Question from C.M.: With spring fast approaching, what should I be doing to my garden to get rid of all the weeds this year?

Answer from Coastalfields:

Instead of trying to get rid of them this year (which never works anyway), try cultivating and eating them with the rest of your crops! (Yum!)

Weeds are usually seen as pests, requiring costly and difficult methods to control or eliminate. But this is simply untrue. Weeds benefit both gardens and wildlife when tolerated in the beds of domesticated crops by decreasing the costs of production, improving quantity and quality of produce, and providing natural habitat. And many weeds that grow in Colorado are not only edible, but provide high-quality, nutritious food!

Weeds need not be domesticated to achieve this goal. Indeed, weeds have a greater benefit to both a garden and wildlife when they are tolerated as wild species in the beds of domesticated crops. Letting the weeds grow will decrease the costs of labor (think of all the time you'll save not pulling weeds!), and of fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides. By letting the weeds grow, you will need none of these!

Research undertaken at Coastalfields since 1997 has led to a tolerance-and encouragement-of weeds. At Coastalfields, weeds in beds are not seen as pests that rob domesticated plants of their water, sunlight, air and other vital resources, but as valuable assets that increase profits.

Weeds can provide to Colorado gardeners security: if the domesticated crop dies from climatic influences, weeds (which are usually hardier than the domesticated crops) can provide a secondary source of food. Weeds-especially in Colorado-serve to help secure the gardener's harvest by

· Protecting the domesticated plants from too much heat (by partially shading them)

· Improving water efficiency (by reducing evaporation through shading).

· Providing green manure (which provides not only balanced nutrition to plants but also improves the insulative capacity of soil so it retains more water, does not overheat in the Summer, stays warmer for earlier plantings in the Spring and stays warmer for later plantings in the Autumn).

· Increasing available water (by drawing water from taproots to the surface). Coastalfields has observed that weeds with deep roots draw water up to the surface and release that water into the nearby soil to facilitate the weed's nutrient intake. This water, once released into the soil, was accessible to domesticated plants: a crop of lettuce was raised by the water drawn up by lambsquarter and alfalfa.

· Protecting domesticated plants from herbivores (many insects-and even larger animals, such as deer or raccoons either prefer the nutrition of the weeds, cannot find the crops living under the weeds, or else are daunted by the carnivorous animals that might live in the weeds. Additionally, some weeds, especially thorny ones, prevent herbivores from entering a field. Hedges of thistle, cacti, or other plants may be used to affect traffic patterns of migrating herbivores. ).

· Providing habitat for "beneficial" insects. Weeds serve the vital needs of numerous species. Sometimes weeds are essential to the lives of a species: some butterflies will prefer to lay their eggs on thistles, because that is the plant their larvae will be best nourished by. Other times, weeds, while not necessary, are useful to a species: dragonflies, ladybugs, and other predator insects rely upon the shade of bushes such as alfalfa, sage brush and pigweed.

There are many edible weeds commonly found in Colorado gardens. These include alfalfa, dandelion, lambsquarter, purslane, thistle, clover, burdock and amaranth. It is essential to your health and safety that you can properly identify the wild edible plants before harvesting them, or else you may end up eating or serving to your loved ones a toxic look-alike! There are several good books available on the topic, such as "Wildman" Steve Brill's Identifying and Harvesting Edible and Medicinal Plants, as well as local classes given by Coastalfields and others. Nutritional information and recipes can also be found for these "crops," which are often easily substituted for more traditional produce in everyday recipes. Dandelion, for example, is a wild cousin to lettuce, and can be used in the same ways; lambsquarter is wild North American spinach (standard spinach is from Europe), and can also be used like its familiar cousin. Many weeds have superior flavor and nutrition to standard domesticated varieties. Lambsquarter, for example, has more calcium than spinach, and a richer flavor.

This year, instead of investing in a flame thrower or some organic pesticide, let your weeds grow strong! You'll enjoy watching the wildlife that visits (and helps!) your garden, and reap the benefits of more abundant and more delicious crops come harvest time.