This piece of wisdom will enlighten all of you permies out there - Stop Killing Your Weeds!
I'll say it again just in case you didn't get it the first time around - Every time you kill a weed, you obstruct Mother Nature's will, STOP KILLING YOUR WEEDS!
I know that's a loaded statement, but bear with me a minute. Weeds are merely unrecognized resources. They're abundant, hard-working, free, well-meaning-if-often-not-misplaced, nurturing, and you will eventually understand this - vital parts of ecosystems.
Why do all the hard work when you can let nature do it for you? Weeds are the answer to our sincerest need to see our landscapes succeed. Free, Native, Adaptive. They are everything your ecosystem requires at any given time, those conditions are what begets the weed to fill that void. Let your weeds grow in and eventually you will see higher-order, more-valuable plants fill those niches. Ecosystems aren't born overnight, we shouldn't expect them to grow in all at once. It takes decades for a piece of volcanic land to bloom into a forest, but it does happen. How? Let's take a look.
Gardening is all about growing a biome. In the permaculture sense, it is growing a working ecosystem. Weeds are a necessary part of that ecosystem. Either provide your own weeds, or let nature do the hard work. As permaculturists we strive to add nitrogen fixers to feed other plants, root crops to bore down into compacted soil and mine minerals up to the surface, tall expansive trees to shade our exposed soil, vines to climb those trees, small shrubs to grow under the trees and generally contribute to the harmony of the system, exotic flowering plants to attract useful insects and fend off destructive ones. This is exactly what nature does every second of every day. Scrape off a piece of land and you can expect massive colonization in a matter of years. Why buy plants and seeds when you can work with what comes in naturally? This solution will save our planet!
When does permaculture become 'do-nothing' gardening? When does the gardener hand the reigns over to nature? Obviously great work is to be expected to turn a lawn into a beautiful forest, hundreds of man-hours are spent to turn a beautiful forest into a lawn and hundreds more are spent to keep it that way. But what is it about lawns that are so beneficial? We are the most advanced creatures on Earth, yet we barely use any of our brains in the maintenance of our surroundings. Everything about our civilized society is based on destruction and sameness, robotic acceptance of the norm. Beauty and Nature are only an afterthought to western civilization. Boxes and bricks are not Humanity. Ask any graffiti artist.
What about gardening feeds the soul of humanity? Is it the feeling of Mother Nature embracing you and saying "everything is going to be okay"? Is it the vision of a future in which our childrens' children will never have to face poverty or hunger? That they can carry on a genetic lineage that was preserved through the Age of RoundUp? Is it the notion that in this age of revolution you can make a difference by growing a plant with sunlight and water?
Maybe once you consider how very important the weed is in our permaculture garden, you'll think twice about plucking out that dandelion or lady's thumb, realizing that those spiders need a home and that your soil is a little too compacted.
