The Beneficial Weeds You Want In Your Garden

Put that spade and pair of secateurs down! Before you do any weeding at all, have a read about the beneficial weeds you want in your garden that help the environment, and support wildlife. You can even eat some of them too!

It’s time we changed how we look at gardening. With the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) no longer classing slugs and snails as pests – instead urging people to consider these creatures as an important part of the garden ecosystem – it’s high time we did the same with weeds.

It was Ian Emberson who wrote the words “A weed is a flower in the wrong place, a flower is a weed in the right place”. So, instead of waging war on the flowers in the wrong place, let’s change how we look at them. Many weeds after all are beneficial to the environment, our gardens, and wildlife. Surprisingly, many weeds are edible too.

In the UK, our collective private gardens cover an area of land that is bigger than all of the country’s nature reserves combined. That’s a huge area and means our gardens have great potential to provide vital space for wildlife.

We can start to make positive changes, just by changing how we view weeds. Here are just some of the flowers we commonly class as weeds, and some of their many benefits. Remember, it’s not about turning your whole garden over to weeds – it’s about making space for them in spots in your garden.

The Beneficial Weeds You Want In Your Garden

Here are just some of the beneficial weeds you want in your garden, that all help to support our native wildlife. Many of these weeds are also beneficial when it comes to growing fruit and vegetables, and many are also edible. Of course, do consult a book on foraging or an app if you have any doubts about identifying edible types of weeds before you eat them:

Nettles

Top of the list is nettles. Nettles are an amazing weed because these stinging plants support an array of wildlife. Butterflies, such as the Red Admiral and Small Tortoiseshell, and moths lay their eggs on nettles. Meanwhile, caterpillars, aphids and other insects all eat nettles. In fact, nettles can support over 40 types of insects.

However, it’s not just insects that benefit from the presence of nettles. A whole host of other wildlife are attracted to nettles because they like to eat the insects that gorge on nettles. Ladybirds, parasitic wasps, hedgehogs, frogs, toads, shrews, and birds such as blue tits, all visit to feast on these insects and aphids. It’s a veritable feeding frenzy!

In the autumn, nettles provide a further feast. Small birds, including the sparrow, chaffinch, and bullfinch come to feast on the seeds which each nettle plant produces.

Companion Planting With Nettles

If you grow your own fruit and vegetables, then nettles make for great companion plants. This is because growing clumps of nettles between crops help to attract beneficial predators, such as ladybirds. These will help to control pests naturally, without the use of harmful pesticides.

Eating Nettles

You can also eat nettles. In spring you can make delicious wild nettle pesto with the tips of the spring shoots. A word of warning though – don’t pick nettle leaves after they have started flowering – usually around late May. Once nettles start flowering, a chemical in the leaves can upset your urinary tract. Consider nettles a springtime treat, and for the rest of the year leave them for wildlife to enjoy.

Sorrel

You might class sorrel as an annoying weed that pops up on your lawn, but it’s actually pretty beneficial to have in your garden.

Sorrel is beloved by slugs, snails and aphids, and some species of butterfly and moth larvae feed on the leaves too. This in turn attracts other wildlife, which then eats these creatures.

Companion Planting With Sorrel

Sorrel also makes a great companion plant when growing strawberries, cabbages or tomatoes. This simple but clever technique works by creating a diversion and drawing pests away from the main fruit and vegetable plants you are trying to protect.

Eating Sorrel

Most types of sorrel are also edible. Young sorrel leaves can be used as a herb, or as a salad leaf. Sorrel has a very fresh and zingy flavour, that is reminiscent of that of the zest of a lemon. This flavour really lifts a dish naturally. Because of this, sorrel has become one of my favourite things to grow in my garden. Eat the leaves when they are young though – I find that the larger they get, the leaves take on more of a woody texture which isn’t so tasty.

With so many brilliant properties, I promise, you’ll soon view sorrel as a plant, rather than a weed!

Dandelions

Dandelions have long been a scourge of gardeners. Those long taproots that are difficult to remove from the ground mean that dandelions just keep popping up when you don’t want them. However, dandelions are an incredibly beneficial addition to any garden.

Dandelions provide food to many different pollinators. This includes bumblebees, solitary bees, hoverflies, butterflies and some species of moths and beetles. As one of the first plants to flower in spring and the last to flower in autumn, dandelions are incredibly important to our pollinators. They are particularly important in early spring when some of these species emerge hungry from hibernation.

Other species in turn eat these insects, whilst later on in the year, birds such as goldfinches and house sparrows munch the dandelion seeds.

Companion Planting With Dandelions

Whilst you may think you don’t want dandelions growing in your vegetable garden, then I encourage you to think again. Far from being just weeds, dandelions make a fantastic companion plant to have in your garden.

