Weeds are just highly successful flowers that have earned resentment from others.
i call this the weed paradox.
even though weeds grow unassisted. it is impossible for everyone to grow weeds in their garden. for is they try, they are no longer weeds
A weed is whatever your HOA says it is.
A HOA is a weed.
OOP is the author of something like seven published novels, one of which has been adapted into a movie and another of which may soon be made into a streaming series. Never feel embarrassed to say what you learned today.
It’s easy when you didn’t know something that is completely reasonable not to know, like in this example, but it’s always good to admit your ignorance.
Weeds is just the gardening term for “their kind”.
“you people”
Nobody’s said it so I will.
A weed is any plant that grows on disturbed or compacted soil without cultivation. Their growth conditions are created by humans and their spread is caused by humans.
Our opinions mean nothing to plants
The general definition of a weed is “any plant growing where you don’t want it to be”. A corn plant in a bean field is a terrible weed.
what the hell is a bean field? also beans are great with corn they climb the stalks, also have squash, then boom you have the so called three sisters.
I am aware of, and deeply intrigued by, the three sisters method. It’s just not a commercially viable method of growing those crops; I don’t know what the harvest would look like.
We need to grow a lot more industrial hemp, but I’m afraid that’s a bit of a pipe dream unless we change…literally everything.
We have neighbors with tons of hemp bales mouldering in the field because the processors won’t take them because they don’t have anywhere to sell them to. Maybe it’s incompetence, or maybe the hemp hype isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. There aren’t a lot of people willing to grow it anymore.
Bush beans are a thing? Soybeans don’t climb either, and it’s the most common bean grown in the US.
oh I’ve only grown vine beans. The ones I have that were originally smuggled when all the invasive species were brought in grow easily 10+ feet high and any I can’t reach are left to dry on the vine at the end of the season and the poles are toppled to grab them
I suspect that’s one of the reasons they’re grown in greenhouses commercially. They use a lift to pick, and it’s easier to drive over pavement than dirt.
Never heard of the battle of the beanfield?
The idea of “weeds” is a colonialist construct.
Ironically, weed isn’t a weed for many people.
In Spanish we call them “malas hierbas”
Isn’t hierba buena mint? Everything else must be hierba neutra then
In German it’s “Unkraut” which could either be interpreted as “not herb”, “abnormal herb” or “evil herb”. Is the range similar in Spanish?
Other than the “not” part, yeah. “Mala” is bad, wrong, evil, wicked, ill, naughty, etc.
(Checked this to confirm before I posted, since it’s been several years since I’ve known Spanish well enough to speak it.)
Estonian is umbrohi which is kind of like “not grass” so pretty similar to Deutsch here
In french, it’s similar: “mauvaises herbes”
And I think that’s beautiful.
I learnt from Animal Crossing that it was “Malezas”
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maleza
La maleza, mala hierba, hierba mala, yuyo, planta arvense, adventicia o planta adventicia, planta espontánea o planta indeseable
“Mala hierba nunca muere” is also a fun saying
Some countries in Latin America call it maleza and others do not
Maleza is more like a thicket or lots of malas hierbas.
https://dle.rae.es/maleza?m=form
But now I see that in some countries is synonymous with mala hierba, I didn’t know that.
Fun fact: the name for a weed in my native language is literally “angry grass” :3
Unkraut in German. Doesn’t deserve to be called a Kraut.
Similar in Norwegian: Ugress. Un-grass.
I’ve heard one definition of it that I like: The grass that your (grazing) animals won’t eat.
Oh man. I have known this word as the name of an electronica music project for many years. Now I know what it means (never bothered to look it up. )
Ogräs in swedish, gräs is herb and the O is like making it not-grass.
Röka gräs is smoking weed though so suddenly it’s getting the good treatment.
Herb is ört in Swedish. Gräs is better translated as grass, so ogräs is non-grass. This also enables a funny way to insult someone’s lawn – since lawn is gräsmatta (grass carpet) – by calling it an ogräsmatta.
So technically all non-Germans are Unkrauts! I‘m incorporating this word.
I know where you are coming from, but as a German calling someone „Unkraut“ has a very dehumanizing sound and was used by nazis to classify people they wanted to murder. Example: https://www.deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de/item/6SLYFZ3ZSAWYUJX26V4EXWYGFZBI7ZFH
„However, it would have to become the task of the Inner Mission… to clear God’s field of this Unkraut“: women as victims of forced serialisation and “euthanasia” under National Socialism
What happend next is posted daily by https://mastodon.world/@auschwitzmuseum So you might want to skip this.
Um… Ok you might have saved me from a few faux passes.
Happy to help!
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In Swedish the prefix for bad stuff is the same as the prefix for not or un-. So a monster is a not-animal and a weed is ungrass. Which is especially interesting to me because that same prefix (o) is for better versions of things in Japanese.
e: This got me thinking about “plant,” and I realized it’s literally the verb to plant. In Swedish it’s a growth, or thing that grew. Japanese and Chinese: planted thing. Spanish is also the same as the verb. I feel kinda bad we mostly talk about them in terms of farming them rather than giving them a proper name. Like if they get sentient someday, plant will probably be considered a slur.
that same prefix (o) is for better versions of things in Japanese.
Puts on nerd glasses well ackshually it’s used to elevate the status of something, such as with people, objects or other entities of social or religious significance (for example other people’s family members in a polite situation). It’s more honored than better.
I don’t love the honor translation partially because it’s been used in racist caricature, but also because it’s often inaccurate. Like you might say ohana because you’re in an extremely formal interaction, or because you want to sound poetic or whatever, but you’re not actually saying “honorable flowers” usually. You can mean that though. I feel like it’s too context-sensitive and culturally nuanced for simple translation.
Like you might say ohana because you’re in an extremely formal interaction, or because you want to sound poetic or whatever, but you’re not actually saying “honorable flowers” usually.
I think the most common instance would be simply wanting to sound cute.
The French name for weed could be translated to “bad/wrong grass”
I think this is something I might be too French-Canadian to understand, here we’d call it “pot” or perhaps “herbe”, both of which don’t translate to “bad grass”.
Unless overseas “herbe” translates to weed. We use it pretty interchangeably with “gazon” (which just means grass)
“Mauvaises herbes” this is the word I was thinking about.
Erbaccia in Italian, bad/ugly grass
I love it, what language is that?
Lithuanian :3
My guess was correct, based only on the translation of piktžolė lol.
Very :3pilled
:3 and UwU are my personality at this point x3
Mine translates to “bad grass” in both my mother languages.
Seems to be a pattern :3
yeah, that both have a lot of words translated from each other xD
Just wait until he finds out about “tree”
Any kind of twig that’s not a shrub?
A nice one, and not too expensive.
Clean and reasonably priced
Ni
Oh, what sad times are these when passing ruffians can say, “Ni” at will to old ladies!
Nuu, nuu!
Or “fish”
Or “fruit”
Or ‘vegetable’
Is this fish but with plants?
fish but with plants is trees
get out… are you saying barks have no meaning
He’s a bit slow on the uptake
My garden is all weeds. Tons of different plants, but some dominate in certain seasons, growing like 5 feet high. Seems to have avoided anything nasty though, no thistles, nettles or brambles.
My neighbour’s garden is a thin layer of plastic astroturf. And they let a dog run about on it. Good luck getting dog diarrhoea out of that.
I know which I prefer.
If you are happy with the plants being where they are then they aren’t weeds. The main problem is companies that sell plant killing chemicals and services treat the word ‘weed’ as if it had a universal meaning.
I wish someone had warned me before No Mow May about brambles.
1 shoulder injury and a year later I need chainmail gloves and a fucking flamethrower. I fill my green bin with brambles, by the time it’s picked up they’ve grown back.
The main root is under a shed. I don’t know how to eliminate it.
I don’t know if this will work on brambles, but for pesky root systems I’ve had luck with Bonide’s Stump and Vine killer. You cut near the base of one of them, then paint the exposed stem with this stuff. It absorbs into the root system and kills all of it. Works great on pokeweed.
Edit: Turns out this is just a specific brand of triclopyr herbicide like MoonMelon mentioned. So here’s another recommendation for triclopyr!
Cheaper than buying my third set of secateurs, I’ll give it a go, thanks!
The worst I had to deal with was pampas grass, which appears to be a plant made of actual swords.
I spent three days hacking at it in a coat so I wouldn’t get shredded. When I finally cut the root bulb out it was a cube of wood a foot across. I could barely lift it out, I had to roll it to the bin.
At least pampas grass doesn’t spread.
Pampas grass is actually super invasive in certain areas (like all of California).
I don’t know if you’re opposed to herbicide, but triclopyr will kill it. You can get triclopyr salt (water based) and apply it to the freshly cut stump surface (within moments of cutting), or triclopyr ester (oil based) and apply it to the outside of the plant close to the base, no cutting required. Both of these will kill the root. Otherwise just keep cutting and eventually you will exhaust the root.
Not sure about elsewhere, but in the USA you can typically buy the water-based triclopyr salt in a small bottle with a brush attached to the cap. This is in pretty much any garden store. Even though you have to cut the plant first I think this is the best form for just a few plants.
If I can use it in a targeted way with limited collateral I will take it.
It between a shed and neighbours fence so as long as I don’t end up nuking their garden there’s not much else to affect.
Thanks
Brambles can be valuable plants, providing shelter and food for many small animals and tasty blackberries for people. But, if they become noxious, they can spread quickly and choke out all other plants. They spread by rooting from the plant tips and even if you dig up the root system, any little piece of root can and will re-root and grow a new plant.
Either move the shed to get at it - all of it - or you honestly may need to resort to herbicide to kill it. It sounds like you have fought them mechanically and are losing the war. I would recommend consulting your local garden center for the best herbicide to apply to kill them.
Yeah, it’s a shame to get rid of it, I’m usually happy to let it go crazy for a few months so the bees and birds have their way. But I learned about bramble growth the hard way. Didn’t know they were vibes or they spread from the tips. Thought I could just chip the main stem and it wouldn’t be a big deal. But it’s had 2 summers now and when I cut the grass (or tried to) surprise!
The floor is bramble vines too. Like something out of a horror film, just kept pulling them up, ruined 2 pairs of gloves and 2 sets of secateurs , it’s only a tiny garden! (And the first sets were never up to the task)
Luckily I have some other bushes and ferns for stuff to live in but I just don’t have time to stay on top of the mechanical side to control it.
I have brambles sprouting up all over the place from where they were left to spread by the previous occupant. And that sodding bindweed stuff.
If it wasn’t for my wife it’d be full of veg.
brambles
Don’t know what plant it is, but what a great word.
Nature’s barbed wire. They often have things like blackberries on them.
I have a thornless variety of blackberry along my fence. I would still consider that area full of brambles though.
Thank you for enlighting me. :)
This is a screenshot from a stage in Donkey Kong Country 2 called Bramble Blast. It’s those plants.
I also prefer your dumb neighbor having diarrhea stained astroturf.
