Loading ...When summer comes around, you can bet that your fellow sun-deprived Canadian neighbours will as good as live outside. Come June and July, the home extends out the front and back doors for meals, mowing, and if you’re lucky, for meditating in that macrame hammock you bought in Mexico four Januarys ago.
In my part of the country, we’ve already had three generations of thistles and dandelions bloom and seed, and the hip-high quack grass has already grown back to calf-height since it’s last battle with the weed whacker.
If you’ve been tempted to reach for a chemical solution you are not alone. So many of us are prone to that deep-seated yearning for the perfect lawn and yard. But, when you take a step back and look at that thing they call ‘perspective’, a few (hundred) yellow flowers and some broadleaf grass ain’t gonna kill ya. But weed killer might.
As you’re contemplating life’s greater issues in that hammock, why not ponder the Grist’s Three-step Greener Yard Guide. You might even come up with a few kid-friendly activities around weeds and the outdoors.
And wouldn’t you know it, weeds can do you and the planet a few favours. They can prevent soil erosion, offer food and habitat for beneficial insects and wildlife, enrich the nutrients in your soil (depending on species), and in my case, camouflage my strawberry patch so that the birds don’t devour all the berries! After all, a weed is nothing more than a plant that grows where you’d rather not have it.
Resources
Other Dandelion Recipes *Important Notes: Do NOT consume your weeds if you have use pesticides in your yard.
