before eating to avoid kidney problems. It brings lots of important trace minerals to the surface that other plants can't access. The rumex and wild carrot's deep tap roots break up compression and direct water and nutrient deeper, increasing infiltration and rainfall capacity. There are nitrogen-fixers which nodulate, and release nitrogen but primarily when we cut them back or leave the roots. Also, there are nitrogen accumulators like nettles, and comfrey which absorb excess nitrite (from when we apply too much compost) and turn it into a soluable form (nitrate or ammonium) before it leaches into the waterways. Weeds do attract pests, which makes them great trap plants, often being more attractive to pests than the plant you've chosen to put into undeveloped soil, and whose struggles there will signal nature to remove. Yet, only if there are pests, will you attract predatory wasps and birds, for free. Aphids are specialists (one for every plant family) that don't spread to other plant families, but they do feed ladybugs throughout the season. (plz look into Integrated Pest Management) You have a selective understanding of biodiversity and it appears not much understanding of soil biology, which is no problem, I've been there, except that you have made a compelling, beautiful channel around your ignorance and many classic misconceptions. For all the impressive interviews I've seen you do, this was disheartening. You seem genuine and passionate about your journey. I hope you find more time to observe and learn from it, before you make your video. All the best and good luck.

[@growurown207]

I think a lot of the edible weeds came from colonial gardens

[@FlockFingerLakes]

yes, you would definitely be right about that. Where people are, plants will follow!

[@leecasey8309]

how in gawds name can u make weeding a bed so complicated?

[@FlockFingerLakes]

Pardon that it was complicated for you to comprehend. For me, having a deeper understanding about what a particular plant does / doesn't do helps give me a well-informed framework as to whether I should spend my time to keep it or pull it. Additionally, learning to read the weeds and their qualities-perhaps even their 'purpose'-if I can anthropomorphize a little (e.g., deep tap root to penetrate compacted soil like the dock; nitrogen-fix like the clover and medick), allows me to make educated decisions on what the surrounding soil may need, how I may best manage the land given my intended goals, and give me a chance to more insightfully craft 'guilds' around my main trees and shrubs that are more amenable to my intended goals. Really, it's just approaching weeds through a different lens instead of just casually removing them because general garden knowledge says that one should. In researching more about these weeds in the bed, I learned a lot: from the fact that our native Pieris cannot complete its lifecycle on the garlic mustard to the fact that garlic mustard's invasion into the interior of woods reduces leaf litter and amphibians. If someone is more concerned about native insects and wildlife (like we are), that would be an important lens to gauge whether garlic mustard-an edible-should stay or go or at least be monitored. Understanding the "why" is what drives my curiosity and interests.

[@ianmiles2505]

Where are the children? Our future looks empty.

[@tanarehbein7768]

Sooooo, salamanders are more valuable than worms??? Maybe not. Lamb's quarters are also good for biomass. Just let it get big (not seed out) and lay the pulled plant around your fruit trees for a feed that suppress weeds. Ladybugs need something to feed on so their numbers won't decrease just when you may need them. I'm not sure who you are, this is the first time I've seen you but even though you come across as smart methodical and "researched" you said at least 10 questionable things. Don't over think it. Rip out what you don't like and leave what you can tolerate. Many non-natives thrive because they fill a vacant niche necessary for your guild. By the way all weeds/edibles/medicinals will all push into the bed if you aren't on them every day. I think you need just one crooked weedy bed in your life.