Lassine Keita 🇲🇱 🌍
3.1K posts
@keit_lass
🌍 Africain cosmopolite engagé dans la préservation de l'#environnement 🌱 et pour une #agriculture africaine durable · #Climafrique #Chinafrique #Chine 🇨🇳
20 garden "weeds" worth knowing before pulling them out. Each has a specific function — removing them means losing free food, wildlife habitat, or a plant that benefits the soil. A garden without weeds is not a tidy garden. It is a garden without forage plants, without food, and without the flowers that sustain wild bees. Dandelion — roots, young leaves, and flowers all edible. One of the most important early-season nectar sources for bees. Purslane — succulent, edible raw or cooked, with a mild flavour. Good in salads. Common on disturbed soil and in vegetable beds. Fat hen (Chenopodium album) — young leaves cooked like spinach. Nitrogen indicator. Historically one of the most important food plants in Britain before cultivation pushed it out. Good King Henry (Chenopodium bonus-henricus) — edible shoots and leaves, used as a vegetable for centuries in British cottage gardens. Largely forgotten but fully edible. Ribwort plantain — the long narrow leaf with prominent parallel ribs. Seeds eaten by finches. Young leaves used in traditional poultices for minor skin irritation. White clover — fixes nitrogen through root bacteria, improving soil fertility. Excellent bee forage plant, especially for bumblebees. Greater plantain — broader leaves than ribwort. Edible young; seeds eaten by birds. Common on compacted paths and lawns. Black medick — small yellow-flowered clover relative. Fixes nitrogen. Good bee forage. Often dismissed as a lawn weed. Chickweed — edible raw, mild flavour. Indicates moist fertile soil. Useful ground cover that suppresses bare soil evaporation in winter. Common mallow — leaves, flowers, and young seed pods all edible. Flowers good in salads. Mucilaginous leaves soften in hot water. Stinging nettle — young spring tips edible once blanched. Exceptional habitat plant — the primary host for red admiral, peacock, comma, and small tortoiseshell caterpillars. Ground elder — deeply unfashionable but fully edible in spring before the leaves mature. Parsley-like flavour. Blanch briefly; older leaves are too strong. Wild garlic — one of the best wild edible plants in the British calendar. Leaves, flowers, and bulbs all edible. Spreads freely in damp shade. Hairy bittercress — tiny rosette with white flowers. Fast to set seed. Young plants edible with a mild watercress flavour. Indicates bare disturbed soil. Silverweed — silver-leafed, low-growing rosette. Edible roots, historically used as a starchy food. Good ground cover on poor compacted soils. Tansy — strong aromatic yellow-button flower. Traditionally used as a companion plant; the scent deters some pest insects. Attractive to hoverflies and beetles. Vervain (Verbena officinalis) — upright, small-flowered, unassuming. Good late-season nectar plant for specialist bees. Traditionally used as a tisane. Sorrel — sharply acidic leaves used in salads and soups. A perennial that returns reliably each spring. Indicates moist, slightly acidic soil. Wild fennel — tall, feathery, with yellow umbel flowers. Leaves and seeds edible. Outstanding insect plant — one of the best umbellifer hosts for hoverflies and parasitic wasps. Comfrey — large, hairy-leaved, vigorous. Not recommended for regular eating, but exceptional as a compost activator and liquid feed. Deep tap root brings up nutrients from below the reach of vegetable roots. 🌿🐝🌼🍃 #GardenWeeds #WildlifeFriendlyGarden #BritishWildPlants #ForagingUK
