Why You SHOULD Grow Weeds (And Eat Them!)

Every garden has weeds, and we can spend a lot of time getting rid of them – but the surprising thing is that some of these weeds are actually better eating than many of the veggies we’re intentionally growing! Edible weeds can be nutritionally superior, they’re clearly easier to grow, and they may even taste better too.

So instead of throwing away these unwanted guests…let’s eat them!

Super-Nutritious Stinging Nettles

Let’s meet some of the common weedy culprits, starting with stinging nettles, which are in fact one of the most nutrient-rich wild greens you can eat, packed full of vitamins, calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorous, potassium, silica, sodium, manganese, flavonoids, tannins, phenolic acids and more. I remember being blown away as a young lad when I found out you could actually eat nettles! They have a taste not too dissimilar to spinach once cooked.

Nettles grow as upright plants, often popping up in fertile soil, compost heaps, or along borders. Spring is the ideal season to enjoy them because the young tips are still tender and mild in flavour.

Before you tuck into any weeds, a quick but important reminder: only eat plants you can confidently identify, avoid any areas sprayed with chemicals or where dogs may have done their business and, of course, wash everything thoroughly. Cooking wild greens also helps reduce any potential risks.

Harvesting nettles is easy. Unless you’re a complete masochist, I’d suggest wearing gloves so you don’t get stung. Pick only the top few leaves from each plant. It’s a bit like picking the finest tea – we want just the top growth, which will be the most supple and soft. This young growth is definitely best for flavor too, and older leaves can apparently irritate the kidneys, so please do stick to this younger growth.

Don’t worry, once cooked, that sting disappears completely. Use nettles in soups, or wilted into pastas, risotto, or even whizzed up into a pesto. Even the sting has its uses – directly applied to the skin, it may serve as a natural remedy for arthritis as it can interrupt pain signals to reduce joint pain.

Regular harvesting weakens the plants, helping to naturally keep them under control, but leave a few patches of nettles in the garden if you can because they’re a fantastic food plant for all sorts of caterpillars – the good ones that support your garden by turning into stunning butterflies that will go on to pollinate your garden. It’s a happy, healthy and delicious weed to have!

Versatile Dandelions

The humble dandelion might just be one of the most versatile edible weeds out there because you can eat the leaves, flowers and roots – every last scrap of it! And it’s immensely good for us, containing lots of calcium and vitamins A and C.

Dandelions form a low rosette of toothed leaves – which is in fact where it gets its name: ‘dent de lion’ in French, which translates as ‘lion’s teeth’. Curiously, another French name for it is ‘pissenlit’, which means ‘wet the bed’ – a nod towards its effect as a diuretic, flushing out the bladder and kidneys to support their health.

At this time of year, they’re a common and, I might say, glorious sight in many lawns and flowerbeds. In fact, Victorian gardeners considered the dandelion a highly prized, multipurpose plant, rather than merely a ‘weed’.

Picked young, the leaves are far less bitter, making them a fab addition to a springtime salad. The cheery flowers can be used in fritters, syrups, or to make a beautiful warm and golden dandelion wine. But for me the best parts are the roots, roasted and ground as a truly exceptional coffee substitute. It just goes to show there’s so much more to dandelion than meets the eye – not bad for something most gardeners try to eradicate!

Chickweed For Salads and More

Chickweed is one of the most tender, mild-tasting weeds you’ll find in the garden, and it’s often abundant in Spring. It grows low and sprawling, with delicate stems and tiny white, star-shaped flowers. Pick it while still lush and soft by simply snipping off the top growth.

Chickweed has a mild, slightly sweet flavor that’s perfect for salads, in sandwiches, smoothies and pestos. And because it grows quickly, regular picking should keep it nicely under control. I reckon the best way to enjoy chickweed is as part of a salad with a simple but delicious dressing made from freshly squeezed lemon juice and a good, extra virgin olive oil. Yum!

Ground Elder for Food and Medicine

Ground elder gets its name because the leaves resemble those of the elderberry shrub. This vigorous spreader was actually introduced to my neck of the woods by the Romans as both a food crop and a medicinal herb. To think that a patch of weeds in modern-day suburbia is a descendant of plants brought here by legions of marching Romans to treat diseases like of arthritis, gout and rheumatism – and to offer a tasty snack along the way. Remarkable!

