WE WEED TOO MUCH
Weeds are plants. Plants enrich the soil with carbon, especially if you have a diversity of plants.
Jewelweed is a native impatiens. It is exceedingly prolific. Last year’s one plant turned into over 50 this year, as far as ten feet away from the mother plant.
It will have orange blooms in late summer.
In this spot, it blends nicely with Virginia creeper and common violets, all native and good host plants.
I’m transplanting Jewelweed from this patch to other parts of my woodland garden. I predict that next year it will be nearly everywhere.
It will add variety and diversity. If it takes up too much space that I want for other plants, it will pull up easily because its roots are thin and shallow.
Also pictured here is a prickly lettuce. Some would consider it a weed, but weeds are plants. And plants store carbon in the ground, and even more so when they are part of a diverse plant community that supports a diverse microbial community in the soil.
The Jena experiments in Germany found that plant diversity optimizes the rate at which plants store carbon in the ground. That’s why I don’t pull a weed unless it threatens to dominate.
Sometimes instead of pulling a weed, I will cut off the top half so that it’s a bit less prominent but still pumping carbon into the soil and providing diversity. And when I have a tree that I cannot let grow to maturity, I will cut it off about a foot from the ground. It then sprouts new leaves and the roots are still pumping carbon into the ground and supporting the soil food web.
Carbon content is a great indicator of soil health and soil structure. The Haney soil test tests for “water extractable organic carbon.”