Re: Misplaced Plants in the Garden

**Jeneva Storme j*@yahoo.ca**

>>>A thought on weeds in the garden. Weeds compete
with whatever your trying to grow for available
nuitrients and water - If they were only beneficial
for water conservation then the weed issue would only
be a cosmetic one.<<<

This is true to a certain extent, but it is also true
that deep-diving weed roots can bring up water and
nutrients from lower levels in the soil that the
shallower crop roots can't reach, as well as opening
up channels in the soil for those roots to follow to
more water and nutrients.  Also, some weeds are
nitrogen fixers, which provide extra available
nitrogen for other plants in their vicinity, and some
store water in their leaves and can be used as a moist
mulch later on.  In some circumstances they ARE
apparently beneficial for water conservation.  The
trick is to manage them in such a way that their
competition with other plants is minimized while their
benefits are maximized.  The book "Weeds: Guardians of
the Soil" (that was posted earlier as a link) goes
into some detail about how this can be accomplished. 
I am eager to try it myself, and am thinking about how
to do so as scientifically as possible so that the
results are significant and reproducible.

Shade and Sweet Water,
Jeneva

=====
Greening West Broadway Coordinator
"Neighbourhood Solutions for Community Change"

West Broadway Development Corporation
640 Broadway, Winnipeg, MB  R3C 0X3
phone: 774-3534  fax: 779-2203
website: http://www.westbroadway.mb.ca

______________________________________________________________________ 
Post your free ad now! http://personals.yahoo.ca

______________________________________________________
The American Community Gardening Association listserve is only one of ACGA's services to community gardeners. To learn more about the ACGA and to find out how to join, please go to http://www.communitygarden.org

To post an e-mail to the list:  community_garden@mallorn.com

To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your subscription:  https://secure.mallorn.com/mailman/listinfo/community_garden