As well as attracting pollinating insects to your vegetable patch, the dandelion’s long taproots help to break apart hard soils. These roots are also said to bring up nutrients from deep down in the soil to the surface. This helps to nourish other plants growing nearby.

Interestingly, dandelions also release ethylene gas. If grown near fruit or tomatoes, this gas that they give off can help speed up the ripening process.

Eating Dandelions

It’s a little-known fact that dandelions are edible. The petals can be eaten raw in salads, or you can boil them in sugar to make dandelion syrup – also known as vegan honey.

The leaves can also be eaten raw in salads or boiled to be eaten as a substitute for spinach. Some people even bake the roots and ground them down to use as a coffee substitute. Do check out my guide to dandelion recipes for a huge list of ideas and recipes.

Wild Carrot

Whilst wild carrot has historically been classed as a weed, this beautiful plant is beneficial to a host of insects, such as bees, beetles and hoverflies. Its ferny foliage and clusters of white flowers mean it looks great growing in your garden borders too.

Companion Planting With Wild Carrot

Planting wild carrots helps to attract hoverflies to your garden. Hoverflies are a great garden guest to have, as they eat the aphids that like to feast on your prize vegetables. Hoverflies have short tongues so they need accessible flowers where they can drink nectar. Wild carrot is an accessible flower for hoverflies, so you can naturally reduce your aphid populations without resorting to pesticides.

Eating Wild Carrot

Whilst the young roots of wild carrots are edible, as well as the flowers, I prefer to give them a wide berth. This is because wild carrots are very similar in appearance to other members of the same family, such as the highly poisonous hemlock plant and the poisonous hemlock water-dropwort plant. Personally, I would reserve wild carrots as a beneficial weed for the wildlife to enjoy.

Clover

Clover is a great multitasker to have in your garden. It fixes nitrogen into the soil – meaning it absorbs nitrogen from the air and puts it into the soil. This is a natural way to enrich your soil without having to use chemical fertilisers. This means happier and healthier veggies nearby – especially leafy greens.

The pretty clover flowers also provide nectar for bees and other pollinators. And it’s great as a living mulch too, helping to suppress less desirable weeds while keeping moisture in the soil.

Companion Planting

Try growing clover in between rows of cabbages, and other brassicas and leafy greens. It will naturally enrich your soil, and acts as a living mulch. That means less weeding and better moisture retention, which helps keep your vegetables hydrated in dry spells.

Eating Clovers

All parts of the clover plant are edible, but the flowers taste the best – particular pink clover flowers. Try them in salads for the best results. White flowers can taste bitter, whilst the leaves taste very much of grass. The WildFood website warns that eating too many clover leaves can cause bloating, so be mindful of that!

Yarrow

Yarrow is a native flower of the UK that often pops up in gardens, meaning it often gets classed as a weed. However, with its feathery foliage and clusters of tiny flowers, it’s a magnet for beneficial insects like hoverflies, ladybirds, and lacewings. It’s also loved by bees and butterflies.

It doesn’t just support insects though. Yarrow’s deep roots help break up compacted soil and draw up nutrients from deep down in the ground, which in turn benefits surrounding plants. This process also helps to prevent soil erosion. It’s also hardy, drought-tolerant, and thrives in poor soils where other plants may struggle.

Companion Planting with Yarrow

Yarrow gets along well with most garden plants. It’s said to improve the health and flavour of herbs and vegetables growing nearby, especially aromatic varieties like lavender, thyme, and rosemary.

Eating Yarrow

Yarrow is edible – but only in small amounts. The raw young leaves can be added sparingly to salads or brewed as a tea. However, it’s quite strong and bitter, so is best used as a herbal accent rather than a main feature. It is best avoided during pregnancy and when breastfeeding.

Make sure you positively identify yarrow before consuming any of it though. Several types of the poisonous hemlock plant can look similar to yarrow, particularly before it flowers. If you’re in any doubt at all, give it a wide berth and leave it for the insects to enjoy.

More Sustainable Gardening Resources

So let’s put down the weedkiller, put down that spade, and embrace the weeds to make your garden an insect and animal-friendly oasis. Of course, you don’t have to turn your whole garden over to weeds – simply allowing one small patch or a couple of tubs to grow wild can make a huge difference to our native wildlife. If you are worried about being overrun by dandelions, simply cut the flower heads off before they go to seed.

If you are looking for more sustainable gardening resources I’ve got you sorted:

• The bee-friendly plants to add to your garden
• Zero-waste ways to start seeds
• How to make a bee watering station – as bees need a supply of clean water as well as plants.