A Greene County Garden in April

By Margaret Donsbach Tomlinson

A weed, they say, “is a plant out of place.” So many people have said this, it’s hard to trace back to who said it first. Alex Brown may have been first to write it down, in The Coffee Planter’s Manual, published in 1880. This definition has the value of not slandering any of the plants it describes. Every plant does have a place, after all, since it originated in a natural habitat. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.”

You may think the plantain weed (Plantago species, not to be confused with the banana relative) is an unsightly garden interloper until you discover it has the virtue of being an antidote to poison ivy. If you’ve been exposed to poison ivy, simply crush a few leaves of plantain weed to squeeze the moisture out and rub it on your skin where the poison ivy touched. Jewelweed (Impatiens capensis, a native plant) is another poison ivy antidote.

The common dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) tagged along with early settlers from Europe. Many people struggle to eradicate dandelions from their lawns, but dandelions too have virtues.

Some people make the flowers into dandelion wine. The young greens are highly nutritious and have medicinal properties, suggested by the French word for dandelion, pissenlit, which literally means “wet the bed.” Even if you don’t harvest dandelions for your own purposes, birds love the seeds. Children delight in their cheerful yellow blooms and fluffy seedheads. Did you ever make a wish and blow a head of dandelion seeds to the wind?

The seeds of goldenrod (Solidago canadensis, a native plant) are also wind borne. You may find goldenrod plants popping up in spring wherever your garden has a bare spot. Goldenrod in full flower can be magnificent, but there’s no denying that in the wrong place it can look weedy. This plant is a perfect example of one that can be either out of place or absolutely wonderful.

“You fight dandelions all weekend, and late Monday afternoon there they are, pert as all get out, in full and gorgeous bloom, pretty as can be, thriving as only dandelions can in the face of adversity.”

—Hal Borland