What Weeds Tell About Your Landscape

/Home/Garden Basics/Plant & Lawn Care/Garden Problems and Solutions/Garden Weeds

By Nikki Phipps

WeedsAre weeds a frequent uninvited guest around your landscape? Maybe you have an abundant colony of crabgrass or dandelions thriving in the lawn. Perhaps you suffer from the unrelenting vines of morning glory or ivy slowly taking over the garden. Whatever the case, all of these seemingly bothersome weeds are actually telling you something about the health of your landscape. By looking closely at the weeds growing in your garden and the surrounding landscape, you can maintain the soil's quality more effectively; thus, producing a healthier environment in which all plants will thrive.

Take, for instance, a lawn that is lush with clover. The reason for its presence is not to annoy or even mock you. Instead, it is merely assessing the quality of your soil. Typically, the presence of clover in your lawn indicates a low level of nitrogen in the soil.

There are numerous weeds that are commonly found growing in poor soil. Some of these include yarrow, ragweed, dandelion, thistle, crabgrass, plantain, fennel, clover, and sheep sorrel. Plantains, red sorrel, daisy, wild carrot (Queen Anne's lace), mugwort, and mullein are good indicators of low fertility.

If the garden consists of wet, poorly drained soil, it's highly probable to find weeds such as spotted spurge, knotweed, moss, bindweed, and sedge. Moist, poorly drained soils are also dwelling sites for bluegrass, chickweed, crabgrass, goosegrass, ground ivy, speedwells, and violets.

Fertile soil is most often home to pigweed, foxtails, chickweed, chicory, horehound, and lamb's quarter. Dandelions are commonly found in well-drained, humus soil. In fact, they can actually produce humus, which is beneficial to the soil.

Some weeds favor manure or composted soils that are rich in organic matter. These include lamb's quarters, mallows, chickweed, plantain or thistles.

Plants favoring dry soils include mustard, carpetweed, sandbur, Russian thistle, yarrow, and speedwell. Acidic soils are usually a result of insufficient oxygen.

Acidic soils can spawn hawkweed, sorrel, cress, moss, plantain, knotweed, and daisy; while chickweed, spotted spurge, Queen Anne's lace, and chicory find comfort in more alkaline soils.

Finally, if the soil in your garden is hard or heavy, you're likely to find weeds such as plantain, horse nettle, and quack grass growing in the area. Compacted soils are frequented by bluegrass, Bermuda grass, chickweed, goosegrass, knotweed, mouse-ear chickweed, mustard, penny cress, morning glory, or quack grass.

Weeds can be our enemies, overtaking our and gardens. They can aggravate us to no end. Yet, weeds can also be our friends, giving valuable clues to our soil's health. Good or bad, they are here for a reason'weeds are nature's band-aid, healing injured landscapes.

Contact Information

Gardening Know How
57 Wandle Ave
Bedford, OH 44146