Ground elder forms carpets of fresh green leaves, particularly in shady areas. Pick the fresh, young leaves in spring before they toughen up. The flavor is mild, somewhere between parsley and celery. It’s great steamed like spinach – perhaps slowly wilted with a generous knob of butter and plenty of pepper, enjoyed in soups or added as a welcome and unexpected ingredient in stir-fries.

And just like many of the weeds featured today, regular harvesting will help keep this enthusiastic spreader in check.

Using Garlic Mustard As a Herb and For Mulch

Garlic mustard, also known as Jack-by-the-hedge (what a fab name!) is a fantastic herb-like weed. Crush a leaf to release its garlic-like aroma. As a biennial it grows a clump of leaves in its first year, then flowers in its second. The young, thin leaves of spring are best for flavor – garlicky, of course, but with a slightly sharp, almost bitter aftertaste. It’s a complex but honestly very palatable combo, and ideal for salads, sauces, pesto or dressings.

Garlic mustard is like having a free garlic herb growing in your garden. But if there’s too much of it, it’s very easy to pull up then simply lay back onto the soil surface to dry out as a simple, at-hand mulch. Nice!

Hairy Bittercress Garnish

This dainty fellow pops up everywhere: in pots, cracks in paving, and beds. Hairy bittercress has small, rounded leaflets and tiny white flowers. It has a lovely peppery taste, similar to cress or rocket, and picked in spring it makes a strong contender for salads or as a peppery garnish to just about any meal.

Once it flowers and then throws wide its seed, it spreads rapidly, so harvesting early helps prevent that. Honestly though, this weed has rarely got out of hand for me and is never a big problem because it’s very easy to hoe off.

Cleansing Cleavers (Goosegrass or Sticky Willy)

This here is one of my absolute favorite wild plants: goosegrass, cleavers or, as I know it, sticky willy. It’s ‘sticky’ because it’s covered in minuscule hooked hairs that make it act a bit like Velcro, so that it grabs onto animal fur, feathers or, indeed, clothing. And it is this nifty way of spreading that makes it enormous fun – there’s nothing quite as funny as covertly pressing a good wodge of sticky willy onto the back of an unsuspecting friend or loved one, then watching them wander about with it clinging to them like the Green Man!

But, aside from the obvious jolly japes you can have with it, the young shoots are surprisingly good eating. Pick very young growth, before it turns tough, then cook it like any other green. It’s also great dried for a refreshing herbal tea. And goosegrass is good for the stomach too, helping to ease digestive discomfort such as indigestion and bloating – so a cuppa made from either dried leaves or a handful of fresh leaves steeped in hot water is going to be good for the ol’ belly!

Or, even better, use handfuls of this sensational sticky star fresh in water to create a cleansing, wholesome detox water. Just bundle thoroughly cleaned cleavers into a jug and add your water. Many claim that it’s great for the lymphatic system, can help fight infections, and may even naturally help to lower blood pressure. And it doesn’t taste too bad either – like a super-refreshing cucumber water. Lovely!

Remarkably, this common weed is in the same plant family as coffee. The seeds form later in the summer, then once they’ve dried out by autumn you can simply gather them up, spread them out onto a baking tray and roast them in a slow-but-steady heat to completely dry them out and roast them. They’ll darken in color and produce a smell similar to coffee. They can then be ground up and used just like an instant coffee – and they even have a small trace of caffeine like the real deal!

Plantain Chips

Plantain, with its broad leaves complete with distinctive ribs, is another common weed of lawns and paths. Like most of the weeds featured today, it’s the young leaves that are going to be the best to enjoy in salads or cooked. And it’s another weed that’s tastier the earlier you harvest.

A fab way to enjoy plantain, if you happen to have plenty of it, is to make plantain leaf chips, similar to kale chips. Just massage the leaves with oil then bake them on a low heat to give a crispy texture – perfect for super-healthy snacking. Delish!

Weeding: It’s All in the Balance

Weeds can be tasty, but I’m certainly not suggesting you let your garden turn into an unkempt jungle! A healthy garden still needs good weed control. The key is balance. Hoe off unwanted weeds while they’re still small, before they get out of hand, mulch to suppress unwanted growth, and remove persistent spreaders, especially perennial weeds, where needed.

But, instead of declaring a total war on weeds, enjoy the ones that do occasionally sneak through. I reckon it’s better to think of weeds as wildlife-friendly plants that offer a little free food as a bonus. And often that food can be every bit as tasty as the crops you’ve lovingly tended, so next time you’re pulling up weeds pause for a moment – because you could be harvesting your next meal!