Web Only: Weeds in Your Garden? Bite back!

I always say the gardener's best revenge is to eat the weeds. I've been doing it for 30 years and can testify that my health and the health of my garden has never been better. Here are a few hints for gardeners who'd rather eat their weeds than hate them (and for non-gardeners who are adventurous enough to try out nature's bounty).

View your weeds as cultivated plants. Give them the same care and you'll reap a tremendous harvest. Harvest frequently and do it when the weeds are young and tender. Thin your weeds and pinch back the annuals so your weeds become lushly leafy. Use weeds as rotation crops; they bring up subsoil minerals and protect against many insects.

"Interplant" (by not weeding out) selected weeds. Try purslane, lamb's quarters, or amaranth with your corn; chickweed with peas and beans; and yellow dock, sheep sorrel, or dandelion with tomatoes. And most importantly, harvest your weeds frequently, regularly, and generously.

Overgrown radishes, lettuces, and beans are tough and bitter. So are weeds that aren't harvested frequently enough. Give your chickweed a haircut (yes, with scissors!) every four to seven days and it will stay tender all spring, ready to be added to any salad. If you forget a patch for two weeks, it may get stringy, tough, and full of seed capsules. All is not lost at this stage. The seeds are easy to collect (put the entire plant in a plastic bag in the refrigerator for two to three days and use the seeds that fall to the bottom of the bag) and are highly nutritious, with exceptional amounts of protein and minerals.

Carrots and lettuces grow thin and spindly if they aren't thinned, so do lamb's quarters, amaranth, and other edible weeds. Wherever you decide to let the weeds grow, keep them thinned as you would any plant you expect to eat. Here's how I do it: In early spring I lightly top-dress a raised bed with my cool-method compost (which is loaded with the seeds of edible weeds). Over this I strew a heavy coating of the seeds of lettuces, cresses, and brassicas (cultivated salad greens), then another light covering of shifted compost.