Most people hate weeds, myself included…until today.
As gardening season is upon us, I’ve had my hands in the dirt this weekend longing for growth. While I’ve had very good success with my soil, I must admit that I’ve often wondered what the true conditions of my soil were.
Succumbing to my curiosity, I purchased a soil testing kit. This test would reveal my soil’s pH level, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. These are good things to know. Yet, as I took less than 1/8 tsp. of soil to test with, I had to wonder how accurate a portrait of soil quality would be revealed. Could I get accurate results even with multiple samplings?
While I do not take issue with soil testing whatsoever, it reminded me of when I’ve had blood work done. The results are based only on a “snapshot”, a moment of time when that blood was drawn. An hour later, the results could be different, depending on what you were looking for i.e. cholesterol.
When I heard about weeds as soil indicators, it made a lot of sense to me. What weeds were able to grow in my soil conditions would lend more to the entire context of my soil. Gayla Trail speaks about this in her book “You Grow Girl”.
Some weeds will only grow in alkaline soil, others only in acidic soil. Some weeds prefer compacted soil, others poorly drained soil. The bottom line is that weeds will grow only where conditions are right for them.
As I read more about what weeds grown in what kinds of soil, I furiously googled each weed name trying to match what was in my garden. To my surprise, the weeds in my garden indicate high fertility!
Chickweed
Other weeds that indicate high fertility include mallow, red clover and stinging nettles, of which I have a few. Yet, chickweed, purslane and lamb’s quarters dominate my soil! Woot!
Low fertility soil would grow weed indicators like plaintain, oxeye daisy, wild carrot, mullein, red sorrel and yarrow.
Alkaline soil would likely grow bladder campion, sow thistle, henbane and mustard.
Acidic soil might grow red sorrel, dandelion, bracken fern and/or oxeye daisy.
Compacted soil could grow bindweed, chicory, quackgrass, wild mustard, knotweed, goosegrass or pineapple weed.
Poorly drained soil might grow horsetail, ground ivy or nutsedge.
It took me a few trips back and forth to the garden and back to the computer to correctly identify my weeds, but I feel as though the time was well spent! I have a better understanding of my soil this year. Sure, I’ll probably continue to work with my soil test kit, but I can go forward into the growing season with confidence…all because of my weeds.
***Some information for this post was obtained from “You Grow Girl” by Gayla Trail.
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I was just curious as to if your soil test kit gave the same results as the weeds do? I tested a couple of areas recently and it showed low fertility. These were both in established beds with few weeds, most of those bermuda grass. However, we’ve been working on our soil for several years now, adding rabbit manure, compost, leaves in the fall, etc… so I was wondering if the test kit really gave an accurate pictures, especially since the directions said to take the sample from 4 inches deep.
Cathy,
I have only had time to test one spot, 6″ down. My pH was high (9) and my nitrogen was low, but the phosphorus and potassium were right on.
I decided to add more compost to bring that pH down and re-test in several places in a week or so. Might also add some sulfur….
Does that help? What are you thinking about doing?
My soil also came back as alkaline in one area, around an 8. So far I’ve added soil sulfur for that and just am continuing to water with fish emulsion (2-4-0.4) about every 5 days. I also used an “organic” fertilizer (10-10-10) on one bed as a sort of control to see how it does in comparison to the others. Just find it really hard to believe that fertility in these beds could be so low after all we’ve done to improve them. Rabbit manure breaks down really slowly, so maybe that is part of it.
Thanks for the reply…I also appreciated the various weed ID and figured out that one of the weeds rampant in our yard is sow thistle.
Cathy,
Wow, I think that I would be totally frustrated as well! Have you had someone from your extension office come out? They might have some insight to offer.
Do you have sandy soil? Does your land have a history of being farm land? You’ve got me curious and thinking about what might help!
We live in a suburban area in a 40+ year old house, so if it was farmland, it was a long time ago. We have heavy clay soil naturally, but most of what is in the beds we have bought and put there and then added to the past few years with the manure, compost, etc… .
I’ve not yet contacted the extension office or done anything along those lines. The garden seems to be growing well, which is what really makes me wonder if testing 4 inches deep is TOO deep in a raised bed setting. Need to look more into the raised bed aspect of testing, I think.
Cathy,
I would talk to your extension office before going to all the work of a raised garden, even though that might be what you’ll need to do. Keep me posted?
I guess I wasn’t very clear, but we already have raised beds. We’ll see how this year’s garden goes and go from there, I think, maybe contacting the extension office in the fall/next spring if need be.
Cathy,
Yep, that’s what I would do. Take care!
Cathy,
I have only had time to test one spot, 6″ down. My pH was high (9) and my nitrogen was low, but the phosphorus and potassium were right on.
I decided to add more compost to bring that pH down and re-test in several places in a week or so. Might also add some sulfur….
Does that help? What are you thinking about doing?
I was just curious as to if your soil test kit gave the same results as the weeds do? I tested a couple of areas recently and it showed low fertility. These were both in established beds with few weeds, most of those bermuda grass. However, we’ve been working on our soil for several years now, adding rabbit manure, compost, leaves in the fall, etc… so I was wondering if the test kit really gave an accurate pictures, especially since the directions said to take the sample from 4 inches deep.
Loved this post! Tore out to my garden, uprooted and identified my predominant weeds (greater celandine) and then found a chart on the internet that had over a hundred indicator weeds. This is the first time I have heard of this…thank you!
Loved this post! Tore out to my garden, uprooted and identified my predominant weeds (greater celandine) and then found a chart on the internet that had over a hundred indicator weeds. This is the first time I have heard of this…thank you!
Hey Bekki,
Isn’t this cool? And yes, there are lots of charts with lots of weeds to look at! Good luck with your soil!
Hey Bekki,
Isn’t this cool? And yes, there are lots of charts with lots of weeds to look at! Good luck with your soil!
interesting post. I never new any of my weed names….now I do!
Carolyn,
Good for you!
Thanks for commenting!
Carolyn,
Good for you!
Thanks for commenting!
interesting post. I never new any of my weed names….now I do!
Most of our soil is very poor. “Bleak” is the way the soil conservationist described it. The list of weeds you posted coincides with the weeds that grow on most of our land: red sorrel, mullein, yarrow and oxeye daisy, wild carrot. Lamb’s quarters are rampant in the improved garden area; and they are so tasty. Thanks for showing us how to look at nature to supply the information we need.
Hey Starlight Hill Farm,
Isn’t it so cool how that works? What do you do with lambs quarters?? You’ve got me curious! I’ve got enough of those to feed an army!
Thanks for commenting!
What a great informative post. I’m definitely bookmarking this to refer to as soon as my weeds start coming in. One thing is for sure, my backyard is filled with plantain! Looks like I have some amending to do!
Diana,
Thank you! I appreciate “Simple Lives Thursday”!!
Thanks for this post. It makes total sense. I have never been in to testing my soil. I just keep adding good stuff and hope it all works out. But knowing what the weeds indicate, makes things a lot simpler.
Heather,
I’m glad you enjoyed it and thanks for commenting. I’m like you in that I keep adding the good stuff, stir and add seeds….lol. Hasn’t failed me yet.
Sigh…If it weren’t for the dandelions in our back yard, I’m not sure we would have anything green back there.
We also have a lot of red sorrel. It was interesting to see what the different weeds looked like, and I have to admit I was tickled to see…well…photos of horse tails mixed with photos of weeds named horse tail. I’m going to try raised beds this year, and apparently that’s a really good thing based on what I learned tonight. Thanks for posting this!
Would you mind sharing the links you found about the weeds (charts, pictures, whatever was so helpful)?
Thank